The Gift of Love

Watching The Gift Of Love tonight made me wonder about the original film made from this story, Sentimental Journey. Having never seen that one I wondered if it was marginally better because this one is a two bath towel special.

There is a brief prologue of sorts where a doctor's receptionist Lauren Bacall meets scientist Robert Stack who's gone in for a consultation about insomnia. She decides to take the case personally and her cure is a couple of martinis. Before you know it they're in love and married.

Married for five years and no children. Then Bacall learns she's got a serious heart ailment that will cut her life short. Her concern is for Stack because even after five years the passion is still intense. Her solution is adopt a child even though she'll not be an adoptive mother long. Redirect his passion with what she believes will be The Gift Of Love.

The gift in the flesh is little Evelyn Rudie, a strange child who can't seem to get adopted. Still she and Bacall take to each other. The crisis comes for Stack and Rudie when Bacall dies.

Stack and Bacall are reunited as a husband and wife as they were in Written On The Wind. There Stack played an unhinged character and here he's a bit unhinged as well as being all consumed with his scientific research until Bacall gives him a domestic life as well. The two of them make this film bearable.

Otherwise The Gift Of Love is awash with sentiment and bathos. It's definitely a film to prepare yourself with a pair of bath towels at the ready.

Julie (Lauren Bacall) marries theoretical physicist Bill Beck (Robert Stack). He's a real life rocket scientist working for the government. Suddenly, she has persistent heart issues. Fearing an early death leaving Bill alone, she convinces him to adopt an unusual imaginative little girl named Hitty. Bill struggles to connect with the girl with their differing interests.

This is a sentimental melodrama. It's Lauren Bacall's first film after Bogie's death. It needs a small tweak at the start of the movie. They shouldn't need a reason to adopt Hitty. Julie could still be the driving force but the reason to adopt Hitty is Hitty. If she discovers her medical issues later and keeps it a secret, it would be more dramatic with her desperate to join Bill and Hitty together. Her reveal to Bill would also be a great tear jerker moment. Otherwise, this is perfectly fine. The girl is adorable. Bacall is motherly. Stack is awkward around people. It all fits. Bill's too angry after Julie's death. Being depress is good enough. I don't like him yelling at Hitty. This is a solid sentimental melodrama.

Maybe not as good as Sentimental Journey - 1946, but then I've never seen the original. I did enjoy watching The Gift Of Love, if only for little Hitty (Evelyn Rudie). She was so adorable and I've always liked Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack. I don't think this movie was at all bad, as some have purported it to be. It was the 50s and movies were like that. B movie or not, it's certainly better than the garbage you see today. Just look at all the remakes of many movies today; they're all terribly done. I can't help being partial to classics and old movies because I was a child in the 50s. Some of my favorite moments were watching these movies. Unlike today's TV fare, you could always expect to watch something entertaining, and without all of the foul language, sexual content, etc. that you generally see today.

From the very beginning, where Vic Damone sings the BEAUTIFUL Title Song, to the end where I sit teary-eyed, again, I LOVE this film. I also loved the original, "Sentimental Journey" just as much. Both may be a bit unrealistic in today's no-room-for-sentiment world, but they are heartwarming and wonderful movies that most women of my generation appreciate and WANT to see-----------often! This movie is NOT shown often enough. Lauren Bacall is as beautiful as beautiful gets and Robert Stack gives a fine performance. I did notice that the lovely background music played throughout both films, is basically the same song, but played to a somewhat different beat. In both films, even the music pulls at your heartstrings. One of my favorites!

This story was so unbelievably corny, this is one of the worse pieces of crap I have seen from the fifties. The dialogue was brightly phony, Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack must cringe at the thought of their appearances in this movie. And the opening title song, Vic Damone crooning as they show various scenes of Lauren Bacall massaging Robert Stack's shoulders and neck! What was that all about??? The film was beautifully done in color (for 1958) but the storyline so bad- what was she doing, trying to train the adopted girl to become her husband's concubine after her inevitable death? I could not stop watching, it was like being at the scene of a disaster. This is definite high camp from the fifties.