The Best of Everything
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Movie Reviews of The Best of Everything
Movie Review: It just........sparkles!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
The architecture, fashion, interior design of post-war America is all right here in 50s NYC. You just can't beat it!! Yeah, it's corny in more places in one but the overall effect is one you don't want to miss.Movie Review: The Best of Everything
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a good movie. This kind they don't make anymore. I first saw it years ago, and have wanted to see it again. Thanks.Movie Review: Classic 50's Drama; A Few Extras
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Best of Everything" is a classic 1959 romantic melodrama featuring the best talent: Joan Crawford, Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, directed by Jean Negulesco, an Oscar-nominated title song sung by Johnny Mathis, and a beautiful score by Alfred Newman. Based on a novel by Rona Jaffe, it is the story of 5 young girls working their way up the steno pool at a publishing firm in New York City. The movie mainly focuses on these 3: Gregg (Parker) who really wants to be an actress, April (Baker) who wants to find Mr. Right, and Caroline (Lange) the main heroine, who initially is just working until her fiance comes back to marry her. Once the fiance unceremoniously dumps her, Caroline becomes a little bitter and decides to climb her way up to the top and replace her boss, the bitchy Amanda Farrow (Joan Crawford). Most of the men in this movie are heels; Louis Jordan plays a theatrical director who Gregg falls in love with, and Robert Evans is a rich playboy who only wants to fool around with April, not marry her. Brian Aherne is the lecherous yet somehow likeable boss of the firm who can't keep his hands off the ladies. Stephen Boyd plays a handsome office drunk who somewhat secretly carries the torch for Caroline.
Although the story is a little over the top and of course somewhat predictable, and many will find offense with its less-than positive view on the female role in society, but one must remember that this is a snapshot of the period in which this movie was made. And what a snapshot! The acting is top notch; Crawford gives the character of Amanda Farrow much depth; although we see her bitchy office personna, we also hear her behind-closed-doors phone call to the married man that she loves deeply but is unable to spend time with because she will always be second-rate to him. Crawford is able to generate a level of sympathy for a character that easily could have been 100% rotten. Hope Lange is just glowing in this movie; she is the core of the trio; the one girl who we know in the end will make the best decisions and stick to her moral code. Diane Baker convincingly plays a naive girl who just wants to fall in love, and it is easy to believe her wide-eyed innocence. Suzy Parker is just gorgeous with her mane of red hair cascading all over the place.
The widescreen picture and sound are excellent; the colors jump off the screen. This disc features a commentary track that alternates between author Rona Jaffe and film historian Sylvia Stoddard. Each one gives excellent details on the production. Jaffe is able to contrast the book and the movie, and Stoddard gives excellent tidbits about Crawford, deleted scenes, production design, and much more. There is also the theatrical trailer, newsreel footage "Fox Movietone News: The Best of Everything Premiere," as well as trailers for a number of other 20th Century Fox Classics ("All About Eve," "An Affair to Remember," "The Grapes of Wrath," "How Green was my Valley," "How to Steal a Million," "Laura").
Highly recommended as a vintage classic!
Movie Review: A very silly but lovely 1950s soap opera
Summary: 4 Stars
There are some wonderful reasons to add the newly released-on-DVD "The Best of Everything" to your film library. For one, it is a glittering and colorful glimpse into New York City circa 1959. Fox certainly has done a commendable job with the DVD--the picture quality and sound are both crystal clear. Cinemascope has rarely been this fun to watch, because now one can see it digitally mastered in widescreen with vivid color photography by Deluxe brought to sparkling life.
The film is very, very lush. From the beginning, when the screen fills with a sunny view of the Manhattan skyline to the sounds of Johnny Mathis crooning the Oscar-nominated theme song, you know you are in for grand entertainment. All of the performances are fine, with Crawford a standout.
I think it's funny that although Joan Crawford only has five to ten minutes of screen time in "The Best of Everything," her picture is featured very prominently on the back and front covers of the DVD. The casual watcher may never know that the ultimate movie star had a only a supporting role, yet with that tiny role she managed to steal the entire picture and make it her own! That's star power!
As enjoyable as the film is, it is incredibly flawed. If one was interested in sexist attitudes (concerning men AND women) and how they have changed since the 1950s, there couldn't be a more relevant movie to watch. It is shocking, and sometimes disturbing, how much attitudes have changed.
For example, at one point during the movie, Catherine (played by lovely Hope Lange) is told by David, one of her romantic interests, that once she has proven to herself she can make it in the publishing world (which, in his view, could be the only reason a woman might have some kind of ambition) she should quit it all, get married, and "love happily ever after." Now there is nothing wrong with wanting to be in love happily ever after, but it certainly represents a double-standard. Who would ever tell a man such a thing? Could you imagine Hope Lange telling David that a man's ambition is only him trying to prove himself, and that he should cut it out and love happily ever after? (now I can imagine Joan Crawford saying that to Clark Gable, but there weren't any characters with that kind of will or independence in this film).
So much of the dialogue and morality in the film is dated, and some of it is very disturbing, but there are still some good things about the story. There are some great viewpoints on love, and how casual dating and hookups can hurt people, and my favorite line has to be, "Here's to men, with their clean-shaven faces and their dirty little minds." It's funny to say the least!
Movie Review: Vintage Soap Opera
Summary: 4 Stars
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).