Based upon conversation here, I borrowed THE BEST OF EVERYTHING 1959 from the library and watched it the other night. Whew-still catching my breath!
I really like catty melodrama, MILDRED PIERCE and BOLD & BEAUTIFUL are two of my favorites. This movie falls in the category but with absolutely NO redeeming qualities except as a comedy of tropes.
This is a story of a young 20ish girl taking a job in a high power NYC Publishing Company, trying not to be swallowed alive since her boss is a mature Joan Crawford! She takes an apartment with two other office girls so we get to see how their lives are ruined by every man they come in contact with.
This movie contains EVERY trope about how men take advantage of women and I have to believe it’s their punishment for attempting to be independent working girls instead of marrying/having babies right out of High School.
Each man that comes into their lives treats them like a piece of meat and none of them see it coming, so are completely devastated:
• The lecherous older Executive who thinks it’s OK to kiss/touch/anything he can to innocent ingenues. Everyone KNOWS he’s like that & everyone looks the other way.
• The steady bf who is separated by job/distance. Instead of waiting for her, hastily marries a more “available” girl and breaks up by phone call.
• The Director of hit plays who “dates” the aspiring actress who tragically believes he loves her for her outstanding acting talents.
• The charming guy who coerces a very innocent/gullible girl into believing she is his “only” one, gets her pregnant. She believes he’s picking her up to marry her when he’s really taking her for an abortion.
All with Queen Bee-otch Joan Crawford as the cruelest of bosses. She’s so mean & over-the-top you can’t help laugh at her outrageous demands, thinking you’ve worked for people like that before-although none of it would be acceptable in today’s business world. Ah, we have come so far.
This movie seems to be a “primer” for any young girl who was brought up in a safe, nurturing environment with zero knowledge of how boys/men think. These girls just fall for these guys hook, line & sinker. We’re supposed to be outraged at the predatory male behaviour with no responsibility on the "innocent victimized" women.
Some favorite scenes:
Hope Lang as “mommy” giving Robert Evans the hard slap he deserves for toying with a very young very innocent girl, essentially ruining her-
Ah the fashion! I spotted several fabulous 2 handled vinyl box purses-something I collected in my teens-
The Barrymore type boss-I knew this type early in my career-
Makes you wonder if Louis Jordan was ever annoyed at frequently being typecast as a slimeball!
Kudos to the set designers as well as the costumers!
Notice the costume sketches on the walls in Jordan’s apartment? Also note the “theater" mirror on the right?
I once worked in publishing and the offices were populated by original paintings used for paperback book covers as seen in this movie-very REALISTIC!