Candleshoe (1977)

A tough little street urchin (Jodie Foster) joins forces with a con man (Leo McKern) to hustle an elderly aristocratic Englishwoman (Helen Hayes) into thinking the girl is the woman's long lost granddaughter. Once inside the mansion, the girl is supposed to find the hiding place of the woman's pirate ancestor's treasure. Based on the novel CHRISTMAS AT CANDLESHOE by Michael Innes and directed by Norman Tokar (THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE). One of Disney's live action family movies and actually not bad. The film avoids the usual treacly sentimentality of these family friendly wholesome Disney movies. With the the sassy tomboyish Foster at the center, how could it not? McKern's villain is a nasty bit of goods, a bit more dangerous than the usual comedic Disney villains. Unfortunately, the film descends into silliness during its last fifteen minutes but it's not offensive enough to ruin it. With David Niven doing nicely as the family butler, Vivian Pickles and Veronica Quilligan.