The Duke

Billed as Benji meets Howards End, this charming Canadian children's film concerns the struggle between a philanthropic duke (John Neville) and his sniveling nephew Cecil (Oliver Muirhead), who worries that his uncle is wasting his money by spending it on the poor. When the duke dies halfway through the movie, his American niece Charlotte (Courtnee Draper) takes over. Soon Charlotte falls in love with a dashing laborer (Jeremy Maxwell), while Cecil plots to stain the moral standing of the duke's loyal dog, Hubert. Star Trek's James Doohan also appears as a snooty English butler. The Duke was screened at the 1999 Flanders Film Festival.