I Can Get It for You Wholesale

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.

In full Susan Hayward splendor, Susan stars as a coarse, ambitious, tough broad determined to get ahead. She starts out as a model, but her talent and passion lies in fashion designing instead, so she recruits producer Sam Jaffe and salesman Dan Dailey to join her in an entrepreneurial adventure. The film shows the backstage world of fashion design: the backroom deals, numbers and money and business side to things rather than just the fluffy beautiful fabrics.

How much is someone willing to sacrifice to achieve their dreams? Give up love, family, and ethics? Sell one's soul to the devil, fictionally represented by the ever-smooth George Sanders in the film. Susan Hayward is fantastic in her blind ambition; she's the perfect bad girl you hate to love. If you like Suzy, add this one to your list. I also really like the setting; countless Hollywood movies take place behind the scenes of a filmset, and not many showcase the same environment of the fashion world. It's really interesting, and groundbreaking to place a woman in such an ambitious role at that time.

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.

Susan Hayward is a determined, talented and ambitious woman in "I Can Get it for You Wholesale," a 1951 film which also stars George Sanders, Dan Dailey and Sam Jaffe. The title comes from the novel but the actual plot is only very loosely taken from the book.

The beautiful Hayward plays Harriet Boyd, a dress model in a small business in New York's Garment District. She talks the owner (Sam Jaffe) into putting up some money and going into business with her so that she can launch her own line. She gets the top salesman (Dan Dailey) to do the same, and she manipulates her own sister into offering insurance money for Harriet's share in the business. Harriet's ability and drive get the business going, and she's all work. Though Danny Sherman (Dailey) is in love with her, she gives him the brush-off. The two eventually stop speaking when Danny catches having dinner with a wolf-like buyer (Harry von Zell). One night, at a big buyer's dinner, she meets J.F. Noble, the head of Noble's Department Store, probably comparable to Saks Fifth Avenue. She wants to launch a line of gowns, which will mean getting out of her contract with her partners. Noble wants more than Harriet's gowns; he wants Harriet as well.

This is a very good drama with fine performances from everyone involved. Hayward, of course, carries the film as a driven woman who ends up having to question not only what she really wants but her own ethics and sense of responsibility. Sanders is great as the elegant Noble, representing, in a way, the devil, who knows Harriet's heart but wants her to sell her soul. Sam Jaffe is perfect as the grandfatherly boss, and Dan Dailey steps out of his dancing shoes and proves himself a good leading man.

Highly recommended and a must for Hayward fans.

During much of her career, Susan Hayward played dames...hard-bitten, conniving and power-hungry dames. Because of this, her role in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" is very familiar. Once again, she's playing a tough woman who is as tough a man as anyone in the film. The only real question is how many folks she'll need to talk on along her path to the top in the fashion designer business.

Her partner near the beginning of the film is played by Dan Dailey. Dailey's character is tough but soon wants no part of the sexless and determined Hayward. It doesn't matter anyway, as he's 'small potatoes' and soon sets her sights on a bigger fish (George Sanders).

Overall, this is an enjoyable soap opera-like film--the sort of glossy trash at which Ms. Hayward excelled. It's not particularly deep nor groundbreaking but it is enjoyable in a sleazy sort of way.