source: I Can Get It for You Wholesale

I Can Get It For You Wholesale is the story about how dress designer/model Susan Hayward, salesman Dan Dailey, and dressmaker Sam Jaffe pool their talents to form their own company to be just one more in the center of the fashion industry on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. This film came out in 1951 and over 60 years later it's one of the few things about New York City that hasn't changed. Other than the automobiles that part of New York City also has the same look to it as well and this is a film that could be done today. Only the garment workers will change, they'll be black and Hispanic and Asian women on those sewing machines now. Dailey and Hayward are an unlikely pair. He's in love with her, but he's a chauvinistic lunkhead. Hayward steps into a part that a decade earlier Barbara Stanwyck would have been cast in. She's a model who knows she can design and models have a short shelf life for careers. She's ambitious and thinks of her partnership as a stepping stone. Further up the food chain is department store owner George Sanders fresh off his Oscar win in All About Eve. If she can only become the exclusive designer for his stores. The plot of the story is somewhat unreal especially when the better angels of Hayward's nature come out in the end. But soon to be blacklisted writer Abraham Polonsky is best at capturing the mood and feel of the garment industry at the time. The industry was a huge employer of women, but it was controlled by men. Something that young Edythe Marrener of Brooklyn would have grown up with before she became Susan Hayward. Girls in high school in New York City looked for employment there upon graduation and new job aspirants were coming out every year. I Can Get It For You Wholesale is a look at New York in the middle of the last century. Real kudos should also go to Sam Jaffe who is the wise old father figure for both Dailey and Hayward and to Marvin B. Kaplan whose deadpan delivery of their office boy gave him a breakthrough role in a stage and screen career. A must for Susan Hayward fans like me.

This title at first sounded as though it might be a musical or at least a light comedy. But no, it's a quite potent drama, well scripted and engagingly played by a strong cast. Susan Hayward offers a staunch heroine, torn between strata extremes of the fashion industry, anchored by two men--both of whom have romantic leanings toward her. George Sanders is seen as the higher up of the two, and he's ideally cast. Few could bring off the cad type as well, and he plays it to the hilt here, as though relishing every moment. The other suitor character showcases the dramatic ability of Dan Dailey, noted for lighter fare. Dailey is quite convincing as Hayward's other love interest. That dependable character actor, Sam Jaffe, is just fine as Hayward's "conscious" and bridge between her callous ambition and fundamental simplicity. Not available on vhs or dvd, this film is occasionally shown on cable or satellite networks.

Jerome Weidman's novel is the basis for the film of the same name. This film was a curiosity piece. Shown on a cable channel, it proved to be worth a look because of the general good adaptation of the book and the direction of Michael Gordon. The movie takes a look at the "rag trade", or garment industry of New York in the fifties. We are presented with a trio of ambitious people who want to make it on their own. There's Harriet Boyd, the show room model who has had it and wants to show her talents as a designer. Harriet and Cooper, the man in charge of the production need a great salesman who knows how to sell the affordable dress line to the big department stores, so they entice Teddy Sherman to join their team. Things go smoothly, but Harriet is a woman with a vision that would be her worst enemy. Harriet Boyd feels flattered by Mr. Noble, a man who is influential in what women of a certain status would like to buy, and decides to start an expensive line, neglecting the orders placed with the firm. All this backfires when Teddy finds out the deception and wants out. In the end, Harriet sees the light and what Noble has been trying to do with her and goes back to the partners she left behind and Teddy, who is obviously much in love with her. The film offers glimpses of what 7th Avenue looked like in that era and what goes on behind the production of the fashions that America wore before that industry was exported overseas by the same people that created it. The "Made in USA" label was soon a thing of the past as this industry is not the shadow of what it was. Susan Hayward's portrayal of the ambitious Harriet is what makes this movie worth seeing. George Sanders is perfect as Noble, the man who recognizes Harriet's talents and wants her to come work for him. Dan Dailey is also excellent as the salesman with a lot of flair. Sam Jaffe is Cooper, the decent man who gambles all his savings in the business he knows well. The film will not disappoint, as it keeps the viewer interested at all times.

I should note that I haven't read the book on which Michael Gordon's "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" is based, or seen the stage adaptation. This look at the high-pressure world of designing clothes casts Susan Hayward as a dress designer not about to let anything stand in her way. A possible snag arises in the form of some men with whom she's been in relationships. Undeniably, a lot of the material is dated. I guess that's bound to happen with any movie released way back when. It's not even really a good movie or a bad one; it simply it what it is. A time capsule, if you will. Worth seeing as a look at how things were back then. The rest of the cast includes Dan Dailey, Sam Jaffe, George Sanders and Marvin Kaplan (apparently best known for "Alice", but I mainly know him as a garage owner in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"). PS: Michael Gordon was the grandfather of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Also, Eda Reiss Marin (Ms. Marks) played the babysitter in "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead", and also appeared in "Ghostbusters" as Louis's neighbor who opens her door and briefly sees the monster.

