The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

Plot synopsis:
Rynn (Jodie Foster) is a 13-year-old girl who lives in a semi-isolated cottage near the ocean. We see her preparing a birthday cake for herself, although there is nobody with her to celebrate. She is unexpectedly visited by a man named Frank Hallet (Martin Sheen), and before letting him in, Rynn lights a clove cigarette and blows some of the smoke around the living room. Rynn is uncomfortable with his visit, and we can sense right away that his intentions are predatory. They have an uncomfortable verbal sparring match; Hallet attempts frighten Rynn, and then invites himself into her house. It is Halloween, and he has arrived ahead of his own children, who are out trick-or-treating. Rynn has no Halloween candy to offer, so she cuts them each a piece of birthday cake. Hallet seems to understand something about Rynn's situation; although he comments on the smell of cigarettes and Rynn says her father is upstairs in his study, Hallet makes a number of bold advances on Rynn and touches her inappropriately before leaving. Rynn takes comfort in her hamster, Gordon. Rynn is also visited by a kind policeman, Officer Miglioriti (Mort Shuman). Miglioriti seems genuinely concerned with Rynn, although she gives him the same runaround about her father being indisposed. Miglioriti seems to be aware of Frank Hallet's pedophilia, although Rynn oddly does not mention to him that Hallet has been acting this way toward her.Rynn's confrontation with Frank is followed up the next day by a visit from his mother, Mrs. Hallet (Alexis Smith). Mrs. Hallet is Rynn's landlady, and her attitude is extremely abrasive. She barges into Rynn's house without asking, and she rearranges furniture in the house as if she lives there. When Rynn's father is not available to speak to her, Mrs. Hallet makes a vague threat about her connections with the school board; she wonders why Rynn is never in school with the other children of the town. It becomes clear that Mrs. Hallet's concerns are not about Rynn's education, but rather the fact that she is in this isolated house alone and her son is making advances toward her. Mrs. Hallet says she wants to collect a case of empty jars that are in Rynn's basement; Rynn refuses to allow her to go into the basement and tells her to come back later for the jars.After this confrontation, Rynn goes to the town and looks up public records at the library, and she discovers that Mrs. Hallet was lying about her connections to the school board. Rynn sees Frank again in town, but Frank is frightened away by the sudden appearance of Miglioriti. The policeman gives her a ride home and they have a friendly conversation; Miglioriti comes to understand that Rynn is much wiser than her actual age. She speaks a number of languages and has a level of cunning and awareness that would normally belong to an adult.When Mrs. Hallet returns to collect the jelly jars, she demands to speak to Rynn's father. Rynn refuses and says her father is out. This time Rynn is blunt with Mrs. Hallet, indicating that she will not be intimidated by the woman and that she knows she is simply protecting her pedophile son. Mrs. Hallet is enraged, especially when Rynn tells her that she knows she lied about the school board. Mrs. Hallet goes to leave and realizes that the jars do not have any lids; Rynn forgot them in the cellar. When she heads toward the cellar, which is accessed by a trap door in the floor, Rynn becomes panicked and screams at Mrs. Hallet to get out. Instead, she pushes her way past Rynn and goes into the cellar. From the basement, we hear her scream and she rushes back upstairs in terror, but she knocks the door loose and it crashes down on her head. Rynn looks down and sees Mrs. Hallet lying on the cellar steps, dead.Rynn attempts to cover up the evidence of Mrs. Hallet's visit; she hides her umbrella and tries to start her car to move it. The car won't start, and it attracts the attention of Mario (Scott Jacoby), a boy who is passing by on a bicycle. Mario is around Rynn's age, and he is on his way to a birthday party where he is to perform magic tricks. Mario is a gentle young man who walks with a cane due to an instance of polio in his childhood. Mario promises to help Rynn later, and he returns later to help her hide the car. Rynn makes him dinner, and when his uncle drops by to check on Rynn, Mario tells him Rynn's father was there but has gone to bed. Rynn is grateful that Mario has helped her keep the illusion going, although she doesn't open up to Mario right away about the reasons for her deceitfulness.Frank Hallet also shows up that night and interrupts their dinner; he is looking for his missing mother. Rynn refuses to discuss it with him, even though he kills her hamster by burning it to death with