History Film / Candleshoe

* CoversAlwaysLie: Look at the castle in the picture on the right side of this page. Yeah, Candleshoe looks nothing like that in the actual film.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/600full-candleshoe-cover_9842.jpg]]

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster -- already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name, thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'' -- stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart juvenile delinquent living in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. One day, she is discovered by con man Harry Bundage (Leo [=McKern=]), who realizes that she is the perfect double for the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes). Bundage thus brings Casey with him to England to meet Lady St. Edmund, whom she successfully fools. You see, Lady St. Edmund's old manor house Candleshoe is alleged to contain a hidden treasure and Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology.

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster (already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name, thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'') stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart juvenile delinquent living in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. One day, she is discovered by con man Harry Bundage (Leo [=McKern=]), who realizes that she is the perfect double for the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes). Bundage thus brings Casey with him to England to meet Lady St. Edmund, whom she successfully fools. You see, Lady St. Edmund's old manor house Candleshoe is alleged to contain a hidden treasure and Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology.

Fourteen-year-old JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''TaxiDriver'', is Casey Brown, a street smart juvenile delinquent living in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. One day, she is discovered by con man Harry Bundage (Leo [=McKern=]), who realizes that she is the perfect double for the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes). Bundage thus brings Casey with him to England to meet Lady St. Edmund, whom she successfully fools. You see, Lady St. Edmund's old manor house Candleshoe is alleged to contain a hidden treasure and Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology.

But after joining the household, Casey discovers a terrible truth. Lady St. Edmund is an ImpoverishedPatrician and doesn't even know it. Her only servant left is the butler, Priory (Creator/DavidNiven), who pretends to be all the rest of the household staff by being a MasterOfDisguise. A group of local orphans taken in by the Lady (Veronica Quilligan, Ian Sharrock, Sarah Tamakuni, David Samuels) do most of the upkeep on the house and keep Candleshoe in the black by selling food grown on the estate at the local market. Of course, Casey couldn't care less about any of this and is only concerned with finding the treasure... [[CharacterDevelopment at least for awhile anyway]].

'''Candleshoe'' is a Creator/{{Disney}} live action film from 1977, directed by Norman Tokar and based on a book by Michael Innes, a.k.a. J. I. M. Stewart.

'''''Candleshoe''''' was a Disney live action film from [[TheSeventies 1977]], directed by Norman Tokar and based on a book by Michael Innes, a.k.a. J. I. M. Stewart.

!!Tropes Associated With This Film Include:

* TrashTheSet: Candleshoe in the climax

But after joining the household, Casey discovers a terrible truth. Lady St. Edmund is an ImpoverishedPatrician and doesn't even know it. Her only servant left is the butler, Priory (David Niven), who pretends to be all the rest of the household staff by being a MasterOfDisguise. A group of local orphans taken in by the Lady (Veronica Quilligan, Ian Sharrock, Sarah Tamakuni, David Samuels) do most of the upkeep on the house and keep Candleshoe in the black by selling food grown on the estate at the local market. Of course, Casey couldn't care less about any of this and is only concerned with finding the treasure... [[CharacterDevelopment at least for awhile anyway]].

* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Anna. It's even signaled by [[RegionalRiff stereotypical "Oriental riff"]]. Casey even says [[GenreSavvy "You gotta be kidding"]] just before Anna takes her out with a kung-fu chop.

* GenreSavvy: Bundage tries, but it’s Casey who takes the crown. While Bundage’s original plan is to have Casey whip out the planted ‘evidence’ of her identity straight away, Casey – recognizing that Lady St. Edmund is battle-scarred from years of false leads – judges her environment and opts for a slower reveal instead, putting off the proof long enough that they’re ''actually driving away'' before Priory rushes out to intercept them. The result is that it’s Lady St. Edmund who is trying to convince ''Casey'' of her lineage, resulting in a ‘reunion’ straight out of a fairytale.

