"Candleshoe" has a fine cast with a couple of former prominent actors, a good script, and an up and coming new young actress. David Niven plays four parts - three of which are intentional masquerades as servants and a friend of Lady St. Edmund. He is quite good with the disguises and voice accents and changes.
Helen Hayes is the matriarch of Candleshoe, an old estate handed down through the family for centuries. But, with the disappearance and feared death of her granddaughter in a plane crash several years earlier, she has no heir for the estate. She's a kind woman who has taken in some foster kids.
Enter a shyster by the name of Bundage who has taken great pains over a couple of years to find someone he could pass off as the granddaughter. He wants her to look for clues in the mansion for where the infamous ancestor and pirate, Captain Joshua St. Edmund, hid a large treasure of gold doubloons.
Bundage hired a detective agency that found the perfect match in a street urchin named Casey. She doesn't have parents but lives with an old couple in shabby inner city housing of Los Angeles. She's a street-smart minor hooligan who passes clearly as a boy. Jody Foster was just 15 when she played this role, and she does a fine job with it. Leo McKern is very good as the villain, Bundage.
The rest of the cast all do well. Most of the film was shot in England, and the house and country scenes are very pleasant. The film has light comedy and drama, and makes a good family film. It was based on a novel by Michael Innes, "Christmas at Candleshoe." Walt Disney studios released it as a holiday film a little over a week before Christmas 1977.
Here's a favorite line from the film. For more funny dialog see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the movie.
Lady St. Edmund, "Good afternoon, John Henry." Priory, in disguise as the chauffeur, "Good afternoon, m' lady." Lady St. Edmund, "Oh, and how is your Uncle George?" Priory, "Ah, m' lady, I didn't think it necessary to trouble you with the news. But we finally had to measure him for his wooden overcoat." Lady St. Edmund, "Wooden?" Priory, "Yeah, we buried him last week, m' lady."
Helen Hayes is the matriarch of Candleshoe, an old estate handed down through the family for centuries. But, with the disappearance and feared death of her granddaughter in a plane crash several years earlier, she has no heir for the estate. She's a kind woman who has taken in some foster kids.
Enter a shyster by the name of Bundage who has taken great pains over a couple of years to find someone he could pass off as the granddaughter. He wants her to look for clues in the mansion for where the infamous ancestor and pirate, Captain Joshua St. Edmund, hid a large treasure of gold doubloons.
Bundage hired a detective agency that found the perfect match in a street urchin named Casey. She doesn't have parents but lives with an old couple in shabby inner city housing of Los Angeles. She's a street-smart minor hooligan who passes clearly as a boy. Jody Foster was just 15 when she played this role, and she does a fine job with it. Leo McKern is very good as the villain, Bundage.
The rest of the cast all do well. Most of the film was shot in England, and the house and country scenes are very pleasant. The film has light comedy and drama, and makes a good family film. It was based on a novel by Michael Innes, "Christmas at Candleshoe." Walt Disney studios released it as a holiday film a little over a week before Christmas 1977.
Here's a favorite line from the film. For more funny dialog see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the movie.
Lady St. Edmund, "Good afternoon, John Henry." Priory, in disguise as the chauffeur, "Good afternoon, m' lady." Lady St. Edmund, "Oh, and how is your Uncle George?" Priory, "Ah, m' lady, I didn't think it necessary to trouble you with the news. But we finally had to measure him for his wooden overcoat." Lady St. Edmund, "Wooden?" Priory, "Yeah, we buried him last week, m' lady."