Review of Candleshoe (1977) by Private U — 20 Nov 2007

Best in Show: Jodie Foster.

One for the future: n/a.

Stand-out scene: Fake fight at the country house.

Brainer or no-brainer: No brainer.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: Repeated.

DVD commentary any good?: n/a.

TV.

Somehow Candleshoe, which was made in 1977 when I was six, passed me by in my youth (as far as I can remember) and as Disney movies of the seventies go, this is a good example. It's hard to believe that Jodie Foster made this a year AFTER Taxi Driver, ('76 was the year of that movie as well as Bugsy Malone and Freaky Friday). Following Candleshoe her career took a three year hiatus and while the two characters she plays in the respective movies can both be described as 'streetwise', the tame as a kitten storyline of Candleshoe is a million miles away from the gritty Taxi Driver. Foster is orphaned Casey Brown, a petty thief who plies her trade in Los Angeles. Leo McKern (doing his best cor blimey gov'nor accent) is conman Harry Bundage, whose acquaintance with Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), a former maid at Candleshoe alerts him to the existence of a yet undiscovered fortune at Candleshoe, a country manor house. It's owned by the elderly Lady St. Edmund (Helen Hayes) whose grandaughter Margaret survived a car accident in The States but went missing. Bundage discovers that Casey shares the scars of an accident with the MIA Margaret and brings her back to Blighty with a view to Grimsworthy tutoring her in matters of all things Candleshoe and Margaret. It transpires that Candleshoe's in dire straits financially and the Lady's butler, Priory (David Niven) has been adopting various guises (driver, gardener, visiting Colonel) over the years to maintain the impression that all is well with the Candleshoe coffers as an act of kindness to his employer. Indeed, the manor's only ticking over at all thanks to the help of four foundlings taken in from the overcrowded orphanage nearby (this is Disney, remember). We get a series of clues to follow on the trail of the hidden hoard and some fairly unconvincing fight scenes to enjoy as the movie progresses and it's all amiable, watchable stuff. A nostalgic treat.