Something for Everyone

I haven't seen this movie in a long time. I've seen it more than once, so I must have rented the VHS when it was available. I did see it when it was originally released theatrically. If you weren't that lucky, let me tell you, when Angela Lansbury appeared on screen about to board a train in her white satin traveling suit and matching (stewardess-style) cap, there was a collective gasp from the audience--admittedly mostly gay men. You'd never seen anything like it EVER. And you never saw anything like it again until Dynasty in the 80s.

Furthermore, Jane Carr utters one of the best lines in all of cinema history: "There's nothing like a bit of pre-breakfast chocolate cake."

The movie is pitch perfect, and I'd say required viewing for gay people, even though that theme is a small part of the movie. Hunt it down and see it! And pray for Criterion to get the rights!

Thank god I had the good sense back in 1984 to video tape this movie. I got all but the last 2 minutes of it and I kick myself every-time for not adjusting the clock on my video recorder. I paid $750.00 for that VCR back in 1984 because it had fast forward, slow motion and freeze frame capabilities. Now, when I look at my $199.00 Sony HD video pocket camcorder I think back to how times have changed.

This movie is such a classic I am surprised that it is ignored by TCM, the Independent Film Channel and every other cable movie channel out there. It is just unbelievable what a mistake they are all making in not showing this movie. The rant by Angela Lansbury after the party is one of her greatest scenes and I show it to everyone young person who think they know all there is to know about her. It seems none of them have even heard of this movie. What a shame that fact is.

"Something for Everyone"'s plot has already been described. So, I'll REVIEW it instead. Angela Lansbury wonderfully typlifies the aristocracy that existed at the end of WW II..and someplaces, even today...at least in some people's minds.

York's character, Konrad, is both charming and convincingly conniving doing whatever he has to do to achieve his goal. "Can you sleep with anyone?" , Helmut asks. "If I have to" Konrad answers.

Angela has two specific speeches that leave you breathless...making the dialog pure prose, or if you will, Arias. Her struting, expressions and attitude make the basic point of the film more obvious and comedic.

York is as smilingly disarming as the rouge as Matt Damon was in "Ripley --". Anthony Higgons as Helmut was convincing too. But something must have ended up on the editing floor that would have helped his participation.

Hal Prince's talent direction is wonderful, but either the camera direction or editing is somewhat ordinary at times.

Music theme is by John Kandor (Kandor-Webb who created "New York, New York" and "Cabaret")is fun, memorable and perfect for the film's style time and content. However, I wished Hal Prince had him underscore the film....at times the film is slow and needs some mood music.

"Something for Everyone" is an overseen classic - storywise and performance wise. I had the chance to express my opinion to Angela and she smiled wonderfully at me. York too told me he loved the character and the story and like me, wished the film got more notice.

Angela Lansbury as a decadent noblewoman, glaring out into her shaky future is nothing short of sensational. One of the most entertaining performances ever put on film. She has to overcome two massive obstacles, wooden Michael York as a co-star and Broadway legend Harold Prince as her "film" director. She succeeds and overcomes both problems with the help of a scrumptious script and a personal zest that it's pure Lansbury. She has been, consistently, one of the most startling actresses to come out of Hollywood, she is, often, the only redeeming quality of some indifferent movies. Unfortunately, the enormous success of "Murder She Wrote" has overshadowed her powerful impact as an actress. To introduce her to a younger audience that knows her only as Jessica Fletcher is always a thrill. From "Gaslight" right up to "Nanny McPhee" As a piece of trivia...Did you know she was offered the part of Nurse Ratchet in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"?

A subversive happy-ever-after comedy directed by the famed Broadway director Harold Prince, who has only directed 2 pictures for the celluloid. SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE stars a fresh-faced Michael Fork as a twenty-some stripling Konrad Ludwig, insinuates his way into the family of widowed Countess Herthe von Ornstein (Lansbury), whose financial situation is running on empty in spite of owning a Mittel-European castle, which, curtailed by an inheritance entail, is prohibited to sell.

Who is Konrad anyway? Throughout the whole movie, audience has no inkling of his past, like a tabusa rasa, he pops up from nowhere, and miracle comes about around him just like the butterfly of a rare species landing on his hand in the opening, he can always find "something for everyone", a miracle worker indeed, but morbidly, with a tendency of homicide if he sees fit. Chirpily injecting its daringly amoral keynote with a tongue-in-cheek mischief, the story sends Konrad rising through ranks, and plays up his pansexuality with utter candidness. Soon Konrad incubates a scheme to bring affluence and glory back to the castle, through a marriage arrangement between Herthe's son Helmuth (a wiry and delectable Higgins) and Anneliese (Weis), the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Pleschke (Gill and Meineke respectively), a nouveau riche couple salivating for aristocratic luxury.

But there is a catch, both Helmuth and Anneliese are Konrad's lovers (and clearly he has a preference), the aftermath of their disastrous honeymoon drives Konrad's plan to an almost breaking point, but thankfully, the marriage is official and money is secured, so it is just a matter of dispensing with those unwelcome nuisances, between the patrician and the parvenu, it is a cinch to guess when side Prince/Konrad is inclined to choose by thinking on their feet.

Konrad's star is rising, he cannot get a break, Herthe is swept off her feet eventually, a marriage proposal, however scandalous, is propounded, and he is in no place to decline, in the final twist, there is someone in the upper crust finally can give Konrad a good run for his money, it is neither the self-involving Herthe, nor the effete Helmuth, but a cherubic lass who sees through Konrad's trickery and ploys, and gets what she always want through blackmail without hazarding her own safety, now we are talking about a film truly merits a sequel treatment.

Angela Lansbury entrancingly flaunts royal poise and rhetoric, a facade she nails on the stage but rarely opens to his film audience, and Michael York, is such a unique leading man, angular, confident, charisma-oozing, and the pride in his eyes is undiminished. As a comedy ruthlessly sends up a morally conscious society, this little-seen picture is a blast from the past, and worth being dusted off to, at the very least, give a scare to the prim, proper and prudish.