The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped

It's nice when romance and everything about it has a twist of humour too!That's exactly what the scriptwriter to this 1974 made-for-TV movie did and boy,did he do it well! Karen Valentine plays a small town girl who is hired by a rich playboy's friends as his "birthday present".Robert Long plays the role of the publishing tycoon,Michael Green,who has just turned 40 but refuses to admit it.His magazine boasts that it's for "the guy who has everything" but Greene find himself alone and drunk on the night of his 40th birthday.He feels alone and empty when in walks Sandy Benson in a bikini and a bow and his life is never the same again.Now if this was one of your run-of-the-mill romances and you're up at 11:00 in the night you'd think why bother?But what it is a wonderfully charming and witty comedy with 2 equally charming and witty actors who refuse to let you get bored!

When you have it all, you should be happy. However, some people are not when they have it all: a good home, wealth, and happiness. For this guy, he's everything but that. He's a commitment phobe who's near 40. So when he gets a girl who's gift wrapped for his birthday. He's anything but happy. But when time passes on with her at his side, he slowly changed. He has a dog, plants, and he finally rids himself of the maid.

Five years after "The Big Valley", Richard Long has a different character from the show he was on. And Karen Valentine has a heart of gold in this movie. It would be later when "Pretty Woman" would come out to theaters. I liked it very much.

2 out of 5 stars.

...you'd like to see Ms. Valentine sing "Happy Birthday" and finish by dropping off her overcoat revealing her bikini-clad figure. She was something pretty cute in 1974, and I was something pretty confused at the age of 16. Her "Room 222" persona made her the ideal fantasy woman for that time and place, and this bit of absurd TV sexism gave me something I wanted. If you remember her as I do, this one scene will be worth the rental, and not purely for its prurience. It might make you feel young again, if only very briefly.

........., my home town, and that's why I sought this made-for-TV film out. I heard one of the writers was a pal of Daniel J. Travanty (who's also from Kenosha), and thereby the in-joke, where Karen Valentine's character has the line "The whole world's working on a new morality, and in Kenosha, they still refer to Ingrid Bergman as 'that woman'". Just a cute, forgotten little opus which serves to mark the next-to-last film of Richard Long's career.

Aaron Spelling-Leonard Goldberg TV-movie from ABC in 1974 follows a pretty predictable formula: swinging bachelor meets his match, learns a lesson in love, discovers growing up isn't a bad as he thought it would be. Richard Long is a magazine publisher celebrating the big 4-0 who doesn't think his "present" from the fellas, wisecracking Karen Valentine in a skimpy outfit, is very amusing. After trading barbs with the former beauty pageant winner, he finds they have an attraction of sorts and she sticks around. Perhaps because the writer of this teleplay was a woman (Susan Silver), Long's would-be lascivious lifestyle is frowned upon--he's the one who needs (and gets) the make-over. Still, this female point-of-view provides some interesting subtext, and when Long refuses to say "I love you" (preferring instead the all-inclusive "love ya!"), the dialogue and situations show a sensitivity that isn't always found in these television quickies. Lots of fine supporting players pop up (including Farrah Fawcett and Tom Bosley), and the low-budget isn't too distracting.