Bess Streeter Aldrich Movies
- 1983
Bearing a marked resemblance to It's a Wonderful Life, The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story stars Lee Remick as a woman plagued by profound emotional and business problems. It's getting close to Christmas, but Remick is hardly in the mood to celebrate, feeling that her life has lost its purpose. She is revitalized by a dream in which she is reunited with her recently deceased mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides Remick through an inspiring replay of her Depression-era childhood. Earl Hamner, of Waltons fame, penned the determinedly lachrymose screenplay. Filmed on location in Vermont, the made-for-TV The Gift of Love was originally aired five days before Christmas in 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, (more)
Something of a distaff Mr. Chips, schoolteacher Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) devotes her life to her work, ageing 50 years (from 19 to 69) in the course of the film. At a testimonial dinner on the occasion of her retirement, Miss Bishop's former students wonder why their beloved teacher never married. In flashback, the audience learns that town grocer Sam (William Gargan) has carried a torch for her for five decades, while she obliviously pursued unfortunate romantic relationships with weak-willed Delbert Thompson (Donald Douglas) and unhappily married John Stevens (Sidney Blackmer). Adapted by Stephen Vincent Benet from the melancholy novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich, Cheers for Miss Bishop was not only a tour de force for Scott, but also represented the screen debut of another young character actress, Rosemary De Camp. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Martha Scott, William Gargan, (more)
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