The Railway Children

Lionel Jeffries was a well-known British actor who started a career making quirky children’s films in 1970 with The Railway Children, which he wrote and directed (though it’s based on a turn-of-the-century book.) Fifty years later, it’s still pretty great- an innocent and whimsical story of three rich kids who get booted to the countryside with their mum while father is arrested on espionage charges (spoiler: dad’s innocent!)

What’s great about the film is how well it captures another time and place, where kids could run around the railroad tracks and wander around a village, discovering stuff, without having to worry about all the crap kids have to deal with today. Beautifully shot and ingeniously directed, it’s a surprising classic for all ages.