History Film / Candleshoe

* HaveAGayOldTime: "Listen, Miss Clever Dick!" "Clever dick" is a British expression meaning roughly the same thing as "smart aleck".

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/candleshoe_poster.jpg]]

''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.

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart and cynical foster kid living in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. One day, she is discovered by con man Harry Bundage (Creator/LeoMcKern), who realizes that she is the perfect double for Margaret, the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Creator/HelenHayes), whose [[BigFancyHouse stately manor Candleshoe]] is alleged to contain a hidden treasure in pirate gold. Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), needs someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology, and Casey is just the juvenile delinquent for the job. In exchange for a cut of the take and [[CoolCar a red Ferrari]], Casey agrees to travel to England, where Lady St. Edmund welcomes "Margaret" home.

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart and cynical foster kid living in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. One day, she is discovered by con man Harry Bundage (Creator/LeoMcKern), who realizes that she is the perfect double for Margaret, the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Creator/HelenHayes), whose [[BigFancyHouse stately manor Candleshoe]] is alleged to contain a hidden treasure in pirate gold. Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology, and Casey is just the juvenile delinquent for the job. In exchange for a cut of the take and [[CoolCar a red Ferrari]], Casey agrees to travel to England, where Lady St. Edmund welcomes "Margaret" home.

* TheDeterminator: Forced to dismiss the rest of the staff due to financial constraints, Priory becomes versatile nearly to the point of absurdity. On any given day, his duties range from housekeeping, chauffeuring, cooking, gardening, mechanical and electrical maintenance, plumbing, fund-raising, entertaining (and sometimes masquerading as) guests, as well as being omnipresent enough to be effective in his original role as butler. The brutal workload doesn’t appear to phase him, his only complaint on the subject having to do with not being able to do ''more''.

* FightingIrish: Clooney finally has enough of Casey blowing off chores and throws down on her.

* HatesWearingDresses: Casey is disgusted when Bundage hands her a dress and she looks decidedly awkward when she's forced to wear one to Candleshoe. While Clooney and Anna always dress in pinafores, Casey sticks to her blue jeans.
* HaveAGayOldTime: "Listen, Miss Clever Dick!" "Clever dick" is a British expression meaning roughly the same thing as "smart alec".
* HiddenBadass: Priory’s spontaneous hand-to-hand combat with Bundage pales in comparison to his willingness to park Lady St. Edmund’s car on the train tracks to stop a speeding train from taking off with the last clue of Captain Joshua’s treasure hunt. When Lady St. Edmund refuses to get out of the car, Priory’s only recourse is to tip his hat to her, signal the oncoming train with a polite finger, then ''bodily place himself between the train and the car''. Save for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sigh of relief, his only response to the train grinding to a halt literally a handbreadth away from the vehicle is to politely ask the conductor if they could trouble him for a look in his baggage van.

* IdenticalStranger / PrinceAndPauper: Casey is not only the correct age to play Margaret, but has several critical identifying scars.

* MoodWhiplash: Bundage is presented as a pompous buffoon whom the streetwise Casey easily walks all over. [[spoiler: Then about halfway through our jolly treasure hunt, he cracks Casey's skull and tries to run her over with his car, leaving her hospitalized. While not graphic, it's a surprisingly dark moment in such a light-hearted romp of a film.]]

** It's never explained [[spoiler:where she got her scars from; they could've been caused by the car accident but given she grew up in some rough and unloving foster homes she could've gotten the scars a different way]].

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart and cynical foster kid living in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. One day, she is discovered by con man Harry Bundage (Creator/LeoMcKern), who realizes that she is the perfect double for Margaret, the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes), whose [[BigFancyHouse stately manor Candleshoe]] is alleged to contain a hidden treasure in pirate gold. Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology, and Casey is just the juvenile delinquent for the job. In exchange for a cut of the take and [[CoolCar a red Ferrari]], Casey agrees to travel to England, where Lady St. Edmund welcomes "Margaret" home.

* RiddleForTheAges: The ending leaves one wondering, [[spoiler:is Casey actually the girl she pretended to be?]] There's both evidence for and against [[spoiler:Casey being Margaret]].

* {{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 of 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.

* ActorAllusion: Helen Hayes as Lady Gwendolyn entertaining a girl that fraudulently claims to be her long-lost relative, then [[spoiler:choosing to take her in anyway after the matter is left ambiguous]], is a WholePlotReference to her previous role as the Dowager Empress in ''Film/Anastasia''.

