The Promise (1979)

Sick Product of a Sick System

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

SPOILERS galoreSo it's a lazy Sunday morning and I'm half asleep with the TV on and all of a sudden a new movie starts and I hear Melissa Manchester. That woke me up enough to see the opening credits to a movie called "The Promise". Starring Kathleen Quinlan, one of those actresses from the 70s and 80s that you'd recognize but wouldn't know her name. The movie starts and it's a montage of YOUNG LOVE. However, I was like "That's not Kathleen Quinlan is it? I thought she was prettier than that!" Well, I'll get to that in a bit. But she had these impossible buck teeth that she couldn't close her mouth or speak normally, a fake nose appliance, and a poorly fitting wig that looks like something from John Waters' Hairspray. Anyway, the story is this: Young love meets up against boy's domineering wealthy mother. The couple decides to elope anyway and on the way their 1976 BMW gets in a head on collision with a MAC truck. Boy gets banged up, and girl has her face destroyed. The evil mother makes a deal with girl that she will pay for her extensive plastic surgery so long as she never speaks to her son ever again. Okay... Mother tells her son that girl died in the wreck, and THIS is when the film gets unbelievable... Girl comes out of surgery looking like Kathleen Quinlan with a fashionable hairstyle and duds. ONE YEAR LATER the two lovebirds randomly meet up and he doesn't recognize her! (I was constantly wondering why he just randomly accepted her death without trying to find her gravesite or a death certificate, but I was thinking too much, not a good thing for this movie). Anyway, yada yada yada, in a "An Affair to Remember" throwback, he realizes that she is actually his love that he made "The Promise" to that he would never say goodbye (they kept playing that song over and over and over that I started getting annoyed by it). The ending is that they get back together and kiss, and goddangit my eyes started watering. I'm cynical as hell, but dang I am easy prey for a schlocky, impossibly manipulative chick flick. I made it through the entire film, so that's worth 5 out of ten.My complaints: Basically the film is so implausible and unrealistic that you really have to suspend disbelief to a level not known before to swallow this one. Bladerunner is more realistic. But here's the thing, loverboy did not recognize his lovergirl after only one year! She had plastic surgery, but she didn't have a personality transplant too! I mean, come on, if I got into a disastrous accident and had plastic surgery, I would expect my partner to recognize me with a new nose, teeth, and hairdo. I still have the same eyes, voice, mannerisms, and well, everything that makes me me. Anyway, don't try to overthink this one. It really could work in a campy way, and having Melissa Manchester belting out every now and then is a hoot. Her voice is special, but at the saddest and sweetest part of the film, her booming voice was shocking and distracting to the final scene. Melissa Manchester was to this song as Faye Dunaway was to Mommie Dearest, total overkill!!! Not worth your time unless you are trying to get out of bed and looking for a reason not to...

I'm giving this title a 10, but not the kind of 10 I'd give to a movie like, say, "Wizard of Oz," or "Casablanca" or "Double Indemnity." No, I'm giving "The Promise" a 10 for its camp and for its camp alone. It's a mother-lode of camp is what it is. From the beginning through the middle to the end. And for that, I believe it deserves a 10.That's all I'd need say about The Promise but that IMDb.com insists my review have ten lines of text? Really? Why? Five lines, sure; but ten? So what am I supposed to write about now? Well, let's see, this movie "Stars" Stephen Douglas and Karen Quinlann (sp?) and a woman who really had some acting chops but somehow found her self in this dreck: one Miss Beatrice Straight. Okay, is that ten lines yet?

One of the best romantic movies ever made. I first watched it in 1979 when I was 14. Yeah it was cheesy then and it's even cheesier now but WOW what a great love story! Love is about overcoming! And man do these two characters overcome! Very few movies today connect with me like this one did! The beginning of the story is such a great set up of how in love Nancy and Michael really are....he's willing to give up his wealth and family for her. His mother, Marion is pure "evil" (Nancy/Marie's words) for trying to manipulate their lives. But I think in the end, Marion (after seeing her son's lonely existence)realizes what she's done and (to me) seems to almost push the two lovers back together by encouraging Nancy/Marie to accept her son's offer to work for the company. One of my favorite parts is when Michael sees the finished painting that Nancy had started but never got to finish because of the accident. Stephen Collins is such a great actor and is just spot on, capturing the emotion of Michael's realization that Marie Adamson is Nancy. And of course finally the ending when Michael has the necklace and confronts Nancy/Marie.....huh...oh so sappy but beautiful. Tears begin to flow. The only down side to the ending is the only thing Nancy could think to say is, "Michael" (in her Nancy voice) after Michaels pours out his heart to her. Sorta'anticlimactic.I loved it anyways and shared this movie with my kids when it came on cable. I just bought the DVD and will be watching it with my much younger co-workers so they can see what a good classic love story is about!

In 1979, I was 14, and I can remember that this was the big movie that all the kids at school wanted to see. I actually remember loving it then. Years later, all I can do at the age of 37 is cringe with embarrassment that I actually still like this thing.How unrealistic can you get? With the exception of some make up and hair manipulation, there really is no difference between the Nancy and Marie faces. Most of the change is effected through Quinlin's acting ability (as well suddenly changing her wardrobe to the 70's disco chic that was popular at the time). It's not the only lapse in reality in the film, but it's by far the biggest. It takes a great deal of work on the part of Quinlan, Collins, and Straight to get you to come anywhere near believing the difference exists. Laurence Luckinbill plays a truly predictable character as the Pygmalionesque doctor who creates the physical Marie. His character is more or less a plot device (as is Bibi Besch's), and his performance reflects it. On the other hand, Beatrice Straight (who was always one of the most underrated actresses in the business) gives a fantastic performance as Michael's mother. Her face says it all when she runs out of the hospital room and the impact of the lie that she has just told hits her. Gibert Cates, who unfortunately has not been able to truly repeat his critical success in "I Never Sang for my Father", at least tries to do something with the script. It is hard, however, when the story is basically formula and schmaltz. In the end, it is Quinlan, Collins, and Straight who succeed in getting the film to rise above it. Their performances get you to continue to watch and find something good even though you really want to hate it.