Houve uma Vez um Milagre

The very first time I saw The Others my mind rushed immediately back to this gem...very much a similar premise, people from different periods of time appear to each other as ghosts. It's a nice little film. It's long been my wife's favourite, and its available on DVD from Feb 24, 2003 in the UK which is ooh so cool :)

Saw this film when I was a child, and it still gives me the same lil shudders and I STILL giggle in the right places... its a good old story with the sweetest ending EVER.

It really encapsulates the film genre of the 1970's and the old way of telling ghost stories which seems to have been lost in modern films.

This film is good for the whole family and actually deals with death and the afterlife in a manner that makes you talk about it afterwards

Like many films made by the British film industry at it's nadir in the 1970s, the Amazing Mr Blunden could be overlooked, but those willing to make the effort will find a gem. There's the wonderfully English setting of the film, mixing the nostalgia of a Georgian England of Mr Blunden and Langley Park, with the Edwardianism of Jamie and Lucy's world. Mixed with good background music and wonderful setting amongst a stately home and a traditional village and the film is playing to all the traditional strengths of British film and drama. Adults will perhaps prefer these aspects to the plot, but children will enjoy the 'good vs. evil' aspect of the children's fight to save the lives of Georgie and Sara against Mrs Wickens (played excellently by Diana Dors who steals the film). Sadly, the film misses much 'fun' that could be made out of the stark characters of Mr and Mrs Wickens and the rest of the cast (particularly the dandy-ish uncle played by James Villiers). There's also one cringe-worthy moment too - when all the actors and actress wave goodbye at the end. They don't make things that this anymore....

A fondly remembered film from my youth and one I've re-visited more than once since, it still charms me today. A delightful and thrilling fantasy, it plays almost as well to adults as to its no doubt target audience of children.

The Dickensian-styled story is well-wrought with a nice blend of mystery, enchantment and adventure throughout. Sympathetically and winningly directed by British character actor Lionel Jeffries who gives himself a brief expository scene too, it's a perfect example of family entertainment.

All the principal characters are well-played, especially Laurence Naismith as the twinkle eyed title character, out to right wrongs from a hundred years before and Diana Dors as an over-the-top scheming harridan figure whose plans the amazing Mr B thwarts with the help of two young children from the future. All the child-actors act very well and for the most part avoid the usual wooden-ness in similar portrayals.

I won't give away any of the ingenious plot but it all resolves and revolves around a race to save a young heir and his sister from being murdered in a deliberately-set house fire in a plot devised by Dors and acted upon by her simpleton husband. In fact the film just tails off a little after its fiery climax, although it redeems itself with a happy ending and an unusual but warm-hearted end-credit sequence wholly in keeping with what has gone before. There's a fine understated score by Elmer Berstein too.

It probably helps that this film evokes my happy child-hood but watching it again forty years on, I'm pleased to say I enjoyed it just as much as I did in a Glasgow flea-pit in 1973.

This movie takes me back to my childhood, remembering how I used to sit in front of the tv and watch it.

I recently watched it in dvd and I live it just as much as I did then.

It's a child's ghost story, and all ages will love this movie. Shame they don't make movies like this now.