a cigarette. He also humiliates Mario, until Mario suddenly turns on him by revealing a knife hidden inside his cane. Frank runs off, but it is clear he will return.Rynn then tells Mario her secrets. She allows him to go into the cellar and he sees the corpses of both Mrs. Hallet and Rynn's mother. Rynn explains that her father was terminally ill, and that he was concerned about Rynn's estranged mother showing up to collect her if it became known that he was dead. Rynn and her father conspired to make sure that his death would be as inconspicuous as possible; Rynn's rent is paid for the next three years, and her funds are secured in a safety deposit box in the local bank. Almost every aspect of her existence is accounted for, and the only variable was her mother. Rynn's father gave Rynn a vial of white powder and told her to put it into her mother's tea if she ever showed up looking for her. It was cyanide, and Rynn began to suspect this even before her mother collapsed and died. Afterwards she hid her mother's body in the basement.Mario seems to understand and accept Rynn's situation, and he becomes her co-conspirator. He helps Rynn to bury the bodies outside the house, but catches a serious cold in the process. Later Rynn is visited by Miglioriti again, and he is on the verge of exposing Rynn's lies about her father. Suddenly Rynn's father appears and talks to Miglioriti, who is now embarassed that he ever doubted the man's existence. Miglioriti doesn't know that he is actually talking to Mario, who is wearing a disguise including a rubber mask. Miglioriti leaves, satisfied that Rynn's father will take care of any further problems.Mario's condition worsens, and he is hospitalized for pneumonia. Rynn visits him but he is sleeping and cannot hear her. She now understands that even though she has tried to be entirely self-sufficient, she has come to depend on Mario.When Rynn returns home, she is confronted by Frank Hallet, who has emerged from her own basement, giving her quite a shock. Hallet still suspects that Rynn is responsible for the disappearance of his mother because he has found one of his mother's hairpins, and half of a bright red fingernail in the cellar. Frank seems to not really mind that his mother is gone, and he implies that he will use this information to blackmail Rynn into a sexual relationship with him.Rynn now knows what she must do. She offers to fix them some tea, and she puts cyanide into one of the cups. Before they drink, Frank becomes suspicious and makes Rynn drink the cup that was meant for him. Rynn, however, is too smart for that: she herself had taken the poisoned cup, knowing that Frank would switch them. Frank drinks the tea and Rynn watches as the cyanide kills him.

Tags: murder

Review:
Rynn Jacobs is a lonely, but well equipped 13-year old girl who lives with her poet father, while keeping a dark secret in the cellar.
This is when Rynn goes to any lengths to keep this lifestyle with the help from a local crippled boy Mario, to herself.This noteworthy gem of small-scale, mystery-thriller incorporates a fascinating slow-drifting character study that has certain believability in its characterizations and manipulative suspense.
It's just really hard to categorise this unique film (which, was originally intended to be a TV movie), because it goes down oh so many paths, but it's successful in gelling them together.Jodie Foster in the lead role makes the character her own by providing a maturely astute performance as the independent girl Rynn Jacobs.
Unwisely advertised as a horror movie, "Little Girl" is instead an amazing psychological thriller, rich with atmosphere and featuring a lead performance by Jodie Foster that is deft and incredibly assured.
Jodi Foster is very good as Rynn, a mysterious 13 year old who lives alone in a seaside town, somewhere off the coast of Massachusetts.
Martin Sheen, as always, is excellent as a neighborhood creep, interested in Rynn, (he has some sort of criminal history against children).Scott Jacoby is her peer, trying to help her live alone, and stay in the house her father has provided, although her father and mother have both mysteriously disappeared.All in all an interesting theme, with some beautiful landscapes of the New England, and the beaches during winter.
The Little Girl who Lives Down the Lane is an intriguing mystery, an intense character portrait and a dark, brooding thriller all rolled into one rather odd little package - and on a personal note, I liked it a lot!
The film has gained some notoriety (although not as much as it would have if it was more seen) for the scene involving a thirteen year old Jodie Foster undressing - but that never offsets the point of the film, and besides that; it's hardly like the scene has just been thrown in to satisfy the perverts in the audience.