* Ooh,MeAccent'sSlipping: Niven heroically strives for a Scottish accent to impersonate Candleshoe’s gardener. The awkwardness in the attempt might be deliberate, illustrating the fact that Priory’s acting chops, while considerable, are under tremendous strain due to the fact that he rarely has more than a minute or so to change personas.

* BecomingTheMask: Casey

* BrokenBird: Casey

* GenreSavvy:

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Lady St. Edmund knew all along that Priory was pretending to be the rest of the help.
* OldRetainer: Priory

* WigDressAccent: How Priory fakes the rest of Candleshoe's staff. At one point when Lady St. Edmund fires one of his alter egos, Priory (as himself) begs her not to, on the grounds that he would "be very hard to replace."

* ActorAllusion: The plot is rather similar to ''Anastasia'' (the 1956 Creator/IngridBergman version, which would later inspire [[{{WesternAnimation/Anastasia}} the Don Bluth film]]). Helen Hayes played the grandmother in both films.
* AllStarCast: Not the entire cast, but it's amusing to note that the three main stars (Jodie Foster, David Niven, and Helen Hayes) are all Oscar winners. (Foster was only nominated at the time, but she would later win twice.)

* CatFight: Casey has one with the other girls at the manor, complete with the RuleOfPool (it's actually a lake in this case) being obeyed. There's also an AllAsiansKnowMartialArts moment, courtesy of the younger Asian-looking girl, which is cued by the [[RegionalRiff stereotypical "Oriental riff"]].

* FakeBrit: Helen Hayes as Lady St. Edmund

* GenreSavvy

* HiddenInPlainSight

* IChooseToStay
* ImpoverishedPatrician
* LandPoor
* LinkedListClueMethodology
* ObfuscatingStupidity

* TechnologyMarchesOn: One of many films in which the plot only works because [[TropeBreaker DNA testing]] wasn't invented yet.
* TrashTheSet: Candleshoe in the climax

* {{Superdickery}}: The original advertising seemed intent on portraying Casey in the worst possible light. Consider the {{Tagline}}, "For 10% of the action and a red Ferrari, she'd con her own grandmother." Apart from the curiosity factor, this is probably an attempt by Disney to [[WereStillRelevantDammit seem "cool"]] in the midst the 1970s AntiHero trend. To be fair, this approach avoids giving away the ending, not that it'll be a huge surprise to anyone who's seen a Disney movie before.

* {{Superdickery}}: The original advertising seemed intent on portraying Casey in the worst possible light. Consider the {{Tagline}}, "For 10% of the action and a red Ferrari, she'd con her own grandmother." Apart from the curiosity factor, this is probably an attempt by Disney to [[WereStillRelevantDammit seem "cool"]] during the 1970s AntiHero trend.

* CatFight: Casey has one with the other girls at the manor, complete with the RuleOfPool (it's actually a lake in this case) being obeyed. There's also an AllAsiansKnowMartialArts moment, courtsey of the younger Asian-looking girl, which is cued by the [[RegionalRiff stereotypical "Oriental riff"]].

* ActorAllusion: The plot is rather similar to ''Anastasia'' (the 1956 Creator/IngridBergman version, which would later inspire [[WesternAnimation/Anastasia the Don Bluth film]]). Helen Hayes played the grandmother in both films.

* CatFight: Casey has one with the other girls at the manor, complete with the RuleOfPool (it's actually a lake in this case) being obeyed.

* DrivingADesk: Used when Bundage is driving Casey to Candleshoe for the first time. When the car gets onto the actual property of the manor, the interior shots change to being real, making the fakeness of the earlier shots all the more obvious.

* DrivingADesk

* HaveAGayOldTime: "Listen, Miss Clever Dick!" Bundage ''probably'' meant "dick" as in "detective".
** 'Clever dick' is a British expression meaning roughly the same thing as 'smart alec'.