The Hideaways [From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler] *** (1973, Ingrid Bergman, Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) – Classic Movie Review 10,996

Director Fielder Cook’s 1973 family comedy drama film The Hideaways stars Ingrid Bergman, no less, as Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, a wealthy eccentric cared for by two suburban youngsters Claudia and Jamie (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran), who run away to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they can live as hideaways and fantasise about other lives and worlds via the museum’s exhibits.

Bergman makes an appealing but all too brief star appearance in this fairly nice children’s fantasy film, which provides likeable, gentle, old-style entertainment mainly for young people. Reliable Madeline Kahn as the schoolteacher and Richard Mulligan as Mr Kincaid help quite a bit.

It was originally called From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler and quickly retitled when it flopped.

Blanche Hanalis’s screenplay is adapted from the E L Konigsburg novel The Hideaways.

Also in the cast are George Rose, Georgann Johnson, Bruce Conover, Mike Hammett, Robert Packer, Linda Selman, Donald Symington and Peter Turgeon.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,996

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com