Fielder Cook directed The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (aka The Hideaways in Home video releases), a children’s movie, based on E.L. Konigsburg’s novel of the same name, starring Ingrid Bergman in one of her last roles.
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Cover of the 2000 DVD release: the film is aka as The Hideaways.
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It tells the story of a girl and her brother who run away from home to live in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and discover what they think is a lost treasure. For home video releases, the film was retitled The Hideaways.
The movie starts with teenager Claudia Kinkaid feeling unappreciated at her home in New Jersey. As a result, she decides to run away, taking along her younger brother Jamie.
They run away to New York City, and end up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They stay there for several nights, sleeping in beds featured in the museum, hiding from guards, and bathing in the fountain.
They grab coins out of the bottom of the fountain and use them to get food out of the vending machine.
Eventually, Claudia finds a statue of an angel she thinks it was carved by Michelangelo. She decides to find the previous owner of the statue, who turns out to be Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Mrs. Frankweiler promises Claudia and Jamie to leave them the secret of the angel statue in her will if they give her full account of their adventure.
Filming locations included The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York General Post Office, Macy’s New York, the Erie Lackawanna Railway and Madison, New Jersey.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was adapted into a 1995 TV movie starring Lauren Bacall.
The movie is referenced in the film The Royal Tenenbaums, and it is was also mentioned in Season 1 Episode 3 of Mr. Robot.
Cast
Ingrid Bergman as Mrs. Frankweiler
Sally Prager as Claudia Kincaid
Johnny Doran as Jamie Kincaid
George Rose as Saxonburg
Georgann Johnson as Mrs. Kincaid
Richard Mulligan as Mr. Kincaid
Madeline Kahn as Schoolteacher
Bruce Conover as Kevin Kincaid
Mike Hammett as Brucie
Donald Symington as Museum director
Linda Selman as Museum secretary
Credits:
Directed by Fielder Cook
Screenplay by Blanche Hanalis, based on From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, 1967 novel by E.L. Konigsburg
Produced by Charles G. Mortimer Jr.
Cinematography Victor J. Kemper
Edited by Eric Albertson
Music by Donald Devor
Distributed by Cinema 5
Release date: September 27, 1973 (U.S.)
Running time: 105 minutes
Films Directed by Fielder Cook
The Emperor Jones (1955)
Patterns (1956)
Home Is the Hero (1959)
The Philadelphia Story (1959)
A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
Brigadoon (1966)
How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968)
Prudence and the Pill (1968)
Eagle in a Cage (1972)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973)
Miracle on 34th Street (1973)
Valley Forge (1975)
Too Far to Go (1979)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)
Family Reunion (1981)
Why Me? (1984)
Seize the Day (1986)
Note:
TCM showed this rarely seen movie on Nov 24, 2021.
