A Candle in the Fog
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Candle in the Fog |
| Author(s): | Gray Cardinal |
| Date(s): | December 2012 |
| Length: | ~10,200 words |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Candleshoe |
| External Links: | https://archiveofourown.org/works/600188 |
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A Candle in the Fog is a story by Gray Cardinal. Written as a Yuletide gift for rabidsamfan, it is a direct sequel to the Disney live-action film Candleshoe starring Helen Hayes, Jodie Foster, and David Niven. Insofar as Googlemancy shows as of early 2021, it is the only existing traditional fanfic for the film.
Source
In the Disney feature, Casey Brown (Foster) is an orphaned teenager living on the streets of Los Angeles who has no memory of her parents. Small-time crook Harry Bundage (Leo McKern) recruits her to impersonate the long-missing granddaughter of Lady St. Edmund, the 3rd Marchioness of Candleshoe (Hayes), in England. On arriving at the Candleshoe estate, Casey discovers that the supposedly wealthy marchioness is on the verge of losing the property. She has been scraping by partly by taking in other orphans, who help grow or produce goods for a nearby farmers' market. Her butler Priory (Niven) has let every other servant go and is playing all their parts himself using various disguises and accents. After some initial tension, Casey joins in their efforts and also begins a hunt for an ancestral pirate treasure at Bundage's instigation. This leads to a falling-out between Casey and Bundage, the near-loss of the estate via tax sale, and - at the last possible moment - the discovery of the missing treasure.
Summary
Lady St. Edmund’s lawyers had decided the safest way to forestall any awkward questions about one Casey Brown’s legal status was to pretend no such girl had ever existed – essentially, carrying on the deception Harry Bundage had begun. But for Casey, no other girl had ever existed....
Author's Notes
Candleshoe was, is, and always will be a classic Disney feature, which means that the Mouse holds all its copyrights and trademarks. The present narrative is unauthorized and unrepentant, having been authored quite outside the Disney umbrella and purely for entertainment’s sake. (I have completely ignored the book by Michael Innes from which the movie claims to be derived, as that connection is decidedly slender.) Certain other characters appearing herein are drawn from beneath a quite different umbrella, about which we’ll talk more later – but the reader should be assured that this is first and last a Candleshoe story. In that light, profuse thanks are due to duckwhatduck, tunglo, and maevebran for assistance in navigating the eccentricities of the British peerage system. Disney universes being what they are, I trust readers will forgive any glaring lapses (and that they’ll blame them entirely on me, not on my advisors and sources).
Especially alert readers may recognize Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and Lady Penelope Peasoup, whom I have borrowed (and somewhat amplified) from the 1960s television incarnation of Batman. I had initially chosen the two purely for comic effect, but the two canons' timelines turned out to dovetail unexpectedly well. Under the circumstances, I also couldn't resist making certain further assumptions about Priory's background...which also turned out to dovetail more neatly than I'd realized. That said, virtually no knowledge of Bat-canon is required for purposes of the present story, and I hope that no one is confused -- or appalled -- at the minimal crossover elements of the foregoing narrative.
Comments
Oh lovely. You've got Casey's voice just right -- and Priory's too!Yikes! And Yikes again! Or should I be saying Holy Crossovers, Batman?!
/applauds loudly/ Oh, that was clever indeed! And I was right, it was Batman! (Well, Batman villains.) And Casey is Margaret and can remember now and all is wonder and delight. And that treasure trove!!! It's going to take some protecting, isn't it? ...
Oh, thank you, my anonymous friend. You have made this a truly glorious Yuletide!rabidsamfan
I love this movie so much, and seeing that it isn't forgotten (Or a figment of my imagination.... >.>;;) is wonderful! You got Casey's voice so very well! Now I must go hunt through the basement for a VCR...... :)BooksKeepSecrets
EEEEEE! So much fun! Candleshoe is one of my fave Disney movies, but it never occurred to me to look for fanfic. ... You got Casey and Priory so right; I love it. Sad to say, the Batman references went over my head (I was in college, and rarely saw an episode), but the story worked just as well without that knowledge. I save the best fic to read to my BFF; this is going on the list.StarWatcher
From someone who only knows vague details of Batman (Alfred was the only thing I recognized), and who had to read the comments to recognize that line being from Star Wars (I watched them once--once was more than enough for me), this fic was marvelous! Didn't need to know anything else to enjoy it, but what I did recognize had me grinning to myself. I love that Casey turns out to be the real Margaret after all (I always thought she really was). :)Doranwen
Additional Easter Eggs
At one point, Casey asks Priory outright whether he used to be James Bond, to which he replies, "I’m quite sure I’d have made an amazingly bad spy." This appears to be a nod to Niven's appearance as Bond in the 1967 film version of Casino Royale.
The artifacts in the St. Edmund treasure vault include at least two with recognizable literary antecedents. The clockwork crocodile (said to have been created by "von Hook") implies a connection to Peter Pan, while the silver horn is strongly implied to summon the Wild Hunt (one of many potential counterparts appears in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series).