Review of Splitting Heirs (1993) by Daniel P — 30 Dec 2012

After his mate John Cleese had success with A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Eric Idle wanted a piece of the action, and spent 5 years penning a film original entitled Heirs and Graces, which became Splitting Heirs.

This was intended to have made Idle the next comedy superstar, but it flopped badly, leaving Idle wary and untrusting of Hollywood. But, it's a funny film which has aged well, despite some missteps.

Tommy Patel (Idle) was adopted as a baby and raised by an Indian family, and he works as a stock broker for the 14th Duke of Bournemouth (Jeremy Clyde), Tommy becomes friends with the Duke's American son Henry (Rick Moranis), who after a tragic accident, becomes the 15th Duke of Bournemouth.

It's then that Tommy discovers he's the rightful heir to the dukedom, but he has no way of proving it. So, Tommy becomes close to Henry, his 'mother' Lucinda (Barbara Hershey) and Henry's fiance Kitty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and tries to bump off Henry so that he can claim the title, but Henry is a hard man to kill, and very lucky.

There are some funny laughs here, including Cleese cameoing as an insane lawyer, and even Idle gets away with playing a twentysomething banker, even if he was edging 50 at the time. The script needed a bit of work, as it gets itself in a knot more than once, but it has laughs.