There has always been a curse on the Dukes of Bournemouth, each befalling some accident or ill-fated demise. In the 1960s, the 14th Duke and his wife, American model Lucinda (Barbara Hershey), had a baby they named Thomas Henry Butterfly Rainbow Peace, who would have been the 15th Duke, had they not accidentally abandoned him in a restaurant, along with his monogrammed blanket and silver baby rattle. The baby was eventually found a few days later, or so it seemed.

In present day London, Tommy Patel (Eric Idle) is a commodities broker on the trading floor of Bournemouth & Bournemouth. He’s not the best at his job, so his boss assigns him the unenviable task of babysitting a VIP from New York, giving him a tour of London. Henry Bullock (Rick Moranis) soon arrives, riding his rollerblades around the office, a bit uncultured and obnoxious. While Tommy may find him a bit annoying, Henry seems to have taken a liking to him. However, when the 14th Duke befalls a sudden accident, Tommy discovers that Henry is the Duke’s son. He becomes the new Duke of Bournemouth, and his boss. Seeing as Tommy is one of the only people Henry knows in London, he quickly becomes his right hand man. However, Tommy’s mother is about to drop a bombshell.

Tommy has always felt something was off with his family—he doesn’t like curry, and he doesn’t look Asian at all, and so when his mother tells him that he was adopted and gives him the rattle and blanket he arrived with, Tommy immediately puts things together and realizes that he is the Bournemouth Baby. He consults lawyer Shadgrind (John Cleese), who suggests that Tommy would have a better chance of re-claiming his dukedom if the current duke were dead. So Tommy sets out to try to make Henry the victim of a deadly “accident”. However, this is not as easy as he thought it would be, especially seeing as Henry has not inherited the Bournemouth bad luck curse.

I hadn’t seen Splitting Heirs in a long time ebfore checking out this Blu-ray—while I own it on Laserdisc, my Laserdisc player has been gathering dust for over a decade—so it was like watching it for the first time all over again. This such a fun film, with some fun twists and a stellar comedic performance by Eric Idle. It is filled with lots of puns, awkwardly hilarious situations, and physical comedy. Idle’s character, Tommy, also provides a running narration/commentary on the film’s events to the audience. Most of the film holds up really well, without it feeling dated. That said, some of the moments with Tommy dressed as an Asian probably wouldn’t fly today—it was quite reminiscent of Steve Martin’s character in The Jerk discovering he wasn’t actually Black. Tommy’s quest to take out Henry becomes almost like Wile E. Coyote vs The Road Runner situation, with these grand, elaborate schemes that just don’t quite work out. Though here it’s hard to know who to root for. Henry can be a bit obnoxious, but he’s generally just a clueless, happy-go-lucky guy, who thinks of Tommy as a friend. Meanwhile, Tommy deserves to have his rightful title, and doesn’t necessarily want to hurt others, but has been convinced this is the only way. The film also has a really fun supporting cast. There’s Henry’s manipulative and conniving girlfriend Kitty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who has set her sights on becoming the next Duchess. Tommy also finds himself constantly in awkward situations, trying to avoid the sexual advances from the Duchess, who finds him oddly familiar and attractive, not knowing that she’s his birth mother. And John Cleese (who’s oddly given an “introducing” credit) his absolutely hilarious as the seedy lawyer who’s willing to go the (unwanted) extra distance to help Tommy succeed in his mission.

Mill Creek’s Blu-ray release is the first time the 1993 film Splitting Heirs has been released on disc in HD. Like many of this month’s other Retro VHS releases, this disc is nearly barebones, just offering a basic menu with Play and Subtitle On/Off selections, and the film’s trailer being the only supplemental material. However the disc features a pretty solid audio and video presentation. The picture looks great, with a nice level of detail and a pleasant amount of grain. It is generally clean, though there are white and black flecks of dirt that appear throughout, showing a bit of the age of the film/transfer, though I never found this distracting. It’s definitely the best I’ve seen this movie look. The stereo audio track provides clear dialogue, and captures the sounds of the city. While it’s not as immersive as a more modern surround track, I still found it quite satisfying, and the catchy opening theme song by Eric Idol sounds great.

The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, with a Retro VHS slipcover that makes the release look like a classic VHS rental tape. The details on these slipcovers are really fun, and the design even extends to the spine as well, allowing these discs to displayed like a collection of VHS tapes on your shelf.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:27:21)

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

• Trailer (2:04)
  Presented in 4:3 full frame format.

Final Thoughts:

Splitting Heirs arrives on Blu-ray for the first time thanks to Mill Creek. The film is completely silly and ridiculous (in a good way), featuring a great cast and lots of laughs. The audio/video presentation is quite satisfying, but the barebones disc only includes the film’s trailer for supplemental material. That said, the release comes recommended based on the quality of the film itself, and the very affordable retail price. I definitely see myself watching this more often now that I own it on a modern disc format.