Jodie Foster had already impressed in 1976 with her role in Martin Scorsese's hit film, Taxi Driver - but here she is far better.
Despite her young age, Foster commands the screen and despite being a child, her maturity and acting talent shine through to make this a more complete performance than most actresses manage in a lifetime.On the whole, this film was once hard to come by; but with the new DVD currently doing the rounds, the film should be seen by everyone.
Jodie Foster played Rynn, a 13 year old in the film.
This is a wonderful movie!You can reach to the "little girl" and feel her solitude and, at times, you wish you were as strong as she is!The story in itself is great but the way it was directed, the set, the actors make you feel you are a part of it!
There is no way to explain that story:you just have to discover it and you will understand,through the movie, the poetry of that "little girl"'s life who is not a "little girl",just someone who had to take care of her life from an early age surrounded by characters who just see a "bohemian child"from divorced parents in a little town where the so called low classed people have to be nobody in front of the single rich family!
Martin Sheen probably won't be happy to see his character reprised, he is not a nice guy in this film, especially with Jodie Foster.
"The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane" focuses on Rynn Jacobs (played by the brilliant Jodie Foster), a thirteen year old girl who lives in an old house a little outside of a small seaside town.
Rynn has temporary excuses to her father's whereabouts, but soon Rynn has to resort to extremes - even murder - to hide a secret from the nosy people and the landlord who are invading her home and wanting to know too much information.More of a drama thriller than a horror movie (as the film may seem), "The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane" is an interesting psychological thriller that is held very well with Jodie Foster's excellent performance (as always).
I liked the idea of this film - an isolated and lonely little girl who seems to be possibly living alone, but hiding a secret as to why her father has mysteriously disappeared.
The film concerns about a rare thirteen years old little girl(Jodie Foster: Bugsy Malone) and whose father is never at home .
Jodie Foster, at age 14, portrayed a real-world adult in her best performance in a film.
This is one of Jodie Foster's best performances, and it was given the same year she starred in "Taxi Driver" and "Freaky Friday." It is a simple story of a 13-year-old girl living along in a small New England community who must maintain the fiction that her father is alive and looking after her.
i generally don't give too many movies a high rating but after this particular viewing, i was completely floored by jodie foster's brilliant performance as thirteen year-old rynn jacobs who lives with her never seen father in a small new england town.
she is clearly independent, intelligent and capable of out witting and out smarting the adults in the town which includes a nosey neighbour and her paedophile son played by a young martin sheen, and a police officer who routinely makes visits to rynn's home.
There's not too much to recommend here, except that JODIE FOSTER was always an interesting actress, even as a young girl, but the story could have been much more gripping and taut with suspense.She never seemed to play the wholesome types, and this is no exception.
She's a bright thirteen year-old, living ostensibly with her poet father in a seaside house, very adult in her manners and interests.She doesn't like the snooping of others who ask too many questions about her quiet life in a house where her father is never seen.
There are a few unexpected plot twists, but most of the story is told in a very understated way in a style that is not likely to connect with today's audiences who want films with a faster pace.However, there is a certain subtlety to the proceedings and it does get under your skin if you let yourself fall under the spell of some very good acting.
I don't know why she doesn't like this move cuz she is great in it even with the delicate material and taboos in this film it was comfortable for me to watch not like "Taxi Driver" which disturbed me when I saw it on late night T.V. a few years later and edited for T.V. In the late 1990's I got the book as an old beat up paper back novel for 50 cents at the library and the book follows the screen play well minus "RINN'S" English accent and a few in-depth character developments and scenes that would'ave made the picture far too long the arthur and screen writer, Laird Koening, did a wonderful job with the screenplay, This is a perfect example of cooperation with the director,writer and producer.
