How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

David Swift

Writers:

Abe Burrows (book) and
Jack Weinstock (book) ...

Release Date:

9 March 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Tagline:

Nothing Succeeds Like "Succeed" ! !

Plot:

Armed with a "How to..." manual, an ambitious window washer seeks to climb the corporate ladder.

Plot Keywords:

How To | Business | Book | Secretary | Advertising

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Robert Morse	...	Finch
Michele Lee	...	Rosemary
Rudy Vallee	...	J.B. Biggley
Anthony 'Scooter' Teague	...	Bud Frump (as Anthony Teague)
Maureen Arthur	...	Hedy
John Myhers	...	Bratt
Carol Worthington	...	Lucille Krumholtz
Kay Reynolds	...	Smitty
Ruth Kobart	...	Miss Jones
Sammy Smith	...	Twimble Womper / Wally Womper
Jeff DeBenning	...	Gatch (as Jeff Debenning)
Janice Carroll	...	Brenda
Robert Q. Lewis	...	Tackaberry
Paul Hartman	...	Toynbee
Dan Tobin	...	Johnson

Also Known As:

How to Succeed in Business... (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:14A (video rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (certificate #21357) | Australia:G | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

270 Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" opened at the Forty-sixth Street Theater in New York on October 14, 1961, ran for 1417 performances and won the 1962 Tony Awards for the Best Musical and Book and was nominated for Best Score. Robert Morse (Winner of the 1962 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical), Rudy Vallee, Ruth Kobart and Sammy Smith recreated their stage roles for the movie version.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Finch is showing his advertising campaign to the directors, J.B Biggley says, "Bravo, J.B, you've done it again!" to Finch, using his own name.

Quotes:

Hedy LaRue: I have nothing to hide!
Rosemary: Yes you do, and you keep it hidden!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Groove Tube (1974)

Soundtrack:

I Believe in You

Office politics spring eternal

This was one of the rare Broadway musicals whose book is actually more interesting than its score. So while roughly a half-dozen Frank Loesser songs from the stage version are deleted, they're not really missed. What survives is a witty skewering of office politics, featuring much of the Broadway cast. And while such '60s business staples as rampant sexism and smoking now look quaintly offensive, the gleeful satirizing of backstabbing and skulduggery in business will always be relevant. David Swift, whose training was in TV, doesn't do much with the widescreen format (except for the ingenious ballet-mechanique in "A Secretary Is Not a Toy"), but he cuts cleverly away from the production numbers just as the musical-comedy silliness is on the verge of becoming embarrassing, and he splices in some delectable location shots of '60s New York. The color scheme is bright, the pacing brisk, the cast friendly, the production values refreshingly modest. At a time in movie history when so many adaptations of stage hits were overbudgeted and overlong, what a pleasure to see something to faithful to its source material -- and so unpretentious.