MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: The Borrowers (1973)

The Clock Family — Pod (Eddie Albert), Homily (Tammy Grimes) and Arriety (Karen Pearson) — are Borrowers, small people who live in the houses of human beans, as they call big people, and stay out of view. Arriety, unlike any Borrowers before, becomes friends with the eight-year-old (Dennis Larson) who lives in the house they have turned into their world.

Based on the book by Mary Norton, this was directed by Walter C. Miller (who mainly worked on the Grammy, CMA and Tony award show broadcast, as well as directing several Rodney Dangerfield specials) and written by Jay Presson Allen, who wrote the screenplays for MarnieFunny LadyCabaret and Death Trap. She was a screenwriter when few women were.

The Borrowers was also made into two BBC TV series, a 1997 and 2011 movie and an anime in Japan called Karigurashi no Ariettii that was produced by Studio Ghibli.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on YouTube.