The Best of Everything

If there's one thing this film does well, its capturing the appeal and allure of New York City. This is a fun time-capsule of a film from this period and it beautifully captures some truly iconic images of midtown Manhattan, and a couple other shots of the city. The beautifully stylized representation of office life, the cloths and apartments of NYC explains why these girls along with millions of others like them dreamed of coming to New York City to achieve their dreams - be it a dream job as a successful executive or a rich husband. As for the story itself, it is a bit cliched and is filled with some stereotypes. Despite some issues I think this film is great fun and worth checking out.

I am still trying to figure out why I like this film (and so many like it), when in truth, the submissiveness of females and their dependence on the love of a man really sickens me. The depiction of women in this film is perhaps a bit more progressive than that in other films of this genre, as the women are, at least, career women, and much of the story is set in the office. However, among the three key friends (Hope Lange, Suzy Parker, and Diane Baker), Lange's character Caroline Bender is the only one determined to be an editor. However, at the same time, when her colleague Mike Rice (Stephen Boyd) asks her if she has any ambitions beyond working a year or so, she quite adamantly says "no..none at all"...so, it's a bit contradictory, and frustrating. And he, of course, says it's "wonderful" when she agrees with him that it would be quite satisfying for her to "get her feet wet in publishing for a year or two to prove what she has "to prove", marry a doctor or lawyer, and have babies".

Some of the dialog is beyond hope, but I inexplicably continue to watch this film, every so often. Maybe it's the women's clothing...I love suits, and I miss dressing up for work. (Business casual has been one of several downfalls of today's workplace, as far as I'm concerned. Even though I'm a die-hard liberal, I definitely appreciate and enjoy conservative dress). No, but really...perhaps it is because I want to see if at least one of these women wakes up and takes stock in her own life, and throws back all of the crap that her "sweetheart" dishes out at her. Hope Lange does so to a degree when she rhetorically asks her slime-bucket hometown beau Eddie "what is it about men that they think they deserve the most refined, cultured, "respectable" women from the "best schools and the best families" only "part-time", for only fun, but ignore all of the attendant responsibilities that would turn frolic into long-term, serious relationships. She then goes on to say that a number of women will play the same game as men, for a while, but eventually, they'll have to pick up a few extra men of their own, to fill in the time when they're not with the one they really want. I guess she's talking about today's "casual dating" and "hooking up". Having spent some time lately with various dating services, I've run into more slime-buckets during the past year than I have in my entire life. Again, even though politically I'm quite liberal, my own social mores lean far more to those of a "Rules Girl". So, this piece of dialog resonated with me at this time in my life.

The opening credits are very nice...Manhattan in the spring/summertime is always glorious. Though I need to laugh that it's Johnny Mathis singing the title song, "The Best of Everything" (I've always thought that he was a very funny singer...he often breaks what should be long-held notes with silence...perhaps he's breathing, but we don't hear him inhale), it's also perfect....who else would be singing this song for a 1950's movie about finding your way in life and in love.

Joan Crawford's boss is in many ways no different from some of the tyrannical maniacs I've worked for today, no joke. Joan Crawford's Amanda Farrow was more or less a direct, no holds barred, right-in-your face bitch, telling Hope Lange that she does not have what it takes to become a Reader, much less an Editor. And, she did it in front of the rest of the typing pool (how unprofessional is that?). In the 80's, people stabbed you in the back. In the 90's, and to a degree, now, people smile at you directly, and let you believe all is well, until you're laid off in one surprising second.

I found it inconsistent how the Suzy Parker character started out as an independent, career-minded, aspiring actress, who prided herself on never having needed a man ("to love, and to let go...that's me"), but ended up becoming the most debilitated by the rejection of a man with whom she had fallen in love. And of course, it's also amazing how Diane Baker, fresh from being thrown out of a speeding car and losing a baby (out of wedlock, no less, in the 1950's!) manages to attract the attention and heart of a young, studly doctor when she's still wearing bandages and no make-up in her hospital bed. Wonders never cease in a 1950's melodrama!

If you hedonistically enjoy "Valley of the Dolls", or "Written on the Wind", you'll love "The Best of Everything".

A classic late 50's film. The superannuated headliners (Joan Crawford and Louis Jordan) are not at their best, but the direction, cinematography, and acting of the younger cast are compelling. In a 50's sense (which I love).

The look and feel of the artsy (over-artsy?) contemporary film "Far from heaven" reflects exactly this sort of film (and I suspect this film may be one of the models). A silly plot, of course (hey, it's 1959!), but as a film-- glorious! As a reflection of the society, extremely interesting. And as witness to how Hollywood breaks away from the idealistic portrayal of American sexual mores, fascinating.

Every few years, Fox would go to a favorite story of theirs - Three girls rooming together, looking for career and romantic success and finding lots of heartache along the way. The first time Fox did this was with the 1936 film "Ladies In Love", set in Budapest. Later incarnations were "How To Marry A Millionaire", "Three Coins in the Fountain", and this film. There may be others of which I am not aware.

In this incarnation, three women trying to break into the publishing business decide to room together in a tiny apartment in Manhattan. Caroline Bender (Hope Lange) is a recent graduate of one of the female Ivys - Radcliffe - and that prime education buys her a ticket into - the stenographic pool??? She has aspirations of being editor, a job currently held by Amanda Farrow (Joan Crawford), but in the words of Highlander, "there can be only one", and she has lots of competition in the steno pool not to mention Farrow likes her view from the throne.

Complications ensue. And those complications include out of wedlock pregnancy, affairs with married men, and various men lecturing women who aspire to be more than stenographers, given their Ivy League educations, about how the road to success will sap their femininity. Note that these lecturing men are NOT having to serve time in the steno pool on their much more abbreviated way to the top!

I can't blame Fox too much for this repetition. WB had a fondness for a few stories that they did retreads of during the production code era too. See the film "Slim" for reference, along with all of its remakes and forerunners.

The Best of Everything is a high gloss large screen soap opera which follows the careers of four career women, Hope Lange, Suzy Parker, Diane Baker, and Martha Hyer at a New York publishing firm. What's the best for some women is not necessarily the best for all.

Presiding over this group of young fillies is wise old mare Joan Crawford who's been around the track a few times on screen and in real life. She looks right at home as the boss lady as well she should have at this point.

Around the time she was making The Best of Everything Joan Crawford became a widow when her fourth husband, Alfred Steele died. It was a particularly traumatic event for her, she woke up one morning and found him dead in bed next to her. She inherited all of his stock in Pepsi Cola where he was the board chairman and during the same period as The Best of Everything was being made, she wound up the queen bee at Pepsi Cola. Life does sometimes imitate art. So that authority as she barks out dictation and coffee orders to Hope Lange rings real true.

In fact all the women here with the exception of Lange are in for some rough sledding. It's rough for Lange too, but she literally makes the best of everything.

What a collection of stinkers the men are in this film. The best of them, Stephen Boyd, is a heavy drinker. The others Louis Jourdan, Robert Evans, and Brett Halsey, are as slimy a collection of rodents as ever gathered for one film.

I can't forget Brian Aherne either who's the fanny pinching head of this publishing firm. Half that office would have sexual harassment suits going today.

Some nice location shots of New York in the fifties make the film a real treat. Catch it by all means.