Bedknobs and Broomsticks

During World War II, three children evacuated from London are placed in the home of Eglantine Price, a reclusive woman living in the coastal village of Pepperinge Eye. The children soon discover that their reluctant guardian is studying to become a witch through a correspondence course, and that her magical ambitions are tied to the war effort. When the lessons stop arriving, the household sets out to find the instructor behind them, a search that carries the group far from the village and into unexpected territory. Their goal is to master the spells needed to keep a German invasion from reaching British shores.

Robert Stevenson directed the film, the thirteenth of the fourteen he directed in chronological order, following Blackbeard's Ghost and preceding Herbie Rides Again. Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi wrote the screenplay, and Walsh produced it for Walt Disney Productions. Angela Lansbury plays Miss Price, with David Tomlinson as Emelius, Roddy McDowall as Mr. Jelk, Sam Jaffe as Bookman, John Ericson as Col. Heller and Bruce Forsyth as Swinburne among a credited cast of fifty-six. The production cost about 20 million dollars and returned roughly 18 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1 from 43,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 from about a thousand, while the critics' rating stands at 6.3 from 35 reviews, so audiences have rated it somewhat more warmly than critics did.