The Greatest Gift (1974) (TV)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Boris Sagal

Writers:

Jack Farris (novel)
Abby Mann (writer)

Release Date:

4 November 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Reverend Holvak, a poor rural preacher in the 1940s, fights against stiff- necked church deacons and a violent...

Plot Keywords:

Preacher | Priest | Religion | Pastor | Based On Novel

Cast

Glenn Ford	...	Rev. Holvak
Julie Harris	...	Elizabeth Holvak
Lance Kerwin	...	Ramey Holvak
Harris Yulin	...	Hog Yancy
Charles Tyner	...	Amos Goodloe
Dabbs Greer	...	Deacon Hurd
Cari Anne Warder	...	Julie Mae Holvak
Furman Walters	...	Willis Graham
Leslie Thorsen	...	Tincey Bell
Ken Renard	...	Abraham Morrison
J. Don Ferguson	...	Jim Friedlin
Burt Douglas	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lewell Akins	...	Hap
Don Devendorf	...	Bert
Bob Hannah	...	Emmet Posten
Tom Hilliard	...	Harold Biglow
Doris Pearce	...	Mrs. Pradley
Albert Smith	...	Eli Wiggins

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

Statesboro, Georgia, USA

Company:

Universal TV

Quotes:

Rev. Holvak: Somebody asked me once if a man could not believe in God and still be good. The answer is, yes. Yes, he could. It ain't enough to come because y' have to. It ain't enough to come because y' fear. "For fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

Movie Connections:

Followed by "The Family Holvak" (1975)

One of the best movies ever broadcast on television

Based on the 1953 novel Ramey by Jack Farris. Reviews say the book is set in the Ozarks. It seems this movie is set in 1940 near Baxter, Tennessee, but filmed in Georgia. The Reverend Holvak preaches the love of God when it is popular to preach the wrath of God. He is a patient father to his son and lets him shoot rabbits with a Remington rifle. The Reverend gets killed, and the son has a chance to get revenge but chooses not to, and has to be the man of the family. The movie is an example of the potential for good television. The NBC series The Family Holvak came out later, apparently to attract some fans of The Waltons. The movie had killed off the Reverend, so the series was with him being alive and may have been set considerably earlier than 1940.