The Gift of Love (1978 TV Movie)
Sondra West: Mary O'Halloran
Quotes
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Mary O'Halloran : Your aunt wants me to help you get ready. Mr. Browning will be here any minute.
Beth Atherton : Thank you Mary.
Mary O'Halloran : [Fixes Beth up. Mutters angrily] The whole thing's a cry shame. That's what it is.
Beth Atherton : Mary please don't start that again!
Mary O'Halloran : [Upset] Well why shouldn't I? Wouldn't you try to stop me from being pig-headed and throwing my life away?
Beth Atherton : I'n not throwing my life away! I'm just doing what's expected of me. I love Alfred, you know that.
Mary O'Halloran : Are you trying to tell me that you would...
Beth Atherton : [Interrupts] NO!
[Crying]
Beth Atherton : I'm trying to tell me!
Constance Schuyler : [Off stage] Beth! Are you ready?
Mary O'Halloran : Don't go!
Beth Atherton : I must.
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Mary O'Halloran : Begging your pardon ma'am, but how many are we serving today?
Constance Schuyler : Twenty-four.
Mary O'Halloran : Oooh, then I better get a bigger bowl!
Beth Atherton : Oh for heavens sake Mary. It's all make believe.
Constance Schuyler : [Mary exits] Oh Mary's quite right dear. It is imperitive that you choose the right dish for each occasion.
Beth Atherton : I learned all that from my mother.
Constance Schuyler : Yes of course you did. After all, your mother was a Schulyer. It's just that, well in her reduced circumstances shall we say, she did have the occasion to entertain on the grand scale which you'll be expected to maintain as the bride of Alfred Browning.
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Beth Atherton : What are you doing here? It's your day off.
Mary O'Halloran : I know, but I just had to tell you. The lake in Central Park has frozen over!
Beth Atherton : If only I can go with you.
Mary O'Halloran : Have a headache!
Beth Atherton : A headache? I can't. Alfred and Ms. Browning are going to pop the question today.
Mary O'Halloran : [Sarcastic] How romantic.
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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]
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Mary O'Halloran : You're practicing to be old before your time. I don't know what you aunt and uncle are thinking of; arranging a match like that!
Beth Atherton : [Defensively] They're thinking of my future. They don't want me running of with a penny-less music teacher like my mother did.
Mary O'Halloran : Did that end up so bad?
Beth Atherton : [Softens] Bad? My parent's house was the most wonderful place in the world.
Mary O'Halloran : Well then...
Beth Atherton : That was different then. They were so much in love with each other that nothing else mattered. A love like that just doesn't come along everyday.
Mary O'Halloran : Well maybe you...
Beth Atherton : [Interrupts] No! I don't want to talk about it. My Uncle William's heart was broken when my mother ran off with my father
Mary O'Halloran : [Sympathetic] Oooh.
Beth Atherton : That's what Aunt Constance said... an even though he never got over it, he was kind enough to take me in after my parents died... and now I can make up to him for all the pain.
Mary O'Halloran : I bet your Aunt Constance told you that too.
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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!
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Beth Atherton : He's gone. He's really gone.
[Crying]
Beth Atherton : I'll never see him again.
[Beth and Mary cry together. Long pause]
Beth Atherton : Oh Mary, how selfish of me, not thinking about how you must feel with Franz leaving too.
Mary O'Halloran : There are plenty of other fish in the sea.
[pause]
Mary O'Halloran : We have to get you home.
Beth Atherton : What? Oh no, no I can't go home. I can never go home.
Mary O'Halloran : Never's a long time as my mother would say... but perhaps you're right for now.
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Mary O'Halloran : [Sees Beth with her head down] Oh don't cry, oh please don't cry!
Beth Atherton : [Angry] I'm not crying! Oh I just want to die. I've never been so embarrased in my whole life!
Mary O'Halloran : Seems to me you're more angry than anything.
Beth Atherton : [Begins combing her hair roughly] That man... that awful man!
Mary O'Halloran : He's pretty pushy. I'll give him that.
[Begins to fix Beth's hair]
Beth Atherton : If he ever tries to come in the same room with me, I'll... I'll...
Mary O'Halloran : And he deserves every bit of it too.
[They laugh]
Beth Atherton : But wouldn't you be angry with him?
Mary O'Halloran : That I would, but I would be mixed with pleasure. That man certainly finds you attractive.
Beth Atherton : Don't be silly, he hates me.
Mary O'Halloran : Awww.
Beth Atherton : ...and I hate him.
[pause]
Beth Atherton : What time is it?
Mary O'Halloran : It must be well past ten.
Beth Atherton : Oh I've got to go home!
Mary O'Halloran : Her ladyship and himself won't be home for a while yet!
Beth Atherton : I want to go!
[Mary exits, defeated]
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Constance Schuyler : [after finding out about the Butler's Ball] . Oh Beth, I am surprised.
[Mary enters]
Constance Schuyler : Mary...
[Mary turns to leave]
Constance Schuyler : No wait, don't go. Come here for a minute. I would like to speak to you.
[pause]
Constance Schuyler : I understand it was because of you my niece didn't stay at that, uh, that...
Mary O'Halloran : Ball ma'am.
Constance Schuyler : Yes, the ball. I appreciate your common sense.
Mary O'Halloran : Oh, thank you ma'am.
Constance Schuyler : Never the less, I must forbid any furthur association between the two of you.
Mary O'Halloran : [Saddened] Oh my mother would be that upset ma'am. She loves Miss Beth like one of her own.
Constance Schuyler : That does seem harsh doesn't it? Well, it's Mr. Schulyer's wish.
Mary O'Halloran : Yes ma'am. Will that be all ma'am?
Constance Schuyler : Yes dear, you may go now. Good night.
Mary O'Halloran : Good night ma'am. Good night Miss Beth.
Beth Atherton : [Whispers] Good Night
[Mary exits]