Better In Your Head?--THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

 

Spoiler Alert: women die from illegal abortions. Don't whisper it.

THE BOOK-Written by Rona Jaffe, released 1958

THE MOVIE-Directed by Jean Negulesco, written by Edith Sommer & Mann Rubin, released 1959

THE STORY-Toughing it out in the secretary pool of Fabian Publishing Company are five ladies young and restless: Caroline, fresh off a broken engagement; country girl/city chameleon April; aspiring actress Gregg, whose tumble cries out for a dryer sheet; single mom Barbara; and painfully prim wife-to-be Mary Agnes. Don't worry about a one of them, though. See, this story takes place in the 1950s, and women in the 1950s had it easy--just bide time till Mr. Right (a gent in a gray flannel suit, most likely) saved them from a lifetime of unfulfilled ambitions and unpleasant surprises.

MIND THE GAP-In The Best of Everything, respectability is paramount. The men think too highly of themselves; the women, too lowly. Assumptions combine and create mutant misunderstandings. Now there's some social science! 

The movie rights sold before Jaffe's work hit shelves, allowing 20th-Century Fox to participate in the novel's marketing. And what of the movie? Competent cast, if not bursting with star power. Hope Lange is a winning Caroline; Martha Hyer and Diane Baker occupy opposite ends of the seesaw as Barbara and April, respectively; Suzy Parker does the most as Gregg, but that character herself does the most, so it's all well and good.*

The men fare the same--lotsa slam, no dunk. The sole outlier is Louis Jourdan, elevating the farcically-named David Wilder Savage with the charm and panache his ink-and-paper counterpart lacked. 

Oh, Joan Crawford's in this too. Bette Davis would ne--no, actually she probably would've.

No coincidence the novel experienced a rediscovery in the 2000s after Don Draper was shown flipping through a copy in an early episode of Mad Men. From slavish secretary to dynamic editor, Caroline Bender is the proto-Peggy Olsen.

Rona Jaffe wrote without an agenda. The Best Of Everything isn't about women in New York during a particular time period, it's about a few women in New York during a particular time period. Nor is it explicitly a cautionary tale, but damned if I read it as anything else. The happiest women are validated by a man's love. "Career for crib" is the shrewdest exchange. The single ladies are horny, hostile and hopeless. The holy trifecta of connection-affection-protection eludes them as a chipmunk eludes a giraffe.

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-The Best Of Everything is a by-the-numbers adaptation, a soap opera with a budget. Nothing feels spontaneous, or vital. Rona Jaffe's no virtuoso, but her story vibrates with the mania of shrouded torment. Funny, how a writer on book number one outdid a director on movie number thirty-two. The sole improvement on the source--demoting average-ass Mary Agnes--is counteracted by the botching of two key storylines and the ending. The book's conclusion surprised me, yet made total sense. The movie's last frames are non-committal and dull. 

The novel holds artifact appeal. The film holds a purse in both hands and waits for a rickshaw.

 

*Everything about Gregg suggests a woman who mixes Scotch in her oatmeal and coordinates her footwear with her underwear. Who wears high heels to stalk somebody? Yeesh.