The Gift of Love (1978 TV Movie)

Timothy Bottoms: Rudi Miller

Quotes 

• Rudi Miller : [after revealing Beth's now short hair]  Your hair! What have you done?

  Beth Atherton : Please don't look at me like that! I had to! It was Christmas Eve, and my heart was just bursting with love that... there was this place where you can sell hair to make wigs, and I had no money and... here open this.

  [Hands him his present. Rudy opens the present and reveals a small watch chain] 

  Beth Atherton : It's for your watch. You know how you cherish it, and I'm always afraid you'll lose it!

  Rudi Miller : [Slowly hands Beth her present]  .

  [Whispers] 

  Rudi Miller : Open it.

  [Beth open her present and takes out two small combs] 

  Rudi Miller : I too wished to show you my love. I had no money and... I sold my watch.

  [They laugh] 

  Rudi Miller : I sold my watch to buy you combs for... for the hair you sold...

  [They laugh harder] 

  Rudi Miller : ... to buy a chain for my watch!

  [They stop laughing] 

  Rudi Miller : Oh but you are beautiful. You are more beautiful than before.

  [They kiss] 

  Beth Atherton : I love you so much.

• Rudi Miller : I do not think your father would be happy with your marriage plans.

  Beth Atherton : [pause]  If we meet after tonight...

  Rudi Miller : If?

  Beth Atherton : It has to be understanding. We will discuss neither your marriage nor mine, but meet rather to deepen our friendship.

  [pause] 

  Beth Atherton : Agreed?

  Rudi Miller : Agreed.

• Beth Atherton : What time is it?

  Rudi Miller : [Pulls out a pocket watch]  It is eleven precisely.

  Beth Atherton : How beautiful. May I?

  Rudi Miller : Of course.

  [Hands watch to Beth] 

  Beth Atherton : Aren't you afraid you'll lose it, carrying it in your pocket like that without a chain?

  Rudi Miller : I nearly did once. A hooligan tried to take it from me!

  [They laugh softly] 

  Rudi Miller : It is my most prized possession. It belong to my father and his father before him... and well, I value it as you do you hair.

• Rudi Miller : Never before have I see hair of such luxurious length. Tell me, has it never been cut?

  Beth Atherton : No.

  Rudi Miller : Then whoever issued that command was very wise!

  Beth Atherton : It was my father, and he did not issue commands. I had Scarlett Fever when I was three, and I had to have my hair cut off. When it grew back, my father asked me never to cut it again... and I never will.

  Rudi Miller : You speak of you father in a past tense. Nicht wahr?

  Beth Atherton : Both my parents died when I was a child.

  Rudi Miller : Yesterday?

  Beth Atherton : I'm 18!

  Rudi Miller : [laughs]  Forgive me?

  Beth Atherton : Ok. Now please get out.

• Franz Hollner : Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?

  Mary O'Halloran : Look whose forgotten me manners! My mother would be that ashamed!

  [to Beth] 

  Mary O'Halloran : Meet Franz Hollner, and Rudy...

  Rudi Miller : Miller.

  Mary O'Halloran : Miller. This is my friend, Beth Atherton.

  Rudi Miller : [to Beth]  Are you also an upstairs maid?

  Beth Atherton : Oh no, I'm...

  Mary O'Halloran : [Interrupts]  Oh no, Beth's a parlor maid!

  [Beth glares at her] 

  Rudi Miller : Well, with your beauty, you shall be Mistress of the House.

  [Takes Beth's hand. Kisses it] 

• Beth Atherton : [to Mary]  I thought you said he wasn't coming!

  Rudi Miller : [to Franz]  I thought you said she wasn't coming!

• Rudi Miller : You see? She is conceited, rude, impossible churlish girl!

  Franz Hollner : But adorable.

  Rudi Miller : I see nothing adorable with bad manners.

  Franz Hollner : This one has bad manners? The one last week has too many freckles? Sally's friend, that I introduced to you talks to much? You're impossible to please! Seems to me that you don't want to be please.

  Rudi Miller : Perhaps you forget I'm betrothed to Hilda. I cannot.

  Franz Hollner : What's that got to do with it? I have an arranged bride waiting for me at home too, but that doesn't mean I can't look at a pretty girl, does it? Look I'm in the United States. I work hard, send my money home. And when I have free time, I flirt a little. What harm can there be in that?

  Rudi Miller : [pause]  Franz, if you fall in love with one of these oh-so-pretty American girls, you will find out.

  Franz Hollner : [laughs]  Fall in love? I'm not planning to fall in love.

  Rudi Miller : I did not know one fell in love only if one planned to.

• Franz Hollner : [to Mary]  And when Rudy told me, I said he must be mistaken.

  Rudi Miller : There is no mistake. The young lady was playing a cruel trick common to people in her station!

  Franz Hollner : [to Mary]  And you allowed it, which forces me to change my estimation of you.

  Rudi Miller : I too would have though better of you.

  Mary O'Halloran : [Angry]  Stop, both of you! What you're saying to me, well maybe I deserve it. But all that stuff about Beth, that's just rubbish!

  [Mocking] 

  Mary O'Halloran : "A cruel trick common to people in her station." What station? This isn't Europe and all! She's not a princess, she's just a poor old orphan being forced to marry a man she doesn't love. So she hung out with me for a bit of fun.

  Rudi Miller : And represented herself as someone she was not!

  Mary O'Halloran : That was my idea, not hers!

  Rudi Miller : She did nothing to mistaken my belief she was a maid in this house!

  Mary O'Halloran : And why should she? And why should I be standing here, defending the two of you like I'm in a docket

  [sp?] 

  Mary O'Halloran : ? I would prefer that you both leave!

  [Pushes them away] 

  Franz Hollner : With pleasure.

  [They turn around, then look at Mary. They exit] 

  Mary O'Halloran : Foreigners!

• Rudi Miller : It is hard for me to keep my anger in while you're looking so beautiful.

  Beth Atherton : [Mad]  Your anger? You were deliberately making fools of Alfred and me!

  Rudi Miller : Don't you think I deserve a bit of revenge?

  Beth Atherton : No!

  [pause] 

  Beth Atherton : What have I done to you?

  Rudi Miller : You've allowed me to fall in love with you, even though you're engaged to another man.

  Beth Atherton : [Guilty]  I didn't mean to do all that.

  Rudi Miller : None the less, you did.

• Rudi Miller : Excuse me, may I cut in?

  Dancer at Ball : Oh we don't do that here.

  Rudi Miller : Please, this is my sister and I have a very important message from her mother.

  Dancer at Ball : Is this true?

  Rudi Miller : Yes.

  [Takes Beth away from dancer and dances with her] 

  Rudi Miller : Aren't you going to thank me?

  Beth Atherton : Thank you.

  Rudi Miller : I wasn't planning on being here tonight...

  Beth Atherton : I *prefer* to dance in silence.

• Young Man at Ball : [to Beth]  This our dance.

  Rudi Miller : Is it?

  Beth Atherton : Well, I...

  Rudi Miller : I... thought... not.

  [Continues dancing] 

  Beth Atherton : UGH, you are the rudest!

  Rudi Miller : Smile! The judges are watching.

  Beth Atherton : I don't care who's watching!