No movie can hold a candle to this one!
Okay, now that I've got that out of my system, let me take a moment to talk about live-action Disney movies from the 60's and 70's. When I was a kid, I saw a bunch of them on Saturday Afternoon TV... The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Absent-Minded Professor... others... that I don't remember because it was the 80's and I'm old now... but if you've seen your fair share of them, you know... they were often cheesy, full of hi-jinks and slapstick humor (read: people fell down and got messy a lot), and the people in them had weird clothes (bellbottoms lol.)
Sure, these films usually had good stories behind all the wacky chaos, but there's a reason a lot of them got remade in the 90's (Freaky Friday, Escape to Witch Mountain and That Darn Cat come to mind.) The reason being that Disney can't keep their hands off their own stuff OH WAIT I mean because some of those old movies were just dying for an update. Yeah, that's it. Also because those movies were very long, and modern audiences tend to fall into comas after an hour, unless it's a movie with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, in which case they can hold on for three hours and fourteen minutes. Six times, in the span of three months. Not that I know about this personally or anything.
Coming back from that trip to Weird Tangentville, I would like to say that Candleshoe is not typical 70's live-action Disney. Yes, there are a few craaaayyyzee moments, but they come and go quickly and don't overwhelm the plot. Candleshoe is all about the characters. And pirates. And treasure. And fencing, revenge, six-fingered men... wait, what movie am I reviewing here...?
Candleshoe is the story of Casey (Jodie Foster), a delinquent, orphaned street urchin who just happens to look exactly like a little English girl who was kidnapped over a decade before. Casey even has scars on her back that resemble those the little girl, Margaret, had. See, little Margaret was snatched away from her mother by her father. A few years later, daddy died in a car accident, but the little girl was not found at the accident scene. So what happened to her? Over the years, many folks have come forward, claiming they've found long-lost Margaret, whose mother is now dead and whose grandmother (Helen Hayes) lives in a sprawling estate called Candleshoe, in Warwickshire.
So there's this guy, Harry Bundage, a "businessman" (read: con man). His cousin used to work at Candleshoe as a maid. One day when she was cleaning, she found the long-lost will of Joshua St. Edmund, the man who used to own Candleshoe many years ago. He was a pirate in his day, and according to this will, he hid a treasure somewhere in the house. The treasure is enormous, and of course Harry wants it. But he doesn't know where the treasure is -- all the will left him with was the first clue. He needs an "in" at Candleshoe, and since the place has no staff besides a butler (Harry's cousin was fired years ago), he decides to find a girl to pose as long-lost Margaret. Enter Casey.
Casey hasn't had an easy life up to this point. She's living in Los Angeles with foster parents who don't care about her, and she's been in trouble with the law several times. She has no memory of her parents, who apparently died when she was a preschooler. She doesn't know how she got her scars. Casey is street-wise and tough, and she isn't about to let anyone get close to her.
Somehow, Harry comes across Casey, and he tells her about his plan to find the treasure. She says she'll go along with it, but she wants a cut of the profits. Together they go to England and spend some time with Harry's cousin, the former Candleshoe maid. The cousin worked there when little Margaret lived there, so this cousin knows everything about the child, and she teaches Casey how to "be" Margaret. Upon arriving at Candleshoe to meet Grandmother, Casey knows everything about Margaret -- what foods she was allergic to, what things she likes, and so on.
It's as if Casey was born for this job. She cleverly pulls the wool over Grandma's eyes, and cunningly convinces Grandma that she is, in fact, Margaret. Grandmother, of course, wants Casey to live at Candleshoe with her forever, now. Success! Harry's plan can be put into effect. He's told Casey that the clue in the will was: "For the sunrise student, there's treasure among books," and it's Casey's job to find the next clue.
It turns out Grandmother has been anything but lonely, living at Candleshoe. She has "adopted" four orphaned children from the local children's home -- two boys and two girls, ranging in age from about 17 to 7. One of the girls, Cluny, who is approximately Casey's age, is very suspicious of Casey. She doesn't believe Casey is Grandmother's real granddaughter, and she makes it her duty to find out what Casey's up to. Also living at Candleshoe is the butler, Priory (David Niven), who has secretly taken on the duties of gardener, plumber, and driver, among other things, since he had to fire all the other staff. Grandmother may live in a big house, but she's not exactly wealthy -- the family is able to make just enough money selling things at market and running tours to pay the taxes on the house, but they're struggling.
Intent on finding the next clue, Casey pulls an all-nighter in the library, and at sunrise sees words projected on the wall, thanks to the sun shining through a stained-glass window: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave." She calls Harry and lets him know about this clue.
Meanwhile, Grandmother is trying to draw Casey closer to her, but Casey is keeping her emotional distance.
The day after the all-nighter, Cluny and the other children are doing chores, and Cluny asks Casey to help. Casey says no way, and says that she's the boss and they're the help.
Cluny doesn't like that.
Annnnd the claws come out.
Somehow, the girlfight manages to bring them all closer together, and before long, Casey finds herself actually liking the members of her new family. Which makes what's she's doing to them -- trying to take their money -- all the more difficult.
Casey manages to find the meaning of the "grave" clue, which leads to a clue about an "eclipse." But now Casey's heart isn't really in the treasure hunt anymore. There are more important things to worry about -- like the fact that if the family doesn't raise 100 pounds in a week, they won't be able to pay the taxes on the house -- and Candleshoe will be put up for auction.
On market day, Casey enthusiastically helps the family sell eggs and jam and other goods to raise money. Things are looking up -- until a storm hits. Priory tells Casey to ride home on her bicycle, so she can get to Grandmother quickly (Grandmother hates being alone during storms.) The others plan to follow in the car once they get all their shop stuff packed up. Priory hands Casey the tin of money to take home while she's at it. When she arrives back at Candleshoe, the place is dark -- the electricity is out. Casey is just about the put the money away when Harry enters. He demands to know if Casey has found out about the "eclipse" clue yet; she hasn't.
