Taglines: No woman can give more than the gift of love.
The Gift of Love movie storyline. Suffering from lack of sleep, Bill Beck, a brilliant physicist working on a government guided missile program, visits the San Francisco office of Dr. Jim Miller for help with his condition. When the physician’s pretty receptionist Julie is unable to reach the doctor, she prescribes a back rub and a dry martini.
Although attracted to the vivacious Julie, the reticent Bill leaves the office, then hesitates outside the door and finally screws up the courage to invite her for a drink. Bill and Julie fall in love and are married, and five years later, are still deeply in love. One day, while climbing the stairs to the observatory tower where Bill is working, Julie experiences a piercing pain in her chest and collapses. When Dr. Miller diagnoses a heart attack, Julie begs him not to tell Bill about her condition because it would kill him to lose her.
Julie then comments that she wished they had a child to keep Bill company after her death, and Dr. Miller suggests adoption. Meanwhile, at the Bay Area Orphans’ Home, little Hitty, rejected for adoption for the third time, tearfully plays with her toy animals and locks herself in a locker. Several weeks later, Julie broaches the subject of adoption with Bill, and soon after, pays a visit to the orphanage.
When she sees Hitty gamboling by the ocean, pretending to be a horse, Julie is reminded that as a little girl she, too, made believe she was a horse, and thus feels an instant rapport with the girl. To please Julie, Bill agrees to a trial adoption period, and Julie explains to Hitty that Bill is a special genius and therefore needs special care. Bill, who is firmly grounded in the laws of empirical reality, finds it difficult to deal with the little girl’s whimsical fantasies, however.
When Bill’s boss, Grant Allan, and several other friends throw a welcoming party for Hitty, Bill rushes out to a toy store to buy her a microscope, and at the urging of the store’s owner, a model horse. Hitty is puzzled by the microscope, but delighted by the horse, which she names “Rolphe.” One day, in an effort to please Bill, Hitty erases all his blackboards, thus wiping out months of research.
One night, Dr. Miller is summoned to the Beck house, and fearing for Julie’s health, speeds there. The doctor is relieved to find that Julie is well, but Hitty is suffering from the flu. When Julie refuses to leave Hitty to accompany Bill to a professional gathering, Bill becomes jealous, and the couple have their first fight. After Bill leaves, Dr. Miller warns that the tension is putting increased strain on Julie’s delicate heart and suggests returning Hitty to the orphanage.
The Gift of Love is a 1958 DeLuxe Color in CinemaScope film directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Evelyn Rudie, Lorne Greene, Anne Seymour, Edward Platt, Joseph Kearns, Rosemarie Ace, Robert Brubaker, Mina Cunard, Steven Geray and Theresa Harris. The film’s screenplay was based on the short story “The Little Horse” by Nelia Gardner White, originally published in a 1944 issue of Good Housekeeping, and previously made into the film Sentimental Journey (1946), with John Payne and Maureen O’Hara.
The Gift of Love (1958)
Directed by: Jean Negulesco
Starring: Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Evelyn Rudie, Lorne Greene, Anne Seymour, Edward Platt, Joseph Kearns, Rosemarie Ace, Robert Brubaker, Mina Cunard, Steven Geray, Theresa Harris
Screenplay by: Luther Davis
Cinematography by: Milton R. Krasner
Film Editing by: Hugh S. Fowler
Costume Design by: Charles Le Maire
Set Decoration by: Si Benneche, Walter M. Scott
Art Direction by: Mark-Lee Kirk, Lyle R. Wheeler
Makeup Department: Ben Nye, Helen Turpin
Music by: Cyril J. Mockridge
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century-Fox
Release Date: February 11, 1958
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