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The Best of Everything |
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Staring:
Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd, Suzy Parker, Martha Hyer, Diane Baker
Director:
Jean Negulesco
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $6.91
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Description
Rona Jaffe's best-selling novel comes to life in this witty tale about the personal and professional lives of the men and women in a New York publishing firm. Heading a huge cast. JOAN CRAWFORD "gives an excellently etched performance" (Hollywood Reporter) as a tough-talking editor who can't seem to win at love. There are a few more interesting stories around the office than there are in the manuscripts at Fabian Publishers. Among the principal players: a new secretary (HOPE LANG) who quickly gets her boss's (CRAWFORD) job and romances a handsome editor (STEPHEN BOYD); a Colorado secretary (DIANE BARKER) who falls for the wrong man (ROBERT EVANS); and a would be actress (SUZY PARKER) who's jilted by a two-timing director (LUIS JOURDAN). Slick and glossy, The Best Of Everything is a panorama of office politics before women's liberation.
Amazon.com
The business world of the late Eisenhower era has rarely been more chicly drawn than in The Best of Everything, a juicy soap opera of the "working girl" school. Hope Lange lands a secretarial job at a Manhattan publishing house, eventually rising to an editorial position--but not before witnessing the back-biting, fanny-pinching snakepit that is the corporate workplace circa 1959. The spunky trio of Lange, Diane Baker, and Suzy Parker have romantic misadventures aplenty; Baker falls in with smarmy young Robert Evans (he had the tan even back then) and aspiring actress Parker lands in the clutches of heartbreaker stage director Louis Jourdan. The film's males are truly pigs in gray flannel suits. Beefcake slab Stephen Boyd offers solace to Lange, while Martha Hyer is around to provide yet another example of a woman suffering for the sake of a married man. Despite all the young female talent (redhead Parker was one of the most beautiful women of the fifties, a top model with a brief movie career), nobody holds serve when Joan Crawford bulls her way on screen. As a senior magazine editor (and a presumably cautionary example of the bitter career woman), Crawford eats the other actors like hors d'oeuvres. Jean Negulesco's staid direction never notices how trashy and plodding the material is, stressing instead the designer prettiness of CinemaScope: the interiors are a parade of cool colors and postwar furniture, the location shots of Manhattan streets are as gorgeous and nostalgic as an ancient engraving. --Robert Horton
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Transcends Its Genre, 2010-05-21
Most insist on lumping The Best of Everything into the "soap" category but I think labeling anything this well acted, written, directed, and scored as anything less than simply a drama is doing the movie, and it's potential viewers, a huge disservice.
The stunning cinematography in the opening sequence makes me long to have been able to experience New York City as it was in 1959 but The Best of Everything captures the wide-eyed wonder of it all so well I think you would need a time machine to do better.
I had been interested in the movie ever since seeing a clip from the film in TCM's fascinating Joan Crawford bio (which coincidentally comes as a bonus on the flip side of the 2003 Mildred Pierce dvd). I expected a fun movie but was thrilled with the fine performances of so many in the film, particularly Diane Baker. The movie also makes me sad there weren't more big film roles for the lovely Suzy Parker. The scene in which she first appears in the film will bowl you over.
After you've watched the film treat yourself to watching it again with the Sylvia Stoddard/Rona Jaffe narrative turned on. All the fun things you'll pick up about the movie, the cast, the set, and the times in general are priceless.
Tip: If after watching the movie you have the wonderful soundtrack stuck in your mind you'll want to grab a copy of the 2002 CD right away as they are already getting pretty hard to find.
I bought The Best of Everything early last fall and have already watched it 4 times, or 6 if you count the times with commentary on.
 "Here's to men. Bless their clean-cut faces and dirty little minds!", 2009-10-29
Rona Jaffe's breakout novel THE BEST OF EVERYTHING was prime fodder for a splashy 1960s Hollywood melodrama right from the start, so it's little wonder the movie is still such a delight to behold some forty years after it's original release.
It's kind of like "Valley of the Dolls" with typewriters... Bright-eyed Caroline Bender (Hope Lange) comes to Fabian Publishing clutching the job advertisement which proudly promises it's secretaries "the best of everything!". Instead, Caroline winds up as the latest gumshoe to the imperious senior editor Amanda Farrow (Joan Crawford in a glorified cameo). Fellow secretary Gregg Adams (Suzy Parker) is only holding on until she lands a role on the Broadway stage; whilst sweet newcomer April Morrison (Diane Baker) finds herself knocked up by a guy who keeps an abortion doctor on speed-dial.
Hope Lange, riding high on the success of her Academy Award-nominated performance as Selena in 1957's "Peyton Place", is luminous as Caroline; yet the star performance (in my opinion) belongs to Suzy Parker. Gregg is kind of like the older, nuttier sister of Neely O'Hara from "Valley of the Dolls", and Ms Parker's performance is a master class in how to eat the scenery! The rest of the sets are reserved for La Crawford, and her "rabbit-faced wife" telephone call is beyond belief. Diane Baker also aquits herself nicely; she'd be sparring with Joan Crawford yet again in 1964's camp classic "Strait-Jacket".
The Fox DVD comes equipped with an audio commentary provided by author Rona Jaffe and film historian Sylvia Stoddard (well worth a listen!), in addition to MovieTone news footage and the trailer. Trashy fun for a rainy Saturday afternoon.