* PantyShot: A decidedly un{{Fanservice}}y one when Grimesworthy is shoved into the fireplace, revealing her enormous white knickers.

* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Anna, as signaled by [[RegionalRiff stereotypical "Oriental riff"]]. Casey even says "You gotta be kidding" just before Anna takes her out with a kung-fu chop.
** Subverted in that Anna more uses ConfusionFu via the "You gotta be kidding" to give her an opening to perform a version of a chop that most kids at the time could've picked up from cartoons and then shove Casey down the hill.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: At the very end, Lady St. Edmund says to Casey, "I don't mind in the least that you lied to me when you first came to Candleshoe... but I would be very hurt if you lied to me now. [[spoiler: Do you ''really'' want to go back to Los Angeles?]]" Casey [[NotSoStoic breaks down]] [[TearJerker crying]].

* ChekhovsGag: Near the beginning of the film, there's a brief joke about the Great Hall floor being slippery. At the end of the climax, Casey uses this to defeat the villains.

* RiddleForTheAges: The ending leaves one wondering, [[spoiler:is Casey actually the girl she pretended to be?]]
** Given that[[spoiler: Margaret was allergic to strawberries, and Casey clearly was not, almost certainly not.]]
*** On the other hand, it wouldn't be the first time [[spoiler:someone outgrew childhood allergies]]...

* GrandeDame: Lady St. Edmund

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Lady St. Edmund
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Casey.

* OldRetainer: Priory.

* TrashTheSet: Candleshoe in the climax.

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart and cynical foster kid 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 Margaret, the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes), whose [[BigFancyHouse stately manor Candleshoe]] is alleged to contain a hidden treasure in pirate gold. Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology, and Casey is just the juvenile delinquent for the job. In exchange for a cut of the take and [[CoolCar a red Ferrari]], Casey agrees to travel to England, where Lady St. Edmund welcomes "Margaret" home.

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart and cynical foster kid 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 Margaret, the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes), whose [[BigFancyHouse stately manor Candleshoe]] is alleged to contain a hidden treasure in pirate gold. Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology, and Casey is just the juvenile delinquent for the job. In exchange for a cut of the take and [[CoolCar a red Ferrari]], Casey agrees to travel to England to meet Lady St. Edmund. Casey's con is so good that Lady St. Edmund welcomes her home.

But after joining the household, Casey discovers a terrible truth: [[ImpoverishedPatrician Lady St. Edmund is penniless]], and Candleshoe is on the verge of foreclosure. The only servant left is the butler, Priory (Creator/DavidNiven), who tries to hide the truth from Lady St. Edmund by [[MasterOfDisguises pretending to be all the rest of the household staff]]. 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, knowing that if Candleshoe is lost, Lady St. Edmund will be sent to a retirement home and they'll be returned to the orphanage.

Fourteen-year-old Creator/JodieFoster, already with "Oscar-nominated" attached to her name thanks to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', stars as Casey Brown, a street-smart and cynical foster kid 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 Margaret, the long-lost granddaughter of Lady Gwendolyn St. Edmund (Helen Hayes), whose [[CoolOldHouse stately manor Candleshoe]] is alleged to contain a hidden treasure in pirate gold. Bundage, along with his partner-in-crime Clara Grimsworthy (Vivian Pickles), need someone on the inside to go through the LinkedListClueMethodology, and Casey is just the juvenile delinquent for the job. In exchange for a cut of the take and [[CoolCar a red Ferrari]], Casey agrees to travel to England to meet Lady St. Edmund. Casey's con is so good that Lady St. Edmund welcomes her home.

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.

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]].

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

* WouldHurtAChild: Bundage at first comes off as a flustered, barely-competent hustler who needs a street urchin to run his cons for him. His willingness to resort to violence is foreshadowed when he slaps Casey for her smart mouth at the beginning of their acquaintance. Once his desperation to pay off his loans reaches critical mass, he demonstrates that he is willing to do anything to get his hands on the money [[spoiler: even stealing bake sale money from orphans and running Casey off the road with his car when she tries to take it back, leaving her unconscious in a ditch.]]

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

* DefenestrateAndBerate: Lady St. Edmund gives the thieves a stern telling-off after chucking them out the window.

* DefenestrateAndBerate