All of my dreams

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Movie
German title All of my dreams
Original title The best of everything
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1959
length 121 minutes
Rod
Director Jean Negulesco
script Edith Sommer ,
Rubin husband
production Jerry Wald for 20th Century Fox
music Franz Waxman
camera William C. Mellor
cut Robert L. Simpson
occupation

All my dreams (OT: The Best of Everything ) is an American feature film that shows the dwindling power of the Production Code with its depiction of taboo subjects such as sex, violence and adultery, which was sometimes drastic for the time . Joan Crawford appears in a supporting role . The film is based on the novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe .

action

The film depicts the love affliction of three young women who, more or less at the same time, take up a job at the renowned Fabian's Publishing Company. Caroline is very ambitious and wants to make a career. Under the strict regiment of the responsible editor Amanda Farrow, she grows with her tasks. Amanda has a relationship with a married man who drops her as the plot progresses. Caroline finds a good friend in Gregg, who does everything she can to become an actress. She falls in love with the irresponsible David Savage and ends up going insane. While trying to break into David's apartment, Gregg falls down a fire escape and dies lonely next to the garbage cans. Third in the women's league is April Morrison, a naive country girl in search of great love. April is seduced by an uninhibited playboy, impregnated and almost forced to have an abortion. Only at the last second does April decide in favor of her unborn child and in the end finds true love in the arms of an understanding childhood friend. Caroline ends up on the verge of fulfilling all of her professional dreams when she is offered the job by Amanda. Just as she is about to accept, however, she realizes her true destiny as a housewife and loving mother at the side of Mike Rice, a reporter. He has warned Caroline several times that career and personal happiness are mutually exclusive.

background

Towards the end of the 1950s, the production code's hitherto strict access to the representation of socially critical issues and, above all, the presentation of sexuality on the screen relaxed . After the increasing permissiveness had initially taken place in less ambitious B-films , a film that was produced with a lot of effort and a number of stars in the cinemas was first released in 1957 with embers under the ashes , the film adaptation of the client Peyton Place , the taboo topics such as abortion, rape, Discussed adultery and incest while exposing all kinds of bigotry in society. Although these areas were initially discussed more than visualized on the canvas, a boundary line was nevertheless crossed. In the period that followed, the big studios outbid each other with films that made previously hidden areas of human coexistence the subject of the plot. Suddenly last summer covered insanity, incest, cannibalism and prostitution. The 1959 Summer Island was devoted to teenage pregnancies, adultery, domestic violence, and divorce. Further taboos were committed: Anatomy of a murder that describes in detail rape, and As long as there are people , a film that portrays the inequality of treatment for African Americans in society. The film adaptation of Rona Jaffe's novel The Best of Everything is dedicated to the sexual assault on young, unmarried women in the workplace as well as the problems that arose from increasing sexual freedom. In terms of the basic questions and the constellation, Alle mein Träume drew on films such as Our Blushing Brides and Employees' Entrance , which had already placed such topics at the center of the plot in the early 1930s.

Joan Crawford's career seemed to be over in 1957, when the actress, after the success of Esther Costello and although she was still able to charge fees of $ 200,000 per film, voluntarily withdrew from the screen in order to deal with the concerns of the beverage manufacturer To take care of pepsi . Crawford had married Alfred Steele, chairman of the board of directors of the group, in 1955 and devoted himself to promoting the company with verve. In 1959, Steele died suddenly, leaving Crawford with nothing but millions in debt. The actress cut most of the arrears over the course of the next few months, partly through the fee of $ 65,000 she received for her appearance in All My Dreams . For a while, Joan Crawford hesitated to get back into the movie business, but in the end she was elected to the Pepsi Board of Directors and spent the next several years traveling around the world as a Pepsi representative.

Regarding her appearance, the actress proudly told Roy Newquist in Conversations with Joan Crawford :

“It was a relatively complex film appearance for me - the film was supposed to highlight some of the promising 20th Century Fox starlets. The beginners weren't bad, but for one reason or another I'm proud to say I more or less stole the film. Maybe it was the role - I had all the strength - but I think it was just the experience of getting the best out of a scene. "

The theme song was interpreted by Johnny Mathis .

criticism

The critics unanimously criticized the illogical story and the poor performance of the actors. The only praise went to Joan Crawford.

Paul V. Beckley found in the New York Herald Tribune :

“All you have to do is look at what happens when the camera pans at Joan Crawford in her role as a vicious, nervous, frustrated career woman to see what's missing from the film as a whole. I know this role of the woman who wages an endless fight for her love has been a typical Crawford specialty of the last few years. But experience alone does not explain electricity. The script only gives her a handful of scenes, she has to play in completely opposite directions emotionally at the same time and she has a completely unbelievable change of mind at the end. But despite everything, when it occurs you wake up and start wondering what is actually happening. […] All her problems are developed and solved off-screen, so to speak, but even against this background, limited to a few angry looks and a few cynical lines of dialogue, Miss Crawford manages to make the rest of the cast look like accessories. "

Awards

The film was nominated in two categories at the Academy Awards in 1960 :

literature

  • Roy Newquist (Ed.): Conversations with Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1980, ISBN 0-8065-0720-9 .
  • Shaun Considine: Bette and Joan. The Divine Feud . Dutton, New York 1989, ISBN 0-525-24770-X .
  • Lawrence J. Quirk : The Complete Films of Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1988, ISBN 0-8065-1078-1 .
  • Lawrence J. Quirk, William Schoell: Joan Crawford. The Essential Biography . University Press, Lexington, KY. 2002, ISBN 0-8131-2254-6 .
  • Bob Thomas: Joan Crawford. A biography . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1978, ISBN 0-297-77617-7 .
  • Alexander Walker: Joan Crawford. The Ultimate Star . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1983, ISBN 0-297-78216-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Emily Carman, "Women rule Hollywood: Aging and Freelance Stardom in the studio System", p. 23 in "Female Celebrity and Aging: Back in the Spotlight", Edited by Deborah Jermyn, Taylor & Francis Group Ltd 2 Park Square , Milton Park, Abingdon Oxford, OX14 4RN, UK. There is also referred to Crawford's male contemporaries Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart , who are named in 1955 with fee claims of $ 250,000.
  2. ↑ This was a rather complex semi-movie which was supposed to showcase a whole bunch of up-and-coming 20th Century Fox actors. The youngsters did all right, but for some reason or other I'm proud to say I sort of walked off with the film. Perhaps it was the part - I had all the balls - but I think it was a matter of experience, knowing how to make the most of every scene I had.
  3. ↑ You need only watch what happens when the camera turns on Joan Crawford in her role of a mean, nervous, frustrated career woman to see what the picture lacks in general. I know this kind of thing, the woman fighting an uphill battle for love, has been a Crawford specialty in recent years, but experience alone won't explain the electricity. Let's admit first off that the script gives her no more than a fingerhold on the story, that it asks her to navigate in two emotional directions at once, and to make a sudden unaccountable change of character in the denouement, but just the same, when she comes on, you wake up and begin to wonder what's going to happen. […] All her problems are worked out off-stage, but even so, restricted to a few mean looks and some vitriolic dialogue, Miss Crawford comes near making the rest of the picture look like a distraction.