William Powell as the girl's Father, was very good and it was his third to last film. He retires in 1955, two years later. Elizabeth Taylor is building her "acting chops" in this film. She is good. Think of this film as leaning towards being a melodrama. At 69 minutes long, it is short but with good cinematic tension. Fernando Lamas is fine as the hoodlum, love interest. Both Fernando Lamas and Elizabeth Taylor look incredibly beautiful and sexy! James Whitmore is surprisingly good as the best friend but a part of the syndicate . This is one of his early films but he carries himself wonderfully! This film is not heavy on depth as many of the classic films of the 1950's are known have. I enjoyed myself. The film held my interest. 5 out of 10 stars!

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.

Although The Girl Who Had Everything is taken somewhat from MGM's earlier classic, A Free Soul, it has a few important differences in keeping with the decade it was done in.William Powell is in the Lionel Barrymore part of the high priced criminal lawyer, but he's not representing his client in a murder trial. In keeping with the times Powell is at a Senate Rackets Committee hearing with Fernando Lamas who tells them nothing and a few Senators get some headlines and photo ops from the hearing.As the hearing concludes daughter Elizabeth Taylor meets up with her dad and his client and they're both taken with each other. This does not sit well with Powell, who's perfectly willing to take their money, but not to let them in his life and family.Fernando Lamas is in the gangster role, the same part that Clark Gable got his first real notice. Whereas Gable exuded some real menace and had no intention of leaving the rackets, Lamas actually wants to quit and settle down.Of course the racism in The Girl Who Had Everything just bubbles over. Lamas apparently really does want to leave, but Powell is a snob and he's ready to violate lawyer/client privilege and testify himself before the Senate hearing as to Lamas's criminal enterprises. This would in fact get him disbarred in any state in the Union and the District of Columbia, a fact the film doesn't mention.As for Lamas's associates, they take the attitude of once in, never out and deal with it accordingly. Wrongly in my opinion, but that's the fault of a very confused script.This rehash of A Free Soul is only 69 minutes long, my guess the shortest feature film Elizabeth Taylor was ever in. She tries, but does not come close to what Norma Shearer did in the original version.And Gig Young as her society boyfriend repeating the role that Leslie Howard had, has very little to do but look concerned and issue grave warnings about getting mixed up with those kind of people.Dore Schary was unloading all of MGM's big stars from its golden era and The Girl Who Had Everything was the kiss off to William Powell. He looks plain bored with the whole thing and who could blame him. He had two more films in him as a free lance star, How to Marry a Millionaire and Mr. Roberts both infinitely better than this.

Turner Classic Movies ended an all-day marathon of Elizabeth Taylor movies today with this turkey. I stayed up way past my beddie-bye time in stupefied horror as I watched it. What were they thinking? The waste of usually first-class talent was astounding in virtually every department. Especially worthy of note was Andre Previn's absurdly over-the-top score, not bad as music but entirely inappropriate when laid on with a trowel over the sad and hackneyed proceedings. The always pedestrian director Richard Thorpe, as usual, failed to redeem the enterprise with even a scintilla of visual imagination.A Mr. Art Cohn, who died about five years later in the private plane crash that killed Mike Todd, then Elizabeth Taylor's third husband, is credited with the script. Dare I say it, was that divine retribution for churning out the cliches that the actors whom M-G-M shoved into this mess were forced to speak?Its only virtue is its mercifully short running time of slightly over one hour. This was probably Elizabeth's nadir during her servitude at Metro.