Splitting Heirs * (1993, Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese, Eric Sykes, Stratford Johns, Brenda Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 11,973

Eric Idle is supposed to be a young man called Tommy cheated out of his inheritance by American-raised impostor Henry (Rick Moranis), with whom he was swapped at birth. So he connives with Moranis’s fiancée Kitty (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to kill him.

Good performers flounder in director Robert Young’s creaky and almost entirely unfunny 1993 British black comedy Splitting Heirs, although John Cleese, as the solicitor Shadgrind, and Barbara Hershey as the duchess Lucinda amuse, and it is good to have Eric Sykes, Stratford Johns, Brenda Bruce, William Franklyn, Jeremy Clyde and Sadie Frost aboard.

It was invited to compete in the 1993 Cannes film festival by the French, who apparently found writer-producer-star Eric Idle’s screenplay clever. Chaqu’un à son gout.

On the plus side, it features music by Michael Kamen.

The cast are Rick Moranis as Henry, Eric Idle as Tommy, Barbara Hershey as Duchess Lucinda, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kitty, John Cleese as Shadgrind, Sadie Frost as Angela, Stratford Johns as Butler, Brenda Bruce as Mrs. Bullock, William Franklyn as Andrews, Charubala Chokshi as Mrs Patel, Jeremy Clyde as 14th Duke, Richard Huw as Brittle, Eric Sykes as Jobson the Doorman, and Bridget McConnel as Nanny.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,973

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