How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a hilariously funny musical, about a window washer who climbs the corporate ladder … In a matter of days! With lots of conflict along the way! And an unexpected encounter with true love …
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) starring Robert Morse, Michelle Lee
Review
In short, