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| The Girl Who Had Everything - 1953 |
Coming up next is 1953's "The Girl Who Had Everything", a story about a young woman who throws away the safe man she's been dating for a worldly and dashing whose connections with the darker side of life make him exciting.
The film's cast includes Elizabeth Taylor, Fernando Lamas, William Powell, Gig Young, James Whitmore, Robert Burton, Bill Walker, and Paul Harvey.
Meet Jean Latimer, a young woman who has the world at her feet. She resides in Lexington, Kentucky.
Her father, Steve, is a very successful defense attorney, and he's tried to provide Jean with the life he feels she deserves.
Jean's also got a boyfriend, Vance Court, who thinks the world of her and would do anything to marry her.
Her father Steve agrees to defend Victor Raimondi who runs a gambling ring. He's being tried for the crimes of gambling and organized crime.
Before the trial is set to begin, Jean's boyfriend Vance asks her to marry him yet again. Jean tells him that she's not ready to be married, and casually breaks his heart once more.
After the trial is over and Victor is assured a successful outcome, he meets Jean. The two hit it off instantly, and they are swept up in a whirlwind romance.
Jean becomes very impressed when he starts to throw his money around, buying a mansion with which Jean is very familiar sight unseen. He even buys her a $20,000 race horse!
Vance objects to Jean seeing Victor, but she basically tells him she's going to continue seeing him whether he likes it or not.
Steve warns Jean about the kind of man that Victor is and the kind of circles he runs in. Jean tells her father that she can't help what she feels about him.
The more time that Jean spends with Victor, the more she sees things that her father warned her about. They have an argument, but Jean still can't help feeling attracted to him. Eventually, they get engaged.
Steve and Jean continue to disagree about Victor. He asks her to spend some time with him in the Smoky Mountains in order to put some distance between herself and the relationship. Jean agrees.
In the Smokies, Jean spends every minute thinking about Victor. After a few days, she can stand it no longer and she returns to Lexington and Victor.
Jean is very saddened when Steve won't give his blessing to her marriage to Victor. She leaves the house without it.
A friend of Victor's comes with a newspaper headline that says the case against him will be reopened because of some new evidence from a mystery witness.
Victor is furious when he finds out that the mystery witness is actually Steve, who has evidence of a multitude of sins that goes way beyond gambling. Now, it's allegations of murder.
He lets his true colors show and violently attacks both Steve and Jean. Jean realizes her mistake and leaves him. Eventually, Victor is shot and killed while walking down the street. As Steve said, "What is there to say about him? Raimondi was a gambler. He lost."
Jean reconciles with her father and comes to realize that maybe settling down to an ordinary sort of life isn't so horrible after all.
Cast rundown:
Elizabeth Taylor...............................Jean Latimer
Fernando Lamas..............................Victor Y. Raimondi
William Powell.................................Steve Latimer
Gig Young.......................................Vance Court
James Whitmore.............................Charles "Chico" Menlow
Robert Burton.................................John Ashmond
Bill Walker.......................................Julian
Paul Harvey.....................................Senator Drummond
And that's it for The Girl Who Had Everything. Though this movie did decently at the box office and starred two of Hollywood's big draws (Elizabeth Taylor and William Powell), it went unnoticed by critics, including those at The New York Times. Elizabeth Taylor was expecting her first child at the time of the film's production.
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