Customer Reviews

The Best of Everything

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this film back in 1959 when it first came out and I also read Rona Jaffe's book on which it was based. It was about the world of New York secretaries. And it seemed to speak directly to me as I was then working as a secretary for a large management-consulting firm. I loved it then because it seemed so real. Now, 44 years later, I'm reminded of that reality.

I remember wearing white gloves and a hat to work each day, even in the summer. I remember setting my hair in pincurls. I remember my electric typewriter, which was the latest technological advance. I was married then and remember being addressed as "Mrs." by my boss, even though I was only 19 years old. All the secretaries had desks next to each other in one open room; it was years before the advent of cubicles made famous by the Dilbert cartoon. And years before any of my fellow co-workers aspired to anything other than marriage and children. The one female executive was pitied and looked at as a sour old maid.

In the film Joan Crawford is cast as that one office "witch", who had not married because she was involved with a married man and was paying for her bad decision. Indeed, there was more than one married man involved in affairs in the film, but it was always the woman who was made to suffer. Hope Lange had the role of the young hopeful who, because of being jilted by her boyfriend, starts to achieve some success in business. Then there is Diane Baker, fresh faced and innocent at the beginning, but whose life is almost ruined by the wrong man. Most pitiful of all though is Suzy Parker, who gives up her secretarial job to be an actress and is used and then dropped by an important director. The men are all cads with the exception of Stephen Boyd who accuses Hope Lange of wanting to achieve success because she's afraid of being a "real woman". Brian Ahern is a lecher who is always pinching the girls; their reaction though is typical of the times --they just laugh it off and don't take him seriously. Robert Evans is a seducer with no morals. And Louis Jourdan is the director who keeps a girl around only for as long as she amuses him.

This is a film that could never have be made today. All the women are secretaries. All the men are bosses. Everyone is white and middle class. They all have the same values. However, in spite of all that, it is a really good story. It moves fast and held my interest throughout. And the acting is quite good. In a limited way I found myself really caring about the characters. I really do know people who were just like those depicted on the screen. Therefore, I recommend this video - even if it's for no other reason to see what life was like back in 1959.

As a big fan of the classics, I enjoy watching films from silent to the 1960s; however, I don't know how this one escaped me until recently. I rented this movie and saw it over 10 times before reluctantly returning it to the video store. I enjoyed the heartwarming portrayal by Hope Lange, who is now one of my favorite actresses. This movie is about the adventures and tribulations three young women go through at a time when being a secretary was both glamourous and hard work and no guidelines for office politics were set. Although for the 1950s, some content would be considered racy and daring, but for today's standards some people can wrongly consider it "corny" which I disagree. It was a different time then but yet similar in the way we all pursue the best of everything in what we do. Saying that, I do recommend this charming, witty and heartwarming film for those who would appreciate seeing another era in time when young women pursued their dreams and goals. Rent it or buy it. I now own a copy. It's worth seeing!

The time and place is 1959 New York City and lovely Caroline Bender (Hope Lange "Peyton Place,"(1957) "Pocketful of Miracles," (1961) has just joined the steno pool at Fabian Publishing Company. Also in the office is beautiful Gregg Adams (Suzy Parker "Kiss Them for Me" (1957) and sweet, but a tad bit scatterbrained, April Morrison (Diane Baker "Marnie" (1964) "Strait-Jacket" (1964) who are working 9 to 5 while searching for Mr. Right. This is a glossy soap opera of sorts, which reminds me a lot of films like "Peyton Place," and "Valley of the Dolls." The best scenes in the movie, however, are the ones with "bitch boss" Ms Farrow (played wonderfully by screen legend Joan Crawford). In one memorable scene Joan is on the telephone with her lover, who won't leave his wife for her, so Joan screams into the phone: "You and your rabbit faced wife can go straight to hell!" Classic! And the funny thing is she slams the phone down before she completely finishes her sentence! Hilarious!

Caroline is torn between her dreamy ex-fiancée Eddie Harris (Bret Halsey "Return to Peyton Place" (1961) and office hunk Mike Rice (Stephen Boyd "Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964) while moving swiftly up the corporate ladder and into Ms Farrow's office! Gregg Adams wants to become the toast of Broadway by allowing herself to fall into the hands (and the bed) of the play's director, David Savage (Louis Jourdan "Gigi" (1958) which ends in tragedy. April is seduced by rich and suave Dexter Key (Robert Evans) and believes after she tells him that she is pregnant, they are off to be married -sorry, another tragedy! It seems Ms Farrow has come to her senses and is giving up the glamorous life for the married life -but then she returns to the office for her old job and says, "it's just too late for me." Caroline comes to her senses and realizes she must give up her dream of winning back Eddie and she and Mike go walking together down the busy New York streets as the credits roll.

The dvd transfer is clear and the Technicolor brilliant! You'll enjoy the soundtrack (especially Johnny Mathis' song at the first of the movie "The Best of Everything.") with a clear and crisp track. Dvd includes theatrical trailer for "The Best of Everything" and several other 20th Century Fox films. This one is for the "Peyton Place" and "Valley of the Dolls" fans (like me!) and belongs on the same dvd collection shelf nestled comfortably between the two!

I first watched this movie because cinamatic legand Joan Crawford was one of the stars in it. Joan plays Amanda Farrow, a rather bossy publishing executive. However, her part is small and the movie has little to do with her character. It's a fine picture, though.

