For such a slight, sentimental tale, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story (New York kid leaves the tenements to go to England as the new Lord Fauntleroy, meet curmudgeonly Granddad and melt all hearts with a winning/can-do American spirit & street-bred egalitarianism) has proved remarkably sturdy & adaptable. More than a dozen iterations, straight & loose. (See Jody Foster in Disney’s modernized, gender-switched CANDLESHOE/’77 . . . better yet, don’t.) The three standouts are Mary Pickford in 1921 (at 29, she’s Fauntleroy in drag and Mom in petticoats); David O. Selznick in ‘36 with his DAVID COPPERFIELD discovery Freddie Bartholomew as a gentlemanly Fauntleroy backed by a host of Hollywood British Colony types; and this classy made-for-tv movie with Ricky Schroder (soon after his debut in THE CHAMP remake) and Alec Guinness as the crusty Earl who soon warms to the open-hearted, surprisingly sensible lad. (A false pretender brings a smidgen of much needed suspense to the third act.) Sweet without being saccharine, mostly thanks to Guinness who underplays to fine effect, it misses the weird Freudian aspects of Pickford playing mother & son and those unbeatable Golden Age Hollywood character actors in ‘36, including Mickey Rooney as a tenement pal. Pluses here: Schroder is an actual boy and more disruptively All-American. While Patrick Stewart, Colin Blakely & Eric Porter aren't to be sneezed at in support. And while director Jack Gold and lenser Arthur Ibbetson can’t hide a tight budget & bright tv lighting for the interiors, outdoor landscapes are splendid enough for Guinness to make a sweeping gesture before telling the boy without a trace of irony, ‘someday all this will be yours.’ It’s an awfully nice film.
DOUBLE-BILL: Good and bad prints of the Pickford & Bartholomew versions out there, so look around.
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