Splitting Heirs (1993)

The long line of Dukes of Bournemouth have all been idiots. The last one married American Lucinda (Duchess Lucinda). The hapless pair and their friends left their baby Thomas Henry Butterfly Rainbow Peace in a restaurant back in the 60s. Tommy Patel (Eric Idle) grew up in an East Indian family and works for the Bournemouths as a commodity trader. He is assigned to host outrageous Henry Bullock (Rick Moranis). Henry gets Tommy fired. When the Duke dies, Henry turns out to be the new Duke and hires back Tommy. Lucinda recognizes a similarity between Tommy and her late husband. As evidences mount, he investigates the truth behind the Duke's missing baby. He goes to lawyer Shadgrind (John Cleese) who suggests killing Henry is the only way to go. Tommy starts to having a conflicted relationship with Henry especially as he sleeps with Kitty (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and then she reveals that she's marrying Henry.I don't understand Shadgrind's hints about the Duke. There should be an easy paternity test. That would be the first thing that comes to my mind. I don't understand the central concede of killing the Duke. It's a screwball black comedy without any laughs. It's a comedy of confusion. Both Rick Moranis and Eric Idle are nice comedians. I just didn't laugh once.

Interesting movie. It is an English Comedy and seems to be John Cleese first appearance for the credits say "introducing John Cleese" yet the movie seems to have been made after the Monty Python movies. Whatever the reason it is not really important.Splitting Heirs is really nothing more than a stereotype comedy movie. At the start two people meet and in an unfortunate accident, then a duke dies. What ends up happening is that one of the two people is the legal heir and he becomes duke. In reality, the other person really is the duke because the babies were switched at birth (which is sort of covered in the movie). As such, one guy starts running around trying to kill the other, but when he believes he has killed him, he really hits a guilt trip. That is where the twist starts.The comedy of this movie is very much a comedy of errors. It deals with someone trying to kill somebody else and always missing his target. It is this that takes the major part of the movie. There is also a bit of slapstick, a bit of sexual humour, a bit of linguistic humour which includes funny names, and just unusual twists that have a comic revelation. Being a British movie with two actors from Monty Python (Eric Idle and John Cleese) there is also a poke at the French.John Cleese, now he is cool. He plays a lawyer, in fact he plays quite a mad lawyer. In the law firm his office is in the basement which means he's pretty bad (and pretty cheap). He sees an opportunity and he takes it. He decides that he wants to become the duke's lawyer but the real duke wants nothing of it. Unfortunately, Cleese is just too stupid to realise this.Splitting Heirs is okay but not fantastic. I didn't find it that funny, except for the beginning; that to me is a sign of a not too good comedy movie. The comedy is based entirely on trying to kill the false duke and this gets dull after awhile. The sexual innuendos are non existent, namely because they are just more blatant. I don't find a mother trying to sleep with her son even though she doesn't know at all funny. John Cleese is good and if you like slapstick, then okay, but honestly, you could probably waste your time better elsewhere.

I noticed a long time ago that the folks who were responsible for "Monty Python's Flying Circus" were brilliantly funny together, but working separately their work was difficult to predict. Some was quite good--and some very bad. Frankly, the best stuff have been Terry Jones' documentaries. As for "Splitting Heirs", it's neither very good nor all that bad. So, if you do watch, just don't expect the 'ol Python magic.Eric Idle plays a guy whose annoying co-worker (Rick Moranis) recently became a Duke--and a very wealthy one at that. Idle is jealous, but when he learns that he really is the rightful heir and there's nothing he can do to prove it, he's determined to do something about it. Soon, folks start dying and you assume Idle is responsible...or is he? While there are NEVER any laugh out loud moments and the humor is at times quite broad, the characters are engaging and the film is decent...if uninspired. Overall, there are worse ways to spend your time if you have nothing better to do...

Eric Idle does his typical zany stuff as an heir to a castle trying to unseat a loopy American (Rick Moranis), who has taken the position. Some of the scenes in the movie really make you think "JESUS H. Christ!!!!!! I'M REALLY WATCHING THIS!!!!!!!" Probably the aspect that catches peoples' eyes the most nowadays is the presence of a very young Catherine Zeta-Jones; when we first saw the movie, we didn't know who she was. But whether or not that's the aspect of "Splitting Heirs" that most catches your eyes shouldn't be the point. The point is that it's a really funny movie. Whether it's Rick Moranis on the roller skates, Eric Idle getting caught with more than his pants down, or something else, you won't find this movie boring. Also starring Barbara Hershey and John Cleese.