Candleshoe

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...