The Best of Everything (1959 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Best of Everything


image_size =
caption = VHS cover
director = Jean Negulesco
producer = Jerry Wald
writer = Novel:
Rona Jaffe
Screenplay:
Edith Sommer
Mann Rubin
narrator =
starring = Hope Lange
Diane Baker
Suzy Parker
Joan Crawford
Robert Evans
Stephen Boyd
Brian Aherne
Martha Hyer
music = Alfred Newman
cinematography = William C. Mellor
editing = Robert Simpson
distributor = Twentieth Century-Fox
released = flagicon|USA
9 October 1959
runtime = 121 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0052619

"The Best of Everything" (1959) is a 20th Century-Fox feature film starring Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, and Joan Crawford in a story about the professional careers and private lives of three women who share a small apartment in New York City and work together in a paperback publishing firm. The screenplay was written by Edith Sommer and Mann Rubin based upon the 1958 novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe. The film was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Jerry Wald. Alfred Newman wrote the musical score, the last under his longtime contract as Fox's musical director. The film has been released to VHS and DVD.

Plot and cast

Caroline Bender (Lange) is an ambitious young secretary in a publishing firm who, when jilted, finds consolation in the arms of editor Mike Rice (Stephen Boyd). Gregg Adams (Parker) is a typist and an aspiring actress romantically involved with stage director David Savage (Louis Jourdan) who, when dumped, dies after falling from a window. April Morrison (Baker) is out for a good time, winds up pregnant, and jumps from a car when her unborn infant's father Dexter Key (Robert Evans) urges an abortion. All three women are under the supervision of editor Amanda Farrow (Joan Crawford), an exacting professional and a frustrated woman who marries, leaves the firm, and returns when she finds the simple life of home and marriage not to her liking. Others in the cast include Martha Hyer as Barbara Lamont, Brian Aherne as Mr. Shalimar, Brett Halsey as Eddie Harris, and Donald Harron.

Production notes

Crawford's peripheral role in the film generated much criticism. The men she was involved with romantically never appeared on the screen, and several of her scenes -- including, according to co-star Diane Baker, a superbly acted drunk episode -- were cut, reportedly due to the film's length. [Quirk, Lawrence J.. "The Films of Joan Crawford". The Citadel Press, 1968.]

Reception

In the "New York Times" of 9 October 1959, critic Howard Thompson described the film as a "handsome but curiously unstimulating drama" and noted, "the casting is dandy" with kudos to Lange. Commenting on Joan Crawford, the critic described her perfromances as "suave trouping". Thomspn pointed out that, "...for all its knowing air and chic appointments, the picture lumbers onto the plane of soap opera, under Mr. Negulesco's reverential guidance."." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9403E6DA133CE63BBC4153DFB6678382649EDE "New York Times" Review] . Retrieved 3 October 2008.]

ee also

*Joan Crawford filmography

References

External links

*

Navbox
name = Joan Crawford
title = The 1940-1970 Films of Miss Joan Crawford
group1 = 1940-1949
list1 = nowrap| "Strange Cargo" (1940) • nowrap| "Susan and God" (1940) • nowrap| "A Woman's Face" (1941) • nowrap| "When Ladies Meet" (1941) • nowrap| "They All Kissed the Bride" (1942) • nowrap| "Reunion in France" (1942) • nowrap| "Above Suspicion" (1943) • nowrap| "Hollywood Canteen" (1944) • nowrap| "Mildred Pierce" (1945) • nowrap| "Humoresque" (1946) • nowrap| "Possessed" (1947) • nowrap| "Daisy Kenyon" (1947) • nowrap| "Flamingo Road" (1949) • nowrap| "It's a Great Feeling" (1949)
name = Joan Crawford
title = The 1940-1970 Films of Miss Joan Crawford
group2 = 1950-1959
list2 = nowrap| "The Damned Don't Cry!" (1950) • nowrap| "Harriet Craig" (1950) • nowrap| "Goodbye, My Fancy" (1951) • nowrap| "This Woman is Dangerous" (1952) • nowrap| "Sudden Fear" (1952) • nowrap| "Torch Song" (1953) • nowrap| "Johnny Guitar" (1954) • nowrap| "Female on the Beach" (1955) • nowrap| "Queen Bee" (1955) • nowrap| "Autumn Leaves" (1956) • nowrap| "The Story of Esther Costello" (1957) • nowrap| "The Best of Everything" (1959)
name = Joan Crawford
title = The 1940-1970 Films of Miss Joan Crawford
group3 = 1960-1969
list3 = nowrap| "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) • nowrap| "The Caretakers" (1963) • nowrap| "Strait-Jacket" (1964) • nowrap| "I Saw What You Did" (1965) • nowrap| "Berserk!" (1967)
group4 = 1970
list4 = nowrap| "Trog" (1970)