I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE

I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE (1951) Director: Michael Gordon.

Susan Hayward is a mannequin who decides to enlist two co-workers in a risky scheme to start their own fashion house, make a fortune, and achieve independence. Not exactly a bad idea, but this dated picture decides to basically portray Hayward as a kind of villainess, as if any woman who is ambitious like a man has to be inherently wrong and crazy. Hayward's partners are tailor Sam Jaffe, who loves her like a daughter, and salesman Dan Dailey, who loves her romantically. SPOILER ALERT: The two decide it would be better to let their new firm go bankrupt and lose their investment (and Jaffe is an old man with a family) rather than let the woman they both love enter into a business arrangement with slimy George Sanders that would make all of them millionaires. It is understood that the two men don't want Hayward to “lie down with the devil” so to speak, but throughout the picture it is made clear that Hayward is a gal who can handle herself -- while overly unsentimental at times, she seems to be the only person with common sense -- so their concern is patronizing at best and moronic at worst. That being said, I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a very entertaining picture with a typically fine performance from Hayward and solid support from Dailey, Sanders, and especially, Sam Jaffe.

Verdict: Fun if you don't take it seriously. **1/2.