Touches You

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I remember a film comedy in which Fernando Lamas portrayed a compulsive gambler who missed his own wedding because he could not stay away from a floating crap game, once he learned about it. I do not believe "The Girl Who Had Everything" included a plot line like this, but I could not find anything else remotely similar that starred the late Mr. Lamas. One reviewer mentioned that he/she thought the version he/she had seen was 30 minutes shorter, and this makes me wonder if "The Girl Who Had Everything" had had the comic parts edited out of it???

MGM producers have taken a routine gangster picture and repackaged it as a melodrama. In this case, they have churned out a more emotional remake of the studio's earlier hit A Free Soul. This time, instead of Clark Gable, suave Fernando Lamas plays a notorious criminal on trial for running an illegal gambling outfit. His lawyer, played by William Powell in the role that earned Lionel Barrymore an Oscar, manages to help him escape prosecution. Soon, Lamas' character is involved with Powell's daughter (Elizabeth Taylor taking over the part originated by Norma Shearer). To be expected, the lawyer disapproves of the relationship between the unsavory client and his daughter. Feeling he must prevent an impending marriage, he decides to turn the gangster over to the feds. It is all fairly entertaining, but one has to ask why MGM did not just re-release the original, since it is much better and this is not a Technicolor upgrade. Perhaps it is because the studio that has everything can do what it wants?

this is a very short movie and one of the most obscure in Elizabeth Taylor's filmography.Obviously it's not one of her best but she is really gorgeous .She portrays a rich kid "who has everything" (the title tells no lies),with a rather over possessive father -who has excuses ,for he is a widower and she is his only child- and a good-looking but bland and boring fiancé .Enter a shady handsome Latin lover type man (Lamas)and the girl falls heads over heels in love.The most interesting side of this Harlequin Romance is its reactionary side:for the distinguished father ,the hunk will always be worse than a nouveau riche ;he will never be part of the respectable circle of gentlemen and the more he tries to start all over again,to redeem his soul -"even God would give me a second chance"-,the more he fails ,for he's got two kind of enemies now: the fine upstanding people and his former partners from his racy past.

Elizabeth Taylor is "The Girl Who Had Everything" except an exciting boyfriend in this 1953 film also starring William Powell, Fernando Lamas, and Gig Young. Taylor is Jean Latimer, the gorgeous daughter of attorney Steve Latimer (Powell) who is dating the normal Vance (Young)but falls for her dad's client, Victor Raimondi, a handsome gangster (Lamas). Steve objects - strenuously - but Jean wants something a little less predictable.If she wanted something less predictable, she's in the wrong movie, because you know what's going to happen the minute she sees Lamas testifying on television.The film is worth seeing only for Taylor at the height of her youthful beauty, wearing the most incredible Helen Rose clothes that emphasize her beautiful figure. Powell must have had to finish off a contract commitment with MGM.The message here is if you're a woman, don't search for adventure - you'll only become a tramp and take up with the wrong man - stay with the steady one closer to home and listen to your elders. I suppose to be fair, though, it's implied, probably not intentionally, that you need to find out certain things for yourself. Also, your choices aren't always wrong. You won't find that message here, implied or otherwise.