CALL it the magic of the movies. Pleasantville, a Westchester village with just 7,200 people, used to be the poor stepsister of nearby towns like Chappaqua and Armonk. "Tumbleweeds used to roll down Main Str~et," says Philip McGrath, the owner of the Iron Horse Grill, a converted train station.

Then, four years ago, the Jacob Burns Film Center opened. The three-screen cinema airs documentaries, indies, art films and retrospectives. Thousands of schoolchildren participate in programs at the center, which has ties to the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Moviemakers like Clint Eastwood, Mike Nichols, Alan Menken and Stephen King hold discussions before screenings.

Now the village is a magnet drawing urban families who want a 1950s Mayberry complete with sushi restaurants, chic home furnishing stores and a quick commute to Manhattan. (It takes 45 minutes from the village's Metro-North station to Grand Central Terminal, and Pleasantville also has easy access to the Saw Mill River Parkway, the New York Thruway and the Taconic State Parkway.)

"It's an urban oasis now," says McGrath. "Very SoHo. Very Seattle."

There are film and media people in town, too. Besides Janet Maslin, the former New York Times chief film critic who is president of the board for the Jacob Burns Center, there's her husband, Ben Cheever (son of John). Terry George, who wrote "Hotel Rwanda" (which first screened at the Jacob Burns Center) also lives here. And so does crossword king Will Shortz. Still, Pleasantville doesn't have an urban edge. The village -- which along with Sleepy Hollow, Thornwood, Hawthorne and Valhalla is part of the Town of Mount Pleasant -- has a small-town atmosphere. This means volunteerism, bake sales and support during crises. "When someone has the flu, there's always a parent to pick up your child," says Lisa Hickey, a resident who moved from suburban Ossining.

Everyone turns out for the Halloween ragamuffin parade, Easter egg hunt and summer concerts at the Gazebo in the village center. On Pleasantville Day, in May, there's a pancake breakfast, sidewalk sales and fireworks.

"I know this sounds hokey but the people in Pleasantville are insanely nice," says Jane Hanstein Cunniffe, a photographer who moved with her husband and two children from Manhattan. "Sometimes it seems like a make-believe place."

Make-believe isn't cheap. The average house price here is $667,000, and larger Colonials and Victorians are starting to sell for a million bucks. Taxes on a $600,000 house can knock you back $10,000 annually.

For half a mil, you'll get a three-bedroom, one-bath Cape, Ranch or older Colonial, Those pretty 1920s four-bedroom Colonials with front porches and picket fences cost $600,000 to $900,000.

"The big draw is the village," says M. Donna Conte, associate broker at Prudential Holmes & Kennedy. "It's pretty tough to find a village atmosphere like this in Westchester,"

The center of the village is where Manville Road, Washington Avenue and Wheeler Avenue meet, Mom-and-pop retailers line these tree-shaded streets; shops like the Keeping Room, the Village Bookstore, Try & Buy Toy Store and Fanda's Pop Shop, a vintage style ice cream parlor, keep the town charming. There's also a farmer's market every Saturday from May through October in front of the train station.

Premium Colonials and Victorians line Ashland Avenue, Clark Street and Bedford Road, In the winter, when the leaves are off the trees, you can drive along Orchard Brook Drive on the eastern edge of Pleasantville and turn onto Usonia Road to gawk at the houses of Usonia, a cluster of 47 houses Frank Lloyd Wright built in 1948 as a cooperative.

Beyond the village, newer homes are found in the rolling hills off Bear Ridge Road in Heritage Court and the Estates, outside the village.

There are a handful of condo developments, including the Tudor-style Foxwood complex with 241 units. Prices start at $250,000 for a one-bedroom and range between $350,000 and $400,000 for a two-bedroom. Trophy Ridge is a complex of 72 attached homes along a golf course.

Hickey, a stay-at-home mom whose husband commutes to Wilton, Conn., says that Pleasantville is the perfect place to raise kids. "The children walk to school - they have no choice. There are no school buses," says Hickey. "We walk to the library, to church and ... the train station. This is one of the last walking towns around."

The Pleasantville Union Free School District, which also draws from the town of Mount Pleasant, has one elementary school, one middle school and one high school. Pace University also has a campus in Pleasantville.