The Best Of Everything (1959)

Four young women working for a publishing company in Manhattan and their ambitions both in career and romance are examined in Jean Negulesco's film of the best selling novel by Rona Jaffe. Caroline (Hope Lange) is fresh out of college but "unofficially" engaged, Gregg (Suzy Parker) is an aspiring actress biding time doing secretarial work, Barbara (Martha Hyer) is a single mother with a child recovering from an affair with a married man and April (Diane Baker) is a naive small town girl looking for romance. The film is different from the usual romantic three girls looking to catch a husband movies that Fox was doing around this time. This is a much darker, less glamorous take on the subject involving abortion, adultery, madness and deceit. Closer to PEYTON PLACE than THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN. It's a juicy melodrama that touches on a few kernels of truth amid the glossy CinemaScope sheen. Clocking in at two hours, Martha Hyer's role is a victim of the cutting room floor as her character's fate is left hanging. Not coincidentally, unlike the other three actresses, Hyer was not a Fox contract player. The film features Joan Crawford in a supporting role but it's probably her last really good performance (BABY JANE belonged to Davis). She really nails it as an aging woman grasping at her last chance for happiness but realizing it's come too late. The lovely title song sung by Johnny Mathis is by Sammy Cahn and Alfred Newman. With Stephen Boyd, Louis Jourdan, Brian Aherne, Robert Evans, Brett Halsey, Donald Harron and June Blair.