"The Best of Everything" tells the story of three young women who work as typists for the Fabian Publishing Company, a New York publishing house, and who share an apartment in the city. The three are very different both in personality and in their aspirations. Caroline Bender is an upper-middle-class university graduate who aspires to a management position with the firm. April Morrison is a naive country girl from Colorado whose only ambition is to find the right man. Gregg Adams (her parents must have wanted a boy!) is an aspiring actress who has only taken a typing job while waiting for her big break on Broadway.
This is one of those movies which could be subtitled " All three girls have problems with the men in their lives. Caroline's handsome, hunky fiancé Eddie goes off to study in London and, almost as soon as he arrives, telephones Caroline to say that he has married another woman, an oil heiress whom he met in the boat. This does not prevent him from returning to New York and attempting to resume his relationship with Caroline. She at first mistakenly believes that he intends to get a divorce and make Caroline his second wife, an arrangement she would be happy to accept, but is less enthusiastic when she realises that he wants to stay married and keep her as his mistress.
April meets Dexter Key, a handsome, hunky upper-class financier at his country club and becomes pregnant by him. Dexter proposes marriage to her, but it soon becomes clear that this is only a ruse to try and browbeat her into having an abortion, something to which she is resolutely opposed.
Gregg becomes involved with David Savage, a handsome, hunky playwright and Broadway theatre director, and wins a part in one of his plays on the basis of the "casting couch" principle rather than of any actual talent as an actress. When her lack of talent becomes all too obvious, David is forced to demote her to understudy. This leads to the end of their relationship, although Gregg still cherishes the hope that it can be revived.
Completing this rogues' gallery of the male sex is Fred Shalimar (not particularly handsome or hunky, although he may have been so in his youth), the lecherous middle-aged boss of the firm who cannot keep his wandering hands off any attractive female employee. Not every unpleasant character in the movie is male, however. Caroline's boss Amanda Farrow is portrayed as an embittered spinster whose demanding attitude makes the lives of her subordinates a misery.
The film based on a novel by Rona Jaffe published in 1958, only a year before it was made, and the alacrity with which 20th Century-Fox snapped up the film rights suggests that they had high hopes for the project, as do the high-profile names - Joanne Woodward, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Lee Remick, Jean Peters, Robert Wagner- whom they were hoping would star in it. In the event, however, they were not able to attract any stars of quite this magnitude apart from (in a rare instance of her taking a supporting rather than a starring role) Joan Crawford as Amanda. Apparently she was broke and needed the cash.
In 1959 the film was probably intended as something of a feminist statement, highlighting the various ways in which men exploit or take advantage of women, although from a modern viewpoint there are two factors which tend to undermine its feminist credentials. The first is its treatment of abortion, which here seems less like a woman's right to choose than like another weapon of male dominance. The second is the treatment of the character of Amanda, with its implication that any middle-aged career woman, especially if she is unmarried, is likely to end up hard, embittered and unfulfilled. When Amanda jumps at a proposal of marriage from an old flame, Caroline is promoted to take her place, and the question then arises of whether she can meet the responsibilities of her new role without becoming as hard-bitten and domineering as Amanda.
Given the melodramatic nature of the plot, it struck me while watching the film that it might have worked better as a soap opera. Since watching it I have discovered that Jaffe's novel did in fact form the basis of a soap opera in the late sixties, although it does not seem to be a success. Perhaps it was not well-suited to adaptation into either form. The worst of everything. 5/10
This is one of those movies which could be subtitled " All three girls have problems with the men in their lives. Caroline's handsome, hunky fiancé Eddie goes off to study in London and, almost as soon as he arrives, telephones Caroline to say that he has married another woman, an oil heiress whom he met in the boat. This does not prevent him from returning to New York and attempting to resume his relationship with Caroline. She at first mistakenly believes that he intends to get a divorce and make Caroline his second wife, an arrangement she would be happy to accept, but is less enthusiastic when she realises that he wants to stay married and keep her as his mistress.
April meets Dexter Key, a handsome, hunky upper-class financier at his country club and becomes pregnant by him. Dexter proposes marriage to her, but it soon becomes clear that this is only a ruse to try and browbeat her into having an abortion, something to which she is resolutely opposed.
Gregg becomes involved with David Savage, a handsome, hunky playwright and Broadway theatre director, and wins a part in one of his plays on the basis of the "casting couch" principle rather than of any actual talent as an actress. When her lack of talent becomes all too obvious, David is forced to demote her to understudy. This leads to the end of their relationship, although Gregg still cherishes the hope that it can be revived.
Completing this rogues' gallery of the male sex is Fred Shalimar (not particularly handsome or hunky, although he may have been so in his youth), the lecherous middle-aged boss of the firm who cannot keep his wandering hands off any attractive female employee. Not every unpleasant character in the movie is male, however. Caroline's boss Amanda Farrow is portrayed as an embittered spinster whose demanding attitude makes the lives of her subordinates a misery.
The film based on a novel by Rona Jaffe published in 1958, only a year before it was made, and the alacrity with which 20th Century-Fox snapped up the film rights suggests that they had high hopes for the project, as do the high-profile names - Joanne Woodward, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Lee Remick, Jean Peters, Robert Wagner- whom they were hoping would star in it. In the event, however, they were not able to attract any stars of quite this magnitude apart from (in a rare instance of her taking a supporting rather than a starring role) Joan Crawford as Amanda. Apparently she was broke and needed the cash.
In 1959 the film was probably intended as something of a feminist statement, highlighting the various ways in which men exploit or take advantage of women, although from a modern viewpoint there are two factors which tend to undermine its feminist credentials. The first is its treatment of abortion, which here seems less like a woman's right to choose than like another weapon of male dominance. The second is the treatment of the character of Amanda, with its implication that any middle-aged career woman, especially if she is unmarried, is likely to end up hard, embittered and unfulfilled. When Amanda jumps at a proposal of marriage from an old flame, Caroline is promoted to take her place, and the question then arises of whether she can meet the responsibilities of her new role without becoming as hard-bitten and domineering as Amanda.
Given the melodramatic nature of the plot, it struck me while watching the film that it might have worked better as a soap opera. Since watching it I have discovered that Jaffe's novel did in fact form the basis of a soap opera in the late sixties, although it does not seem to be a success. Perhaps it was not well-suited to adaptation into either form. The worst of everything. 5/10