Fox filmed most of the exteriors on New York's Seventh Avenue to give the film some authentic flavour. Michael Gordon even filmed Susan Hayward and Dan Dailey among the unsuspecting workers, but when they filmed at Bonwit Teller, the gaping crowd tied up traffic for hours. Once again Susan Hayward was ideally cast and was able to match her wits with the master of suave, George Sanders. And the ads also lived up to their promise - "She Made Good - With a Plunging Neckline and the Morals of a Tigress!!!!".
Harriet Boyd (Susan Hayward) is a model with a burning ambition to be a designer and of course, being Susan Hayward, she is going to let nothing stand in her way. She wants to open her own fashion house and intends to take Teddy Sherman (Dan Dailey) salesman extraordinare and inside man and fatherly figure Sam Cooper (Sam Jaffe) with her. How she gets there is by lies, manipulation and stand over tactics (almost)!!! Even though she doesn't have the money to put in as a partnership, by a stand out lying performance she manages to get hold of her adoring sister's inheritance!!
"Sherboyco" goes off with a bang - it is everything the old firm was not - plush carpets with luxurious surroundings, even though their lines are only $10.95 dresses!! Sherman, who has always carried a torch for Harriet, can't stand to see her pawed by the buyers she wines and dines - but, boy she is more than capable of taking care of herself. This movie is filled with so many Hayward moments - her confrontation with her mother over her father's will, tearing a model's gown in a carefully "staged" temper tantrum. Hayward's acting comes so much from the heart - somehow, you can't imagine her being a cosy homebody!!
Enter J.F. Noble (George Sanders), owner of the most prestigious fashion house on 7th Avenue. He wants Harriet as a woman and as a designer and she wants to go too, but has to find a way out of her contract. She pleads with Sherman that her doctor has advised her early retirement as a way to calm her nerves (Hayward is at her "baddest" best). When that falls flat, she starts to sabotage the company by holding up the orders that Teddy is sending in, by making uncalled for expensive gowns. At the 11th hour (just before the boat is to sail for Paris with Harriet as an exclusive designer for Nobles) she has a change of heart and goes back to save the business that 10 minutes before she was plunging into bankruptcy.
Of course Susan Hayward is 90% of the show, but Dan Dailey shows he was not just a song and dance man and George Sanders is his usual caddish self. The title was changed to "Only the Best" (which sounds a much better title to me) for TV because at the time (1962), the musical version of the play was running on Broadway - it starred Lillian Roth and a young Barbara Striesand. The screenplay was adapted by Vera Caspary, who also wrote the novel "Laura".
Highly, Highly Recommended.
Harriet Boyd (Susan Hayward) is a model with a burning ambition to be a designer and of course, being Susan Hayward, she is going to let nothing stand in her way. She wants to open her own fashion house and intends to take Teddy Sherman (Dan Dailey) salesman extraordinare and inside man and fatherly figure Sam Cooper (Sam Jaffe) with her. How she gets there is by lies, manipulation and stand over tactics (almost)!!! Even though she doesn't have the money to put in as a partnership, by a stand out lying performance she manages to get hold of her adoring sister's inheritance!!
"Sherboyco" goes off with a bang - it is everything the old firm was not - plush carpets with luxurious surroundings, even though their lines are only $10.95 dresses!! Sherman, who has always carried a torch for Harriet, can't stand to see her pawed by the buyers she wines and dines - but, boy she is more than capable of taking care of herself. This movie is filled with so many Hayward moments - her confrontation with her mother over her father's will, tearing a model's gown in a carefully "staged" temper tantrum. Hayward's acting comes so much from the heart - somehow, you can't imagine her being a cosy homebody!!
Enter J.F. Noble (George Sanders), owner of the most prestigious fashion house on 7th Avenue. He wants Harriet as a woman and as a designer and she wants to go too, but has to find a way out of her contract. She pleads with Sherman that her doctor has advised her early retirement as a way to calm her nerves (Hayward is at her "baddest" best). When that falls flat, she starts to sabotage the company by holding up the orders that Teddy is sending in, by making uncalled for expensive gowns. At the 11th hour (just before the boat is to sail for Paris with Harriet as an exclusive designer for Nobles) she has a change of heart and goes back to save the business that 10 minutes before she was plunging into bankruptcy.
Of course Susan Hayward is 90% of the show, but Dan Dailey shows he was not just a song and dance man and George Sanders is his usual caddish self. The title was changed to "Only the Best" (which sounds a much better title to me) for TV because at the time (1962), the musical version of the play was running on Broadway - it starred Lillian Roth and a young Barbara Striesand. The screenplay was adapted by Vera Caspary, who also wrote the novel "Laura".
Highly, Highly Recommended.