"Joan Crawford In Color!", 2009-06-27
After Joan Crawford's husband Al Steel died in 1959 Joan was left broke and she needed a job. Jerry Wald, who helped to get Joan the starring role in "Mildred Pierce", hired Joan for a minor role in "The Best of Everything". The film featured a bunch of new Hollywood stars with Joan starring as Amanda, the head of a publishing house in New York City where the movie was set. Amanda was a tough-as-nails woman who put her employess though hell. Many critics and fans felt that Joan's role in this film was a step down for her as she didn't even receive top billing, but Crawford would go on to believe, and rightly so, that she stole the movie from her younger co-stars because she had the experience and the guts they didn't have.
"The Best of Everything" would spawn an ABC daytime soap opera of the same name in 1970 that only lasted six months. Another Joan Crawford film would also spawn the primetime serial "Flamingo Road", and would debut in 1980 starring Morgan Fairchild.
Diane Baker, who plays one of Joan's employees in "The Best of Everything", would become a Crawford friend and co-star with her in 1963's "Straight Jacket" and the 1964 TV movie "Fatal Confinement", also known as "Della".
This DVD comes in beautiful widescreen format and looks impeccable.
The Best of Everything, 2009-07-01
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.
Compelling Look At Sexual Mores And Practices In Big Business, Circa 1959, 2009-10-12
The old saying "My how times have changed!" could easily have been coined after a viewing of 20th Century Fox's plush melodrama "The Best of Everything". It is a fascinating time capsule showing workplaces as perhaps they once were in the late 1950's inhabited by the "working girls" waiting for marriage, dressed to the nines and gossiping about their latest dates, and their male bosses who saw it as their absolute God given right to indulge in a bit of sexual hanky panky between board meetings with those girls working for them. As I said how times have changed! I found a recent viewing of this terrific film a fascinating and highly enjoyable experience. It was especially interesting that while the women were almost all portrayed as victims every male in the story, with the exception of Stephen Boyd's character, was depicted as a leering sexual predator who was incapable of commitment. "The Best of Everything" depicts the intermingled personal and professional stories of three young working girls (Hope Lange, Diane Baker and Suzy Parker) at the Fabian Publishing Company in New York. While dealing with the various destructive relationships each is involved in they must also contend at work with aggressive and demanding editor Amanda Farrow played by Hollywood legend Joan Crawford who is involved in her own one sided love affair with a married man. Tragedy mixes with happiness in equal portions in the girl's lives as they steer their way through the sexual jungle of big business circa 1959 in their search for the "best of everything".
The great strength of "The Best of Everything" apart from great location photography and sumptuous colour is its superb cast. Rising Hollywood actresses Lange, Baker and Parker all deliver excellent performances showing "working girls" from very diverse backgrounds coping with the same issues of love vs career. However the real standout is of course the incomparable Joan Crawford in the smallish part of Amanda Farrow. Despite her limited screen time Joan really shows what star quality is all about and I found myself missing her during her frequent absences from the action on screen. Joan reportedly had a number of difficult situations while on the set and argued with Jerry Wald about the size of her part saying that the character of Amanda needed to be explained more to make her more sympathetic and also needed to be more involved in the lives of the younger women in the story. I totally agree with her as it would have provided an even more dramatic element to the finished product. While Joan developed a lifelong friendship with Diane Baker working twice more with her in "Straitjacket" and TV's "Della" she apparently had conflicts with Hope Lange over positioning, camera angles etc, and was often not granted her requests which sadly signified a sort of "changing of the guard" in Hollywood's pecking order of who was currently "hot" and who was not in 1959. However despite Joan's small role the film really comes alive during her scenes and she makes the most of them. The film is memorable today solely because of her participation in it. She is both commanding and yet vulnerable as Amanda and despite her characters harsh exterior she certainly made me care about and have sympathy for her characters situation. It's also nice to see Joan reunited with her leading man from 1935's "I Live My Life" Brian Aherne who despite being depicted as a frightful old sexual harrasser in the film has great chemistry still with Joan making their scenes together have the feel of two comfortable old comrades interacting well with each other. For all his characters faults Aherne also helps in bringing out the softer elements to Joan's character in their brief time together on screen helping make Amanda a more multi dimensional individual.
For their Studio Classics DVD release of "The Best of Everything" 20th Century Fox have really made a great effort in showing the film in all its restored beauty. The Fox colour has never been more brilliant with both New York and all the beautiful clothes (Oscar nominated) displayed in the film shown to their best advantage. Visually this film is a treat in every way. Originally released in cinemascope what we have here is a very fine widescreen edition of the film. The sound is clear and crisp with Johnny Mathis' memorable theme song "The Best of Everything" (Oscar nominated) never sounding better than it is here playing over the opening credits. Extras wise this DVD release is a bit of a mixed bag. We have the Movietone News footage of the premiere of "The Best of Everything" which is interesting but lacks the presence of many of the stars of the film . There is also an excellent audio commentary on the film from author Rona Jaffe and film historian Sylvia Stoddard and also some very battered trailers from such Fox classics as "Laura" and "All About Eve". All in all a good package for a film that deserves to be better remembered as a memorable statement of how life once possibly was for both women and men in big business. All fans of Joan Crawford and indeed even those interested in the history of American business are sure to get lots of entertainment value from this Fox "Studio Classics" release.
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Fox
EAN: 0024543172345
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-05-24
Running Time: 121
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1959-10-09 |
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