At first glance, "The Best of Everything" looks like "9 to 5" meets "The Devil Wears Prada." But after the first twenty minutes I was convinced that this was a much more complicated tale about relationships taking place in the Big Apple.

The main plot focused on three clerical workers at the same publishing firm, played by Hope Lange, Diane Baker, and Suzy Parker. Each women has their own trials and tribulations. But I think the one thing that they all have in common is that the men in their lives are all cads. I would say that just about all the men in this film are rather unsympathetic and uncaring. Is this how men really were in the 1950's? I hope not.

Normally I'd reserve two maybe three stars for a picture like this. But since it's Joan's "last great picture" (not counting "Baby Jane," of course) it deserves four.

An entertaining soap opera, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING succeeds especially because of its brilliant capturing of 1959. The attitude, the fashion, the lifestyle, the vernacular and (both ennervating and bittersweet) the culture.

Once you've enjoyed the movie itself, sit back and relish the great commentary track with both the original novel's author and an amusing film historian. You'll get quite a few chuckles along with fascinating facts about everything pertaining to the film and the times and circumstances around which it was made.

Wonderful to see so many great stars in all their colorful glory! Also included, a trailer and newsreel. Beautiful trasnfer. A first rate DVD experience.

A very fun, enjoyable movie - a little dated by today's standards, but still a good solid script performed by some great actors.

The classic tale of three girls who come to the big city is told in a much classier, sopphisticated way than other attempts (i.e. Valley of the Dolls and it's ilk)

Fans of 50's furniture will be in seventh heaven in this film, especially as the office that the majority of the characters work in has a lot of the furniture that the Eame's designed for Herman Miller.

And if you love scenery chewing (like I do) there's the wonderful Miss Crawford as the bitter carreer woman.

The only slightly bad thing about this movie is the somewhat hackneyed theme song - although it's sort of fun to listen to all of it's different variations throughout the film.

Yes, please take me back to 1959, to New York in 1959, or even back to Rio de Janeiro, a couple of years before, where I met Rona Jaffe practically every single night at the then world-famous "Sacha's" nightclub, where Rona was already drafting her novel mentally...
When the film started shooting the exteriors in front of the Seagram's building, one could actually walk-up to lovely Suzy Parker and chat with her about how real was the "new morality" of the liberated New York girls in the executive suites, decades before Sex and the City became the post-mortem of the sexual revolution of the Sixties.
At night we had the many parties thrown by Negulesco and his charming wife, while Stephen Boyd was being charming to my wife, Brazilian actress Mariza Woodward, featured in LIFE Magazine as one of the most beautiful gals in Rio.
Oh, yes, take me back!
And if you were not there then, if you were not even born then, do get this DVD and visit New York 1959 and see how charmingly it all started, despite where it eventually ended.

If you're an old movie buff, as I am, I think you will like this one. I have seen it on TV but it is one for the collection. I have watched it twice already since I got it.

"The Best of Everything" is a pre-feminist "Working Girl". Like the melodramas of Douglas Sirk it's a surprisingly enjoyable piece about women trying to play by the rules, which they don't make, and finding the guys keep breaking them! All the women find themselves having to watch out for the traps set by the men who are invariably married and/or predatory. The closest to a "hero" is the office lush, who obviously needs a good upright woman to take him in hand. Joan Crawford looks on sadly, with the bitterness of an ageing Mildred Pierce. Try watching this in a double bill with one of those Doris Day career girl comedies. Hard to believe they were made at the same time!

It's interesting to watch how late 1950's society is depicted in this film. Men are lecherous, chain-smoking booze-hounds with one thing on their minds (time hasn't changed men that much, but "sexual harassment" has) & women are in the workplace only passing time until they find a husband & settle down. Some of the dialog is cringe-worthy but yet it's charming in an innocent, passé way. I love the opening credits that show a romantic, exciting view of Manhattan with Johnny Mathis singing "The Best Of Everything" on the soundtrack. I want to jump right into some scenes, filmed on N.Y. streets, circa 1959 & experience a time I've only seen on film & in photographs. Some scenes in this movie reminded me of Melanie Griffith's "Working Girl." Especially when Hope Lange (who's a cross between Grace Kelly & Dolores Hart) gets bombed in handsome Stephen Boyd's apartment, he tucks her in & just watches her sleep (like Melanie, she wants to know if "anything" happened between them the following day). Joan Crawford is definitely comparable to Sigourney Weaver's horrible female boss except she was outwardly nasty (with a soft core), but Sigourney's character was sweet on the outside & horrible on the inside. I found it distressing how the Suzy Parker character (Gregg) started out as an independent woman with career goals to be an actress, who supposedly didn't need a man to complete her, ended up. She becomes a stalker/lunatic/nut-job when she lets the man she falls in love with drive her bananas after he's done with her. I loved the character Mary Agnes, the office gossip, with her thick New Yawk accent. If you enjoy films like "Valley Of The Dolls", "Where The Boys Are", & "Come Fly With Me" you'll like this one too. (BTW I don't know why Joan Crawford is on the cover of this DVD! Her role is small, much like Susan Hayward's in "Valley of The Dolls". Here's alittle bit of trivia: Hope Lange & Diane Baker stroll down Christopher Street chatting about 30 minutes into the film. In the background you can see The Stonewall Inn bar, where the gay liberation movement began in the late 60's with the Stonewall riots).