Taglines: A wickedly funny comedy of royal proportions.
Splitting Heirs centres on the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Bournemouth (England), upon which misfortune has fallen throughout history, leading its members to believe the family is cursed. The most recent heir, Thomas Henry Butterfly Rainbow Peace, was left in a restaurant as an infant in the 1960s; by the time his parents remembered him, he had disappeared.
Meanwhile, in the 1990s Tommy Patel has grown up in an Asian/Indian family in Southall, never doubting his ethnicity despite being taller than anyone else in the house, fair-haired, blue-eyed, light-skinned—and not liking curry. From the family corner shop he commutes to the City where he works for the Bournemouth family’s stockbroking firm, handling multimillion-pound deals.
Tommy is given the job of acting as host to the visiting American representative of the firm, Henry Bullock, who turns out to be the son of the head of the firm, the present Duke. They become friends and the friendship survives Henry becoming the new Duke when his father dies. Circumstantial evidence shows that the true Bournemouth heir is actually Tommy; we see a series of family portraits each of which captures something of Tommy’s facial characteristics, and his Indian mother tells him the story of his adoption.
He consults the lawyer who dealt with his adoption, Raoul P. Shadgrind, who says Tommy has no hope of proving his claim, but plants the idea of him obtaining his rightful place in the family by getting Henry out of the way; Shadgrind himself then engineers a variety of ‘accidents’ in the belief that he will share in the spoils as Tommy’s partner.
Splitting Heirs is a 1993 British film starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese and Sadie Frost. The film was directed by Robert Young, and features music by Michael Kamen. It was entered in the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
Splitting Heirs (1993)
Directed by: Robert Young
Starring: Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese, Sadie Frost, Brenda Bruce, William Franklyn, Charu Bala Chokshi, Bridget McConnell
Screenplay by: Eric Idle
Production Design by: John Beard
Cinematography by: Tony Pierce-Roberts
Film Editing by: John Jympson
Costume Design by: Penny Rose
Set Decoration by: Joanne Woollard
Art Direction by: Vladimir Kostovic, Rod McLean, Lucy Richardson
Music by: Michael Kamen
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for nudity and sexual dialogue.
Distributed by: UIP (UK / International), Universal Pictures
Release Date: April 30, 1993
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