The Best of Everything is a 1959 American drama film directed by Jean Negulesco from a screenplay by Edith Sommer and Mann Rubin, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe.

[2] It stars Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd, Suzy Parker, Martha Hyer, Diane Baker, Brian Aherne, Robert Evans, Louis Jourdan, and Joan Crawford.

The film follows the professional careers and private lives of three women who share a small apartment in New York City and work together at a paperback publishing firm.

Recent Radcliffe College graduate Caroline Bender is hired as a secretary at Fabian Publishing Company.

She works for Amanda Farrow, a bitter, demanding, jealous middle-aged editor who resents Caroline and suspects she wants her job.

Caroline meets two other young women in the typing pool — April Morrison, a naïve, enthusiastic girl from Colorado, and Gregg Adams, a glamorous aspiring actress.

Caroline, upset after her fiancé Eddie Harris marries another woman, goes on a blind date with Paul Landis, arranged by their mothers.

Shalimar shows no remorse over the incident and suggests that, because Lamont has been married and divorced, she should expect such advances from male co-workers.

"[3] In further early casting considerations, Wald mentioned Joanne Woodward, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall and Margaret Truman.

In January 1959, the unknown actress Diane Hartman was cast as Barbara Lamont, but she was replaced by Martha Hyer.

She had recently been elected to the board of directors of Pepsi-Cola and planned to spend more time promoting the soft drink.

[20][better source needed] According to Diane Baker, much of Crawford's character was cut from the finished film, including a show-stopping drunk scene.

[21][better source needed] The score was composed and conducted by Alfred Newman, with orchestrations by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer.

[22] The title song for the film was composed by Newman, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and performed by Johnny Mathis.

In The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson described the film as a "handsome but curiously unstimulating drama" and noted "the casting is dandy" with kudos to Lange.

Thompson pointed out that "...for all its knowing air and chic appointments, the picture talkily lumbers onto the plane of soap opera, under Mr. Negulesco's reverential guidance.

"[24] Paul Beckley's review in the New York Herald Tribune stated: "...Miss Crawford comes near making the rest of the picture look like a distraction.