Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: The Best of Everything

On a personal note, I will begin a new job tomorrow.  Same employer but a new position within the company.

I don't post about who I work for or what I do because I do not want this silly little blog to cause any problems for me at work.

I will say that the position I am leaving is something I have been unhappy with for some time and the new position answers some of my objections to that old position such as a better work schedule. 

For all I know, I may be trading an old hell for a new hell but the new hell does not have me working as late.

So what does any of this have to do with what is ostensibly Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post?

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<Psst! Cue the graphic!>

Because this movie post is about a film that begins with a young woman starting her first day at a new job.

From 1959, it is The Best of Everything.

I hope my new job with be less dramatic and traumatizing than what happens in this film.  

Don't let the romantic sounding Johnny Mathis theme song fool you: this movie is going to hurt and people will die!

Seriously!  

Caroline Bender is a recent college graduate beginning her first day on her job as a secretary at Fabian Publishing Company.

Caroline is assigned to Amanda Farrow, a bitter, demanding, jealous middle-aged editor. Amanda is suspicious of Caroline and suspects she's after her job. 

SPOILER:  Caroline will eventually get her job.  

Caroline is biding her time waiting for her fiancé Eddie to return to America where she will dutifully engage is some legally sanctioned heteronormative intercourse and pop out some kids. 

Then Eddie goes off and marries another woman! The cad! What's a 1950's college educated girl supposed to do? Become bitter, childless, maybe get herself a cat or ten and go after Amanda's job? 

Caroline joins up with two women in the typing pool:

April Morrison, a naïve, enthusiastic girl from Colorado

Gregg Adams, a glamorous aspiring actress. 

Caroline agrees to be their 3rd roommate in their tiny apartment.

Where dressed only in lingerie, they have pillow fights and engage in some light playful lesbianism. OK, no they don't but that would make what's going to happen next a lot more fun. 

Poor sweet innocent April is caught in the cross hairs of Fabian's lecherous editor-in-chief, Mr. Shalimar. April evades his advances while he continues to pursue other young female employees. 

Yes, there are LAWS against this sort of thing now but back in the 1950's, young women in secretarial pools were just fair game for sexual harassment and even assault. 

Oh that darn Mr. Shalimar! Who's gonna try to seduce next? 

Gregg is cast in a play directed by David Savage and the two become lovers. Gregg may be great in bed but she's a terrible actress and is  eventually replaced in the play.  OK, the acting gig is a no go but that shouldn't mean the sex with David has to stop, right?  Nope, he breaks up with her. 

Gregg becomes mentally unstable and starts stalking him. While lurking outside his apartment on a  fire escape to spy on David, Gregg's high-heeled shoe gets caught in the grating and she falls to her death. 

Damn!  That's dark!  

April meets a spoiled playboy named Dexter at a Fabian company picnic. 

Dexter pressures Apri to have sex. When April becomes pregnant, Dexter persuades her to elope. 

But the whole running away to get married thing is a ruse! Dexter is driving her to a doctor for an abortion. Distraught at the idea of ending her pregnancy, April leaps from Dexter's moving car. She survives, but the impact injures her causes a miscarriage.  

Oh my God! What is the deal with this movie? 

April becomes romantically involved with her attending physician.

I think April may have issues.  

Hey, isn't Caroline supposed to be our point of view character?

Caroline, upset after her fiancé Eddie marries another woman, gets involved with various men around the office.

One of them is named Mike.  

And Caroline is maneuvering her way up the food chain at Fabian Publishing.  Amanda quits to get married in St. Louis (What did the poor girl deserve for that to happen.  St. Louis? Really?)  and Caroline takes her place as editor.   

Then that traitorous bastard Eddie shows up to put the moves on Caroline.  Oh, he's not giving up the rich wife but he's willing to set up Caroline as his mistress. (The position of mistress does have a pretty good dental plan.)  

Caroline tells Eddie to fuck off (or it's heavily censored 1950's version).  

All the guys in Caroline's life look alike.  

Then Amanda returns, her marriage a bust and Caroline lets her have her job back for...  reasons? 

The film ends on a busy city street outside the Fabian offices as Carolina and...   Caroline and.....   

(checks notes) 

MIKE! Caroline and Mike walk off together and we have reached.,,

THE END.

Oh thank God! 

What the hell was that movie?

And why did I watch it?  

I thought I might be in for some kind of light romantic movie in the style of those Doris Day/Rock Hudson films. The Best of Everything ain't that.  

The Johnny Mathis theme song fool might make you think this is going to be one thing but it's another thing entirely.  

It's a dark and disturbing look at the total bullshit working women have to put up with in 1950's America.  

Gee, I hope my new job will not be this dramatic and traumatizing.