I Can Get It for You Wholesale

This title at first sounded as though it might be a musical or at least a light comedy. But no, it's a quite potent drama, well scripted and engagingly played by a strong cast.

Susan Hayward offers a staunch heroine, torn between strata extremes of the fashion industry, anchored by two men--both of whom have romantic leanings toward her.

George Sanders is seen as the higher up of the two, and he's ideally cast. Few could bring off the cad type as well, and he plays it to the hilt here, as though relishing every moment.

The other suitor character showcases the dramatic ability of Dan Dailey, noted for lighter fare. Dailey is quite convincing as Hayward's other love interest.

That dependable character actor, Sam Jaffe, is just fine as Hayward's "conscious" and bridge between her callous ambition and fundamental simplicity.

Not available on vhs or dvd, this film is occasionally shown on cable or satellite networks.

Hard to see anyone but the forceful Susan Hayward in the role of the lovely, but willful Harriet Boyd. Usually, it's men who get the blind ambition part. Not here. Instead, it's a woman dress designer in pursuit of riches and fame. Trouble is she's willing to sacrifice her two partners (Dailey and Jaffe) in the process. It's they, however, who help get her started by partnering-up in a little dress-making company. She's doubtless got talent as a designer, but they all work hard to get things off the ground. Now, however, she's willing to dump them and their business so she can join up with the king of the industry, the super-slick JF Noble (Sanders), and the big- time. Poor Teddy, he fell for her during their time together and thought it was mutual. Now, however, she's ready to transfer her affections as well as her talent. So how will all this turn out.

It's a sometimes gritty screenplay from the blacklisted Abe Polonsky, Force of Evil (1948). I suspect he was thinking expose of big business and did the best he could for the time (1951). And catch that Hollywood ending which I suspect he and director Gordon finessed as best they could. Anyway, Hayward's fine in a basically unsympathetic role. Ditto Dailey as the sympathetic Ted, while movie vet Jaffee gets to be the reliable voice of reason, along with Marvin Kaplan as comedy relief. The film really benefits from the behind-the-scenes look at what some call the rag business. I especially like Ted's brief glad-handing sales tour of the South where he works up a smiling sweat.

All in all, the 90-minutes is an entertaining character study and look inside a major industry, one that I suspect is still relevant.

I Can Get It For You Wholesale is the story about how dress designer/model Susan Hayward, salesman Dan Dailey, and dressmaker Sam Jaffe pool their talents to form their own company to be just one more in the center of the fashion industry on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. This film came out in 1951 and over 60 years later it's one of the few things about New York City that hasn't changed.

Other than the automobiles that part of New York City also has the same look to it as well and this is a film that could be done today. Only the garment workers will change, they'll be black and Hispanic and Asian women on those sewing machines now.

Dailey and Hayward are an unlikely pair. He's in love with her, but he's a chauvinistic lunkhead. Hayward steps into a part that a decade earlier Barbara Stanwyck would have been cast in. She's a model who knows she can design and models have a short shelf life for careers. She's ambitious and thinks of her partnership as a stepping stone. Further up the food chain is department store owner George Sanders fresh off his Oscar win in All About Eve. If she can only become the exclusive designer for his stores.

The plot of the story is somewhat unreal especially when the better angels of Hayward's nature come out in the end. But soon to be blacklisted writer Abraham Polonsky is best at capturing the mood and feel of the garment industry at the time. The industry was a huge employer of women, but it was controlled by men. Something that young Edythe Marrener of Brooklyn would have grown up with before she became Susan Hayward. Girls in high school in New York City looked for employment there upon graduation and new job aspirants were coming out every year.

I Can Get It For You Wholesale is a look at New York in the middle of the last century. Real kudos should also go to Sam Jaffe who is the wise old father figure for both Dailey and Hayward and to Marvin B. Kaplan whose deadpan delivery of their office boy gave him a breakthrough role in a stage and screen career.

A must for Susan Hayward fans like me.

This is an Abraham Polonsky film and a rare social documentary of the kind that was essentially out of business by the early 60's. The original novel had a male protagonist but was changed to suit 'women's picture' zeitgeist. But if you look carefully, the script is a very strong echo of "Force of Evil" by Polonsky.

In addition to some crucial taxicab courtship banter common to both films, designed to 'disarm' both John Garfield and Dan Dailey before their love interests (the car was even picked up in "On the Waterfront" to show actual desperation between the Brando and Steiger characters)you have tough males depicted as ambitious but morally uneducated instrumentalities; a background of "law of the jungle" capitalism governed by arcane insider rules (respectively bookmaking and garment manufacturing); industrial consolidation as an ominous force (neighborhood bookmaking subsumed under a legalized crime syndicate,dressmaking bought out by a big name)and industrialists with independent capitalist streaks (Thomas Gomez, Sam Jaffe).

It is amazing how Susan Hayward found films to echo some aspect of her life. She really was skilled in visual art, modeling, and had a family of Irish vaudeville types (echoed by Dailey).We were confused by the handling of the love interest. Could such an ambitious dame have found real love with anyone? And Teddy is not a lothario == just a penniless farceur who needed education and some control over his temper (a point almost entirely missed, but in real life such fisticuffs were a way to win Hayward's respect). Anyway, a rather juicy film to savor.

Susan plays Harriet Boyd, a ruthless model-turned-fashion designer determined to claw her way to the top on Seventh Avenue. It's a Joan Crawford-ish role, but Hayward acts the role with a real vulnerability that Crawford lacks. Part of the film is shot on location in the Garment District and it's an interesting look at postwar Manhattan and an industry that's long gone. Boyd is forced to choose romantically between scrappy salesman Teddy Sherman (Dan Daily) or the suave garment mogul J.B. Noble (George Sanders). Interestingly, considering the fact the film was made in 1951, all the women's clothing in the film seems a little dated. Hayward has a floppy (but charming) forties' hairdo. Dior introduced his New Look in 1947, but you'd never know it here. Even Boyd's role as a determined career woman was starting to look passé as women in the fifties were pressured to leave the workforce to open up jobs for unemployed veterans. I Can Get It For You Wholesale is a great period-piece and a well-acted and engrossing film.