1964’s Nothing But the Best is an odd British dark comedy which straddles a line between the whimsical comedies of Ealing Studios and the more cynical and outré fare of the mid to late 60’s. It feels like a mash-up of The Talented Mr. Ripley and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, though without the songs from the latter.
Alan Bates works in a real estate office and is an aggressive go-getter. He may not personally have any grudges against a peer of the same age and demographic in the office as he, but we will hear his voice in narration realizing: “The thing about ladders, there’s only room for one at the top…Sooner or later, Dennis will have to go.” By the end of this, a few others will have to go, and at least one of them will be taken out of the picture permanently.
I normally do not care for voiceover in films, but roughly half of the experience of this movie is hearing our protagonist rationalize his selfish and sociopathic behavior. We even learn about his initial doubts and fears, as his trepidation concerning some acts he is about to commit put butterflies in his stomach, and he imagines being “pecked to death by butterflies.”
That is how he feels when he takes a large step towards presenting himself to boss Harry Andrews as potentially a future partner in the company. Part of his plan involves wooing Andrews’s daughter (Millicent Martin), though Bates seems to be interested in her regardless of his plans for advancement in the workplace.
Bates seems to be especially nervous when he first meets Denholm Elliott, a former employee of the same firm, who had been let go because of his bad habit of forging checks. Now he lives on an allowance from that same firm, and so is being paid to not have to do any of the pesky things that interfere with his life of leisure.
This information is conveyed over a game of billiards completely dominated by Elliott, who even engages in a bit of cheating that I suspect was unnecessary. I was surprised when Bates invites this scoundrel to stay with him in his rented flat, and I wondered exactly what he was up to.
Elliott was as stunned as I was to learn Bates doesn’t just want to learn how to commit forgery, but he wants to, in his words, forge the deceitful man in his entirety. Soon, Elliott is mentoring his protégé in the way of falsifying an education at Cambridge.
Looking the part is, naturally, the greatest part of any deceit, as we learn in a scene where our protagonist walks unchallenged into an upper-crust soiree: “The only successful gatecrasher is the man who looks like he is doing everybody a bloody great favor by being there at all.” Bates has started wearing the other man’s high-class wardrobe, such as the tuxedo in that scene. In one telling moment, the men are identically dressed as they go hunting, and Bates takes down a rabbit missed by Elliott. This is the point where Bates becomes more successful at being Elliott than even Elliott is.
Various other complications will ensue, such as the insistence of Bates’s parents in continuing to exist, when he has concocted a backstory wherein he is the orphan of bluebloods. Then there’s his hot-blooded landlady (Pauline Delaney) who knows something is amiss and is not above a bit of sexual blackmail.
The performances are solid all around, but Elliott is startling, both for the type of duplicitous character he’s playing and because it is striking to see him so young. Bates, whom I normally find rather bland and unremarkable, is quite believable as a sociopath-in-training. Similarly, Delaney is oversexed, but with an undercurrent of loneliness that garners sympathy.
If there is a downside to the film, it is that Nothing But the Best fumbles at the very end, following a couple of truly shocking twists which culminate in a moment so vague that I didn’t understand it any better after rewinding to watch that bit again. Although the film fails to completely stick the landing, there is much here that warrants a recommendation, and that is coming from somebody who normally has a dislike for such cynical fare. Of particular note here is the reversal of personalities between Bates and Elliott, something akin to Nicholas Roeg’s Performance from just a few years later, but which is done more effectively here.
Dir: Clive Donner
Starring Alan Bates, Denholm Elliott, Harry Andrews, Millicent Martin
Watched on Studiocanal UK blu-ray (Region B)