Nicolas Gessner is very special director:an Hungarian,he made most of his career in France where he is today virtually forgotten,although his sentimental series "le château des oliviers" was a smash some fifteen years ago.After directing Mireille Darc in "la blonde de Pekin" which is pleasant but not very absorbing,he made his two best works in the seventies:"quelqu'un derrière la porte "(1971) and "little girl...." These works have many similarities:both feature American stars ,Bronson and Perkins in the former,Foster and Sheen in the latter;both sometimes look like filmed stage production,although "little girl" was not,unlike "quelqu'un ...' a play;and murders;and a mysterious character in both :Foster's and Bronson's ones.I would favor "little girl" over "quelqu'un" though.Part of the reason can be found in the fact that Foster was already a whizz kid and she carries the whole movie on her shoulders ,and it's not a small feat to make us forget the numerous plot holes.To think that at 15,she was already able to dub herself in French -like co-star Mort Shuman,who was enjoying a very successful career in France after writing for Elvis,Spector and many more-.Sheen is also impressive as a disturbing pedophile.In "quelqu'un..",Bronson was miscast and Perkins just gambled on his "psycho " prestige.A distant relative of Jack Clayton's "our mother's house" (1967),but not as haunting though..
This year's hyped-to-the-skies Internet-predator flick "Hard Candy" owes a great debt to its 30-year old precursor, "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane." A young, well-versed Jodie Foster plays the titular character, who inhabits a lonely house in the woods without any apparent parental supervision.
This is one odd little movie, a deft combination of the art-house with the “Grand Guignol” type of thriller – a character-driven mood-piece that’s undeniably gripping most of the way (it loses some momentum during the second half, when the narrative takes up the budding love story between its two young protagonists).
Also, the wintry locations and the melancholy score complement the unfolding drama admirably.The five main actors are all excellent: Jodie Foster has one of the most difficult roles ever tackled by a child (which she carries with startling aplomb); Martin Sheen is equally surprising as a slimy paedophile; Alexis Smith is wonderful as the bitchy town bigwig – apart from being Sheen’s mother and Foster’s landlady (the confrontation scenes between the two strong-willed females are terrific); Mort Shuman is an Italian cop who befriends Foster (he also contributed to the soundtrack!); and Scott Jacoby is the latter’s nephew, a crippled young magician who becomes embroiled – rather willingly – in Foster’s scheming.While considerable tension is created throughout, there’s little actual violence here; nonetheless, the brief nude scene involving the under-age Foster is mildly shocking for a PG-rated film of the time.
The creepy landlady's son Frank Hallet (Martin Sheen) comes to check on and creep on the 13 year old Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster).
In one of Jodie Foster's early roles (in fact this was the same year of her stardom role of "Taxi Driver")she is Rynn a young girl who lives in a seaside old resort house with her very reclusive father.
Jodie Foster stars as Rynn Jacobs, a 13 year old girl who seems to live in seclusion with her father, who hasn't been seen recently.
Maybe Foster doesn't like this particular film, but she is definitely an actress on the rise here.Martin Sheen plays a really creepy, sadistic pedophile, but he'll get hid just desserts, now, won't he.
Jodie Foster does a magnificently well playing Rynn Jacobs, a girl from England who lives in a very big house with her father.
Plot - Rynn Jacobs is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives in a secluded house that she and her father have rented in a quiet seaside community.
For some reason I missed viewing this film which held my interest from the very beginning to the end and I was amazed at the great acting of Jodie Foster.
Martin Sheen, (Frank Hallet) plays the role as a married man with children but he likes little girls and even puts the make on poor little Rynn.
It unavoidably draws comparisons with Albert Camus's existential novel, La Peste/The Plague (1947).I could go on and on about the film's thought-provoking theme of Traditional Child and Adult Roles and the Often-Blurry Lines Between Them (the mature, intelligent 'adults' of TLGWLDTL are the children and vice versa); the continuity errors made manifest by the fact that it was shot on at least two locations in--according to Astral Media--Knowlton, Quebec (hint: watch the windows, curtains and banisters); its plausible symbol of Rynn's pregnancy towards its end; its possible influence on Sonic Youth's 1998 double LP A Thousand Leaves--right down to the album cover; the possibility that Mario the Magician (Scott Jacoby) and the magazine rock star (in the novel version) were based on Marc 'T.
Jodie Foster is indeed impressively good in this movie, and she is perhaps the only actress who could have pulled off such a challenging role at such a young age.
I didn't know what to expect, other than it had the (always great) Jodie Foster in it, plus a practically-unrecognisable (due to his youth) Martin Sheen (I guess he had to be young once, I've just never seen him looking like that!).Foster plays Rynn Jacobs - a 13-14 year old girl (age deliberately unclear for reasons you'll have to find out by watching the film!) who is wise beyond her years and yet never really comes across as smug or forced.
