The Best of Everything (1959)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Jean Negulesco

Writers:

Edith R. Sommer (screenplay) and
Mann Rubin (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 October 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

THESE ARE THE GIRLS who want the best of everything... but often settle for a lot less!

Plot:

An expose of the lives and loves of Madison Avenue working girls and their higher ups.

Plot Keywords:

Editor | Love | Actress | Publishing House | Secretary

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Hope Lange	...	Caroline Bender
Stephen Boyd	...	Mike Rice
Suzy Parker	...	Gregg Adams
Martha Hyer	...	Barbara Lamont
Diane Baker	...	April Morrison
Brian Aherne	...	Fred Shalimar
Robert Evans	...	Dexter Key
Brett Halsey	...	Eddie Harris
Donald Harron	...	Sidney Carter
Sue Carson	...	Mary Agnes
Linda Hutchings	...	Jane
Lionel Kane	...	Paul Landers
Ted Otis	...	Dr. Ronnie Wood
Louis Jourdan	...	David Savage
Joan Crawford	...	Amanda Farrow

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #19344) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Alfred E. Smith Housing Project, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

In the first scene of the film, Caroline (Hope Lange) is reading a "Help Wanted - Female" ad in the paper which shows the real-life address of the building in front of which she is standing and later goes to work. This is the famous Seagram Building in NYC at 375 Park Avenue.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Caroline is in Mike's apartment the New York City skyline is seen in the background. However, it is clear this is a backdrop and only two lights are seen to flicker throughout the whole skyline.

Quotes:

Amanda Farrow: Now you and your rabbit-faced wife can both go to hell!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Atomic Recall (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

Good, of its kind

Caroline Bender (Hope Lange) is just killing time getting a job. Her real ambition is to marry Eddie and have a baby.

April (Diane Baker) is too innocent to stay that way for long and falls in love too easily, a dangerous combo.

Greg (Suzy Parker) is a go-getter and wants to be an actress.

All three are doomed for dramatics in 'The Best of Everything', a 1959 soap opera/morality play/sometimes solid movie that is aging by the second.

Set in the cut-throat world of paperback publishing, its not as trashy as "Valley of the Dolls" but not as vanilla as "Three Coins in the Fountain."

The men in the mix - Brian Aherne, Stephen Boyd, Louis Jourdan and Robert Evans - are slick, well-dressed and no good, for the most part. Aherne is the resident sexual offender - will pinch anything walking by, and makes unwanted advances right and left. His character is offensive as hell, but its not played seriously at all. Harassment hadn't been discovered yet, I guess. Boyd works there, too, although you never see him actually doing anything. He's too busy being older, wiser and drunker. Evans is abroad just so Diane Baker can suffer in style - he's a rich kid who's gotten her in 'trouble' so instead of marrying her, as promised, he's taking her to get an 'operation.'

Jourdan is a director who mistakenly has an affair with Parker. They share a fight scene which is fairly no-holds barred, in a movie like this anyway, but the scene is ultimately ruined by Parker's histronics. She ends up nearly stalking him, and she really didn't deserve such a lousy fate, her bad acting notwithstanding.

Joan Crawford breathes fire as Amanda Farrow, the resident 'witch' who is automatically rude and dismissive of any of her legion of secretaries. Well they are younger, aren't they? Isn't that sufficient reason to hate a person? Caroline doesn't think so, as she admirably stands up to Miss Farrow every chance she gets. Crawford only gets to let loose once, when she tells her married boyfriend 'you can your rabbit-faced wife can both go to hell' and slams down the phone. You never get to see the poor soul who dare crosses her.

Martha Hyer's 'storyline', as it were, is extremely weak, and she is painfully over-the-top as an unmarried mother. Short of wearing a huge "W" (for 'whore') on her cardigan, she walks around like a pathetic mess for most of her screen time. Even worse, she is not given the courtesy of having it all 'tied up', one way or the other, at the end. It won't matter that much, but still..

Its painfully obvious this all took place in a totally different world. People were nicer to one another for the most part and work was not a drag but something exciting, for a girl from outside NYC anyway.

One unconvincing drunk scene aside, Hope Lange helps it seem reasonably real as Caroline, who at least has more than one side to her character.

I admire that women are seen having an opinion, a chance and a choice. Not that its not wrapped in a nice bow, but it makes some points for equality. In 1959 that was probably noteworthy and possibly controversial. 7/10.