Night 1 of the 14 Nights of Valentine's Day Giveaway

Welcome to night 1 of the 5th annual 14 Nights of Valentine's Day Giveaway. Stop by the main Giveaway Post to enter to win a $200 Prize Pack full of decadent treats from 8 fabulous shops! Tonight we have Rosemary's Pick, the first movie in the Valentine's Movie Marathon. Follow along daily for extra entries and the chance for a bonus 20 entries at the end of the giveaway. Test your movie knowledge and play the Guess the Movie game for even more entries. Enjoy and have fun!

Key To My Heart Necklace

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14 Nights of Valentine's Day Movie Marathon
Follow along with us for 2 weeks full of classic and modern love story movies. Each day there will be a review of the next movie in the marathon. Leave a comment on the post, with your opinion of the movie, and you can receive 1 entry in the giveaway. Each day you comment you can receive 1 entry. You will find the daily entries on the Rafflecopter on the main Giveaway Post.
*You may start following the marathon at any time and comment on past posts to catch up.

Comment on all 14 movies and you can receive a bonus 20 entries. On the last day of the giveaway you will find the magic phrase to unlock the bonus entries on the Rafflecopter.
*You must comment on each movie to qualify for the bonus 20 entries.

Guess the Movie Game
Each day there will be a clue to the next night's movie. Leave your guess on the Rafflecopter widget, on the main Giveaway Post, for 1 entry in the giveaway.
*Guesses must be posted the same day as their clue to receive the 1 entry.
*The Rafflecopter widget will reset to a new day 24 hours after you left your last guess.
*Please do not post guesses anywhere else on the blog or they will be deleted and not count.

Tonight's Clue ~ Bake your worries away.


Night 1 ~ Love Story

Tagline - Love  means never having to say you're sorry.


Directed by Arthur Hill (The Out-of-Towners and The In-Laws) and released on December 16th, 1970 by Paramount Pictures (rated PG). Harvard student Oliver (Ryan O'Neil) and Radcliffe student Jenny (Ali MacGraw) meet and fall in love. Can they overcome their opposite backgrounds and make love work?

It has become tradition with the Valentine's Day Giveaway for my mom, Rosemary, to pick the first movie. Her past choices have included Raintree County, Hatchi and The Man From Snowy River. This year she chose the classic 70's tearjerker Love Story.

Oliver, a Harvard law student from a wealthy family, meets Jenny, a working-class Radcliffe student. Despite an instant and constant battle-of-the-wits these two fall madly in love. Upon deciding to marry, Oliver's father does not agree and severs all ties to his son. The two must make their dreams happen by modest means and lot of hard work. But as happens all too often in this type of movie things take a tragic turn.

This movie is a example of the changing roles of woman and men at the beginning of the 1970s. Jenny is outspoken and a bit of a smart-mouth. And it is she who tries to stop the budding romance due to the realization of the difference in their backgrounds. Their story is enjoyable to watch and definitely worthy of tears once you enter the final stretch. If you are a fan of tragic love stories this is one of the greats.

Love Story is currently available on Netflix streaming and should be available to rent on most DVD services.


Take a look at the original trailer.


Some trivia about the movie.
1. In What's Up, Doc? (1972), Barbra Streisand tells Ryan O'Neal, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." O'Neal responds, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
2. The movie's line "Love means never having to say you're sorry." was voted as the #13 movie quote by the American Film Institute.
3. Film debut of Tommy Lee Jones, an actual Harvard graduate. Writer Erich Segal based Ryan O'Neal's character on Jones, and on his Harvard roommate, future Vice-President Al Gore.
4. Ryan O'Neal learned to ice-skate and Ali MacGraw learned to play the harpsichord in preparation for their roles.
5. According to Robert Evans in his memoirs the 8 actors who declined the role of Oliver were Beau Bridges, Jon Voight, Michael Sarrazin, Michael Douglas, Michael York (who turned it down because he didn't believe it would be a hit), Peter Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Keith Carradine.
6. Author Erich Segal wrote the screenplay first, then adapted it into a novel - which was published before the film's release and became a runaway bestseller.
7. This movie marked Ray Milland's first film appearance without the hairpiece he had worn for decades.
8. Both the Cornell and Dartmouth hockey teams were played by Dartmouth's actual team. Cornell hockey coach Ned Harkness only allowed Cornell jerseys to be used in the film on the condition that Cornell win the game with Harvard.