There aren't that many characters to follow, but the story is simple (and when I say 'simple' I also mean different) which will make you want to know how things turn out.I guess, if I had to try and put this film in to a genre then I'd hedge my bets and say it was a 'drama-thriller.' The drama bit is easy to classify, but don't go expecting any fast-paced thrills here.
It stars 14 year old Jodie Foster as Rynn...and it sexualizes the sh*t out her for the entire film.
Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, The (1976) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Rynn's (Jodie Foster) father's dying wish was for her to continue life without him even if this means living on her own and keeping her distance from those around her.
You know what is going on right from the beginning, or at least it takes very little to figure it out.Just to quickly summarize the story, then it is about a 13 year old girl living in a big house, allegedly with her father, although no one has ever seen him.
13-year old Rynn (Jodie Foster) supposedly shares a rented property with her poet father, but when curious locals request to meet the man of the household, they are quickly rebuffed, causing them to suspect that the girl is actually living alone.
The idea of a pretty teenage girl on her lonesome proves way too tempting for local pervert Frank Hallet (Martin Sheen), who seizes the opportunity to make a move, but resourceful Rynn isn't quite as defenceless as she might seem.Jodie Foster's confident central performance in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is absolutely mesmerising, the young star displaying all the signs of a future Oscar winner; Foster is ably supported by Martin Sheen as cold-hearted child-molester (and hamster killer) Frank, and Alexis Smith as Frank's nosey mother, whose curiosity leads to a sticky end in the cellar.
A chilling character study, a tender romance, a macabre drama, a subtle horror: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is all these and more.Only an unbelievably silly scene in which Rynn's friend Mario (Scott Jacoby) dons a rubber mask and pretends to be her father in order to fool his suspicious uncle (Mort Shuman) mars what is otherwise a very effective and surprisingly provocative little thriller..
The director handles the suspenseful atmosphere very well although the budget is very low and the scene was quite simple.Jodie Foster gives an impressive performance as this cool, mysterious and brave little girl and so is Martin Sheen, who is very convincing as the bad guy.
It's a little known movie about a 13 year old Jodie Foster who moves into a new house with her father but the father never seems to be home.
Fortunately or otherwise, we are merely spectators to the end result - a flawed, genuine oddity, with a lot going for it.A post Taxi Driver Foster plays 13 year-old Rynn Jacobs, the eponymous, wildly precocious 'Girl' living alone in a rented house by the New England coast, surviving on travellers cheques and misdirection.
All performances here are exemplary, from Foster's wise-beyond-her-years title role to Sheen's bullying child molester, a brave and potentially career-burying role coming so soon after Badlands.There's great support too from Smith, Jacoby and 'Viva Las Vegas' songwriter Shuman, also responsible for the lovely main theme - though hopefully not the dreadful incidental wah-wah, familiar from 1970s cop thrillers.Such incongruous intrusions, along with some flat, TV-movie direction and the queasy sight of Foster (or rather her body-doubling elder sister Connie) jumping naked into bed with Mario, don't do the film any favours; between this, Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone, poor Jodie had by 1976 become as prematurely sexualised as a Bratz doll.
13 year old Rynn (Jodie Foster) lives in a huge old house with her father on the outskirts of the "village" (I don't think the place is ever named).
Jody Foster is Rynn, the little girl who lives down the lane in a spotless, New England cottage, with her reclusive poet father.
It stars Jodie Foster as Rynn Jacobs, a thirteen year old girl who lives in a secluded seaside home.
Obviously based on a book with some great characters, Jodie Foster as the little girl Rynn living with her father the poem writer in a house close to the waterside.
It is an interesting thriller where Jodie Foster plays a 13 year old girl who lives by herself in a cottage in a quiet little town and hides some dark secrets that you discover as the film progresses.
THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE is such a film, an astonishing tour-de-force for a youthful Jodie Foster, cementing her shocking role in TAXI DRIVER.
Coming out in the same year as Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster is about as good in this, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (what a wordy title).
Rynn (Foster) is only a 13-year-old girl and she seems to live in her house completely alone.