Candleshoe (1977)

I enjoyed this. 'Candleshoe' starts in a greater manner than it finishes, but the full duration is entertaining. The early scenes are, for this era of Disney live-action at least, actually quite unusual, I wasn't fully sure where the story was going at first - which is a positive. Once everything becomes clearer, it does lose the slight edge it has at the beginning. The cast, meanwhile, are very good. Jodie Foster (Casey) gives another strong performance from her early years, while David Niven is excellent as Priory. Leo McKern is also splendid in his role as Harry. They all work together really well. Elsewhere, you have some nice music from Ron Goodwin. My only criticism would be the end few scenes, which round off all too quickly and don't show important parts to portray how they exactly got to where they are; notably between Casey and Gwendolyn. That aside, I'd certainly recommend this.

A wonderful, gentle, spin on the "Little Lord Fauntleroy" tale with a great ensemble cast. David Niven always did thrive in the less-is-more style of acting and here it is never better displayed. Jodie Foster - an American street-urchin is engaged by unscrupulous gold-digger "Mr. Bundage" (Leo McKern) to travel to England where she is to impersonate the long lost grand-daughter of the Marchioness of St. Edmund (Helen Hayes) and help him to discover the whereabout of a hidden treasure of pirate doubloons. She duly arrives and ingratiates herself with the old woman. Soon though, she discovers that much of it is a façade; the house is mortgaged to the hilt with the delightful Niven ("Priory") being butler, gardener, chauffeur - just about everything as they attempt to keep the alarming truth of their fiscal predicament from Hayes. As you might expect, Foster turns tables on her crooked mentor and what follows is a fun, comedy adventure with a suitably happy ending. It's all done in the best tradition of Disney - an engaging and light-hearted celebration of decency and humanity winning out...