The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972 TV Movie)

Jason Robards: Jamie Mills

Quotes 

• Addie Mills : ...Why won't you buy me a tree, Dad? I'll settle for a small one.

  Jamie Mills : I've already told you no, and no means no!

  Addie Mills : What's this all about, money? Because you spend more on cigarettes in a year than one tree costs. I added it up myself!

  Jamie Mills : ADDIE! Will you stop pestering me and go to bed!

  Addie Mills : Just tell me it looks like Christmas in here. Or feels like it!

  Jamie Mills : How would you like me to take a belt to you?

  Addie Mills : How would you like me to beg?

  Jamie Mills : ...Right, anything's better than that. If you can drink a glass full of water, I'll let you have a tree this year. But you only get one try, and if you blow it, you can't bring the issue up ever again. Deal?

  Addie Mills : Deal!

  [She fills a glass with water and downs the whole thing. James smiles triumphantly] 

  Jamie Mills : You blew it, kid.

  Addie Mills : What are you talking about? It was full and I drank it...

  Jamie Mills : No, the deal was that you had to *drink* it full. You drank it *empty*.

  [Flustered, Addie runs from the room in tears] 

  Grandma Mills : James, that was cruel.

  Jamie Mills : Oh, can't you take a joke? Where's that infamous sense of humor I grew up with?

  Grandma Mills : You wouldn't play a joke like that on one of your friends. What a thing to do to a child, over something she wants so badly!

  Jamie Mills : She has to learn. In this life, you can't have everything you want.

  Grandma Mills : James, let her have a tree this year. Why not? It's such a little thing to make her happy. If you give it a chance, you might enjoy it yourself.

  Jamie Mills : You're at least two hundred percent wrong about that.

  Grandma Mills : You've let your whole life turn sour. You've no right to sour Addie's life as well.

  Jamie Mills : I'm exercising my right as her father.

  Grandma Mills : Oh, you just don't want anything around to remind you. Well, Addie's around. If you can't look at her without being reminded...

  Jamie Mills : I don't have to listen to this!

  [He gets up and storms out of the room] 

  Grandma Mills : [calling after him]  For two cents, I'd buy her a tree myself!

  Jamie Mills : [returns to room]  Don't you dare, Mother! She's *my* daughter, and *I'll* decide what she can and can't have!

  [slams the door] 

• Jamie Mills : [James comes home from work and finds the tree]  Where in hell did that come from!

  Addie Mills : I won it!

  Jamie Mills : ...Think I take charity, do you? Dragging stuff down the street, making people think we take castoffs, like some bums!

  Grandma Mills : James, that tree's not hurting anything.

  Jamie Mills : I do *not* take charity!

  Addie Mills : It wasn't charity, Dad. It was the prize in a contest at school.

  Jamie Mills : If I want a tree, I can damn well buy it myself!

  Grandma Mills : She's the one who wants it, not you.

  Jamie Mills : She has to learn that she can't have everything she wants, not in this life. *I* don't have everything *I* want. When I was ten, do you think I dreamed of working a crane fifty weeks a year? I'd like to go somewhere, and sit in the sun, and forget both of you!

  [Addie bolts out of the room, visibly stung] 

  Grandma Mills : James. That is no way to speak to anybody, least of all your own...!

  Jamie Mills : [shouting]  I want that tree out of my house!

  Grandma Mills : [shouting back]  It's *my* house, James Addison Mills the Third, and *I* say the tree can stay right where it is!

  Jamie Mills : ...If you don't want me here, I'll be more than glad to move out and take Addie with me.

  Grandma Mills : Don't talk nonsense!

  Jamie Mills : I'm serious, Mother. If we stay here, I'm *not* having you interfere between me and my daughter!

  Grandma Mills : Interfere, you say! Who played with that girl, and talked to her, and spent quality time with her - when you were busy, or tired, or just not in the mood?

  Jamie Mills : You know damn well what I mean!

  Grandma Mills : Anyway, she's more than your daughter, James. She's a human being. She's got feelings, even if you haven't. Son, don't you see... The last person you showed any feelings at all for was Helen!

  Jamie Mills : *Leave her out of this!*

  Grandma Mills : You were broken-hearted, I know; we all were. But you're not the first man who's ever lost a wife! Son, it's been almost *ten years*! That kind of grief is selfish. That child - Helen's child - needs your love.

  Jamie Mills : I *proved* I loved her, didn't I? I didn't send her to live with Will and his family, or wrap her in newspaper and leave her on some stranger's doorstep. Haven't I worked long hours at a whole list of jobs to keep food in her belly, clothes on her back, and a roof over her head? I was overqualified for most of those jobs, but I took them as they came. She could have been a Ward of the State, and probably had an easier life, but no. I kept the responsibility.

  Grandma Mills : Is that how you think of her? As a responsibility? James, I've known men your age who'd sell everything but their soul for a daughter like Addie! Raising her should be a privilege for you, an opportunity. Instead it's been a chore, like mowing the lawn or taking out the garbage or doing the dishes! Oh, when she was a baby that was enough; you could carry her around like she was a doll, leave her in a crib when you didn't feel like carrying her... She was just a cute baby then. Now she's grown from a pet into a person, and you don't know what to do with her! So you hold yourself away and live in this house like a stranger. Well, when she's old enough she's going to leave you, James. She's going to find her own place to live, get her own job - and maybe start her own family, if she gets lucky and meets the right person. Then you won't have the responsibility anymore, because you won't have a daughter, either.

  Jamie Mills : ...It was my fault. Having the baby is what killed her.

  Grandma Mills : Don't say that, James. It was pneumonia.

  Jamie Mills : Every doctor we went to said the same thing - the baby would die, or she would. We'd just be asking for trouble. But she kept begging and pleading, and so... I should never have given in.