This is generally a genre of film that I enjoy. And its star -- Susan Hayward -- has long been one of my favorites. But this particular film...not so much. It involves a group of people who are struggling to be successful in New York's clothing business, led on by one who wants to be a real designer -- Susan Hayward. There was no one in Hollywood who could play a brassy broad better than Susan Hayward -- sometimes higher class than other times. But here, Hayward was more brassy (leave off the "br") than just brassy. She comes across as being low class, and I'm not quite sure if that was the intent. This is a good role for Dan Dailey, as Hayward's partner who wants to be romantically involved with her. Dailey was always quite pleasant on screen, although he is often more associated with musicals and comedies. But he does nicely here. Sam Jaffe plays the down to earth professional partner. It's nice to see him in this role, and he's excellent here. George Sanders plays the classy owner of a chain of upscale department stores. He's perfect for the role. I found the first half of the film disappointing. Not very interesting. Not bad enough to turn off the film, but I thought I'd slog through it. The second half of the film -- perhaps because of the romantic tangle of Hayward, Dailey, and Sanders -- far more interesting. However, Dailey's character takes back the horrible woman Hayward really is. I can't abide by that. I watched it once, but won't again.

Stay away from Seventh Avenue! So go the lyrics for a song from the musical version of this story, sung by a certain "Funny Girl". While the story of the musical is quite altered from the movie, most of the plot is intact. It all surrounds the desires of a buyer and model/designer who leave a prominent design firm in New York's garment district to start their own company and find it difficult to merge their quite different ambitions. A non-singing and dancing Dan Dailey plays the gregarious salesman who keeps many an out of town store owner happy, while Susan Hayward is the tough-talking model aspiring for greater things. Each of them judge success differently, and in aspiring for greater heights, deny the importance of their own love for each other in comparison to their careers. Cut down to a tight 90 minutes, this is an interesting look at one of the many trades that makes New York City famous, yet seems to be somewhat streamlined, obviously several key points missing. Most obvious is the diluting of George Sanders' character, an obvious attempt to cash in on his Addison DeWitt character from "All About Eve", still a powerful big Apple character, but rather mellowed. The true delight of the film is the "Guiding Light" character played by Sam Jaffe, a sort of "Fairy God Mother" to the ambitious but confused Dailey and Hayward. Amusing comic relief is provided by Marvin Kaplan, 70's and 80's TV perennial as an eager beaver low on the new company's totem pole who pretends to be a manager to win over the company's new secretary. Another interesting quality of the film is its depiction of "tough" New York being not so tough, even in the wake of the parent company getting a new rival as four of their staff depart. Hayward gives a multi-faceted performance as the tough designer not unwilling to be sexually harassed if it promotes her ambitions. While the film's theme doesn't promote the ideal of a tough business woman "making it", it doesn't crucify the idea either by giving Hayward some tense dramatic moments where the conflict inside her bellies both ideas. This gives her a great emotionally torn character to play, making her the more interesting of the two, as Dailey seems determined to bring her down to what society in the pre-feminism days thought a woman's place should be.

Susan plays Harriet Boyd, a ruthless model-turned-fashion designer determined to claw her way to the top on Seventh Avenue. It's a Joan Crawford-ish role, but Hayward acts the role with a real vulnerability that Crawford lacks. Part of the film is shot on location in the Garment District and it's an interesting look at postwar Manhattan and an industry that's long gone. Boyd is forced to choose romantically between scrappy salesman Teddy Sherman (Dan Daily) or the suave garment mogul J.B. Noble (George Sanders). Interestingly, considering the fact the film was made in 1951, all the women's clothing in the film seems a little dated. Hayward has a floppy (but charming) forties' hairdo. Dior introduced his New Look in 1947, but you'd never know it here. Even Boyd's role as a determined career woman was starting to look passé as women in the fifties were pressured to leave the workforce to open up jobs for unemployed veterans. I Can Get It For You Wholesale is a great period-piece and a well-acted and engrossing film.

Hard to see anyone but the forceful Susan Hayward in the role of the lovely, but willful Harriet Boyd. Usually, it's men who get the blind ambition part. Not here. Instead, it's a woman dress designer in pursuit of riches and fame. Trouble is she's willing to sacrifice her two partners (Dailey and Jaffe) in the process. It's they, however, who help get her started by partnering-up in a little dress-making company. She's doubtless got talent as a designer, but they all work hard to get things off the ground. Now, however, she's willing to dump them and their business so she can join up with the king of the industry, the super-slick JF Noble (Sanders), and the big- time. Poor Teddy, he fell for her during their time together and thought it was mutual. Now, however, she's ready to transfer her affections as well as her talent. So how will all this turn out. It's a sometimes gritty screenplay from the blacklisted Abe Polonsky, Force of Evil (1948). I suspect he was thinking expose of big business and did the best he could for the time (1951). And catch that Hollywood ending which I suspect he and director Gordon finessed as best they could. Anyway, Hayward's fine in a basically unsympathetic role. Ditto Dailey as the sympathetic Ted, while movie vet Jaffee gets to be the reliable voice of reason, along with Marvin Kaplan as comedy relief. The film really benefits from the behind-the-scenes look at what some call the rag business. I especially like Ted's brief glad-handing sales tour of the South where he works up a smiling sweat. All in all, the 90-minutes is an entertaining character study and look inside a major industry, one that I suspect is still relevant.

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.