The Gift of Love (1958)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

How sad is this?

Fresh and Exciting

Blistering performances.

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.

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.

I was quite young (around 14) when I saw this movie on TV. While I could not remember the cast very much at that time, the story and the way the actors/actresses had carried the story through made a lasting impression on me - what it means when any child can be your child - it takes only to show love and how it can fill the gaps in our lives. This story of this film helped me to help many of my friends who did not have their own children and that they can enjoy the gift if they open their minds and hearts to them - as the leading lady impresses upon the husband. The beginning of romance between the two and the moments they draw together and next when we see them as a couple are all well portrayed.

I don't often remember most movies beyond a year or so - if that - but for some reason this movie that I saw as a 14 year old has stayed with me all these years. In searching for that movie on the web, I came across this site and the comments made by another fan. I was struck by her saying how this movie has "haunted her" since she saw it when she was about the same age as I was! Interesting that it had the same effect on us both. I remember that Robert Stack and Lauren Bacall did a convincing, significant job in their roles and made me want to see them in every thing else I could after that. The movie was very touching, and I could imagine what it would be like to be in their shoes. One scene in the movie was Lauren reflecting on her situation, looking out an upstairs window onto the garden -- I can still picture it after all these years. How I would love to see that movie again!!