Just then, Grandmother calls for Casey. Harry tells Casey she better see what Grandmother wants -- or else he will attack her. (Geez, Harry!) When Casey comes back after comforting Grandmother, she finds Harry pocketing their hard-earned money. She begs him to give it back, saying that if they can't pay the taxes, the house will have to be sold. Harry's like hey, that's good news for me -- if the house is empty, I can search for the treasure a lot more easily! Casey, who is now more loyal to Grandmother and the children than to Harry and his evil plans, chases him out to his car, begging him not to take the money. He runs her off the road and she hits her head and lands in a ditch.
When Casey wakes up, she is in a hospital, and Grandmother is by her side. The family knows the money was stolen, but Casey doesn't tell them who stole it. Now Candleshoe will have to be sold, the four children will have to go back to the children's home, and Grandma will have to live in an "old folks home." With all this on the line, Casey makes a decision to tell the family what she knows about the treasure. Once she has recovered, they all take a look at the "eclipse" clue. Grandmother immediately knows what it's referring to -- The Eclipse was Joshua St. Edmund's pirate ship, and there's a painting of him hanging in the house.
Oh wait, no there's not.
That painting was sold along with everything else.
Now they must track down that painting! They find out that the man who bought it recently sold it to a lady, and the painting was being sent to London on the next train out. A Disney-esque chasedown ensues, and the family manages to stop the train...
...and take a look at the painting. The clue in the painting tells them to look "underfoot in the Great Hall." So it's back to Candleshoe they go.
When they arrive, they're surprised to find Harry Bundage there, along with a crew of nefarious-looking workers carrying tools. He's gone and made himself at home. Grandmother demands he leave, but he refuses -- and then he orders his workers to attack the family.
Now it's an all-out showdown, good vs. evil, as Casey, the four children, Priory, and Grandmother take on Harry and his cronies (and his cousin).
Neckties get snapped in half. People fall into sooty fireplaces. Lots of stuff gets broken. Two of the children run to fetch the police. The cops arrive just moments after a pillar in the Great Hall snaps, doing two things -- making plaster and wood fall on Harry and his thugs, and making a cast-iron statue of Joshua St. Edmund tip over. Guess what? In the statue's pedestal... IS THE TREASURE!!!!
Now Grandmother's a gadzillionaire once more, and the children don't have to leave. Yay! But the next thing we know, Casey's at a train station, aiming to find a way back to the States. Grandmother goes to find her, and asks her why she doesn't want to stay. At first, Casey tries to remain tough, but she manages to explain that she feels guilty for pulling a scam on Grandmother. It was easy to do it in the beginning, because that was her job. But now that she cares about Grandmother, really, truly, she can't face her anymore. Grandmother tells Casey that she doesn't mind that Casey lied to her in the beginning about being Margaret, but she would be very hurt if Casey lied to her now. "Do you really want to go back to Los Angeles?" Grandmother asks. Casey begins to cry for the first time in her life.
The two of them head for home. "Supposing your real granddaughter shows up?" Casey asks, as they make their way from the train station.
"Perhaps she has," says Grandmother.
So is Casey really the long-lost Margaret? I'm open for debate on this one. Chances are, no. I mean, that'd be a huge coincidence. Then again, Casey does look an awfully lot like Margaret. Plus, she doesn't remember anything from her early childhood, so it's possible that if she is Margaret, and was in that car accident, that she got amnesia and wandered away disoriented, only to later be dumped in the foster care system.
The one compelling piece of evidence that suggests Casey is not Margaret is the fact that Margaret was allergic to strawberries, and Casey is able to eat them (which she does when she is at Harry's cousin's house, toward the beginning of the film.) However, some allergies can mysteriously disappear just as quickly as they can come on, so it's possible that this happened in Casey's case -- she was allergic to them as a small child, but the allergy faded over time.
Does it matter? Eh, no. I guess if she's not Margaret, then the mystery of the long-lost little girl continues. Either way, though, Casey now has something she's never known before, in her memory -- a family. People who care about her, and who she cares about in return. Which makes me love this movie a lot. I adore stories about people who find families in unconventional ways -- Anne of Green Gables, Where The Heart Is, A Little Princess. This one definitely has that. Plus there's the whole redemption element, which I like... that no matter what you've done in your past, you can overcome it and change on the inside. Even if people have been totally crappy to you all your life, it doesn't mean that's the way it always will be.
Another thing I love about this movie is the fact that it can't be remade by Disney. Not realistically, anyway. In the 21st Century, Grandmother would probably make Casey take a DNA test before believing she's her granddaughter. Then the whole story would be shot. Which is good, because movies like this shouldn't be remade. Candleshoe is perfect just the way it is.
I first saw Candleshoe when I was about nine or ten years old. I think my brother checked it out from the library. He loved the treasure hunt stuff, but the most memorable thing -- for me, anyway -- was the name of Margaret's two stuffed animals, Pooh and Piglet look-a-likes that she'd dubbed "Teddy" and "Piggywig." There's a part in the movie where Casey says the names of these animals in a high, mocking tone, which is hilarious. It made us giggle. For years afterwards, even though I couldn't remember the name of this movie, I remembered it as "that movie with Teddy and Piggywig."
So that's Candleshoe. More subdued than your typical 70's Disney film. Screenplay co-written by David Swift, who also wrote Pollyanna and the Parent Trap. Filmed in England where it's nice and pretty. Release in 1977. Good music. Good plot. Chickfights. Swordfights. Pirates.
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(c)2005 AlligatorJuice.com. Images are (c)1977 Disney, and are used here to promote the film.