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!

This movie tickled me to the bone.

I can laugh decades later just thinking about Angela Lansbury greedily but daintily scarfing down strawberries.

Michael York is infinitely sexy and sinister at the same time. Just the memory of his performance gives me goosebumps.

Everyone in the cast is such a juicy distinctive being and such fun to watch.

It seems funny ranking this movie up there with Citizen Kane as one of the greatest movies of all time, but in terms of sheer enjoyment, for me, it ties with Cabaret (another Michael York movie) as #1.

Once upon a time there was a young, handsome, fair-haired commoner who dreamed of being a young, handsome, fair-haired prince. In fact, while the Britisher is bicycling through Austria, he sees the very castle described in the fairy tale picture book his mother gave him when he was young, and that he now carries with him at all times. Encouraged by this vision of splendour, the young drifter sets out to fulfill his life's dream.

Doesn't this sound like a lovely, whimsical, touchingly optimistic tale about believing in one's destiny and having the courage to seek it out? Normally, yes. But in the hands of director Hal Prince, this darkly comic tale takes another direction altogether. Michael York plays the clever, enigmatic young opportunist who is willing to seduce, charm, outmaneuver, even murder whoever he has to in order to become "king of the castle."

The afore-mentioned domain is inhabited by none other than the Countess Von Ornstein (the wonderfully eccentric Angela Lansbury) and her brood. The widow has fallen on hard times since the death of her husband and realizes she must marry into money once again to return to her former glory. But with a homosexual son and chubby, homely young teenage daughter left to carry on the family dynasty, prospects look truly abysmal.

To say any more would be a dastardly move on my part. Suffice it to say that the sharp, highly astute performances alone make this seldom-seen little gem worthwhile. There are enough twists and turns to keep things compelling from start to finish. Director Prince takes full advantage as well of the breathtaking Bavarian landscape.

York, as Konrad, has seldom had a meatier role as he first becomes a footman to the castle, then proceeds to eliminate all the other human elements that interfer with his rise to the social top. Lansbury steals every scene she is in, while given a number of deliciously wry monologues to remind viewers that the Jessica Fletcher character she played in "Murder She Wrote" was a popular move but a real step down. Jane Carr, who the year before gave a touching, timorous performance as the ill-fated student in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," does a 100% turnaround here as the dry, sardonic "plain Jane" daughter who is wise to York's game from the very start. And Anthony Higgins as the smitten gay son and Heidelinde Weis as an amorous young heiress are quite effective as two of Konrad's romantic pawns.

"Something for Everyone" definitely HAS something for everyone. A real find in my book.

One of my favorites of 1970, this intelligent script certainly took me my surprise back then. I've never been an Angela Lansbury fan (except for The Manchurian Candidate and Gaslight), but she's finally perfectly cast and Michael York actually had a persona back then (two years before Cabaret) and gave some interesting performances in the 1970's.

I imagine this is available on DVD and video. Even the unknown films of the 70's had some expert screenwriters and this one probably didn't even make a dime. Beautiful terrain and cinematography make this a delightful piece with real wit and class. An 8 out of 10! Best performance = A. Lansbury.

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.