Fabricated Truth

Review:

A young boy growing up in New York is told that he is the heir of an elderly Earl, his grandfather, and brought to England to become a Lord, much to the chagrin of his friends the Greengrocer and the Shoe polisher. Since he is about the most precious child in the history of the world, he takes the horrible fate with good grace and is soon loved by servants, subjects and the old Earl alike. But then another potential heir appears to threaten his position. The film version of the children’s novel from 1980 is shown every year before Christmas on German television and millions of people turn in every year. And despite the fact that the story is incredibly tacky and the film about as kitschy as can be, it is also extremely awesome, with Alec Guinness as the old Earl and about the best reaction shots in the history of film. Sadly, it is only available on DVD in Italy, but if you ever get a chance to watch the film, you should. For my family, it’s a kind of Christmas tradition - and it should be for yours as well.

Random Observations:

Little Lord Fauntleroy at the IMDb

Careful when trying to watch this film, there are numerous versions! I can’t attest to the quality of the others, never having seen any of them, but there is no way the story can be any good without Alec Guinness.

If probably seen the film ten times, but I never noticed until today that the little Lord’s mother is played by none other than Connie Booth.

There is nothing as awesome as watching the servants’ faces when the kid wrongly assumes that his grandfather is the kindest man in history and treats him exactly like that.

Patrick Stewart has a small role in the film - in fact it is so small that I had to check whether it was really him.

While checking for that, I also discovered that at least according to the IMDb, the officer with Lady Grace is none other than Bill Nighy. I will have to watch the film again to confirm this, however. I will tell you whether it is true next year.