This is a great movie I remember watching on TV when I was young. I haven't seen it since I was 15, but I love it. Basically the premise is that Lauren Bacall adopts a young girl - she's a great mum, and tries to provide her with a nice life, but the new daughter is trying desperately to impress the stoic father (Robert Stack) which is not easy. Nothing Evelyn does works - and you feel so sorry for her, she's so cute and when we were young we felt so sorry for her. The scene where Evelyn Rudie "cleans" Robert Stack's blackboard to be helpful, only to find that she has erased months of Stack's work on important math formulas (I can't remember but I think he's an astronomer)is tragic to watch. As it turns out, they do become close eventually for tragic reasons - the scenes of Evelyn Rudie running close to the cliffs near the beach by their home still haunt me. I've tried to find this on DVD and VHS with no luck so if you see it on TV watch it!
Review of The Gift of Love
