| The Promise | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gilbert Cates |
| Produced by | Fred Weintraub Paul Heller |
| Written by | Garry Michael White |
| Starring | Kathleen Quinlan Stephen Collins Beatrice Straight Laurence Luckinbill William Prince Bibi Besch |
| Music by | David Shire |
| Cinematography | Ralph Woolsey |
| Editing by | Peter E. Berger |
| Studio | Universal Pictures |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | March 8, 1979 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Promise is a 1979 film, released by was a Universal Pictures, which starred Kathleen Quinlan, Stephen Collins, and Beatrice Straight. It was directed by Gilbert Cates and produced by Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller. The screenplay was written by Garry Michael White and was novelized later by Danielle Steel.
In a rich-boy/poor-girl story (along the lines of "Love Story"), college students Michael Hillyard (Collins) and Nancy McAllister (Quinlan) are in love, much to the chagrin of Hillyard's disapproving mother, Marion (Straight).
Michael and Nancy, visiting a park overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, hide a costume jewelry necklace under a large rock, promising that they will love each other as long as it remains undisturbed (which they expect to be forever).
Marion — whose relationship with her son is so tense that Michael calls his mother by her first name — is convinced that Nancy is below Michael's class, so she tries to intervene. Michael, making it clear that he isn't going to choose her over Nancy, storms out of the matriarch's home.
Sensing the urgency of the moment and the matter, Michael calls Nancy with plans to elope.
On the way to the ceremony, with Michael's best friend Ben Avery (Michael O'Hare) in attendance, the three are involved in a horrible car crash. All three survive, but Michael is comatose.
Marion makes a deal with Nancy, who is heavily bandaged in the hospital with severe facial damage. Marion will send her to California and pay for the best plastic surgeons to make her beautiful -- Nancy had been of average appearance before, which was achieved by use of make-up -- and finish her education (as an artist) there. The catch is that Nancy must not return to Boston or contact Michael again unless he contacts her, with the implication being that he will decide if he wants the relationship to continue after the trauma of the accident. Nancy agrees.
Marion then tells Michael, when he has come out of his coma, that Nancy died in the car wreck.
Time passes and, once healed, Michael becomes a successful architect, designing multimillion-dollar business skyscrapers. His company takes a contract to design a building in San Francisco. Seeing a photograph that he admires, he tracks down the artist to ask her to paint a mural for the building's lobby. He doesn't recognize Nancy, who has taken on the new name of Marie Adamson, but she knows him on sight.
Believing that he had discarded her, "Marie" refuses the offer. When he is persistent, she eventually gives Michael a photo and tells him to do what he likes with it. He has it put on a billboard on the side of a large truck, part of his campaign to break down her resistance.
They develop a working relationship, Michael finding himself drawn to "Marie" in a way he cannot understand. He is puzzled by her strange behavior towards him. Eventually, unable to contain her feelings of abandonment, she flees to the East Coast.
After being assaulted by "Marie's" boyfriend when he shows up at their apartment demanding to see her, Michael looks up at the wall to recognize a completed painting which Nancy had only partially finished during their romance. He finally realizes "Marie" is actually Nancy. Told that she has gone to Boston, he returns there.
In the climactic scene, Nancy reaches the rock. After a struggle, she dislodges it — to discover that the necklace is not there. While she tries to understand, Michael appears with the necklace in hand, having gotten there first. He poignantly informs her that she can't have it, because it belonged to a friend of his, whom he had been told had died in a car crash. This sets the stage for a romantic embrace.
The film features a haunting music score by David Shire. The theme song was written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, entitled "The Promise", and performed by Melissa Manchester. The tune has been covered by several other artists, including a duet with Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez and most recently by Barbra Streisand in 2011 (What Matters Most). Sharon Cuneta tells audiences that she and her husband fell in love as a result of the song.
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