In The Gift, Gary Frank plays a teenager coming home from boot camp before getting sent off to Korea. He expects a loving family to support him and a girlfriend to wait faithfully. Instead, he finds his girlfriend has dumped him for a street thug and his dad, Glenn Ford, barely even speaks to him. His mom, Julie Harris, constantly does damage control, but when he wants his dad's love and approval, nothing she says can help.
Even though he seems mean at the start of the movie, Glenn gives a very good performance. He's a tough Irishman who sings songs at the bar and gets excited about sports, but he only has one leg and is still extremely upset about it. Julie maintains that he was loving and sweet before the amputation, but Gary has never heard the story of what happened to his father, so it's hard for him to understand. When Glenn finally breaks down and tells him, there isn't a dry eye in the house. This tv movie isn't great, but watching Glenn makes it worthwhile. In his youth, Glenn was put in comedies, westerns, and everyman roles, with very little emotional acting required. The Gift shows that had he been called upon to cry, he could have delivered in every film. It's easy to imagine him as George Bailey after this movie. Well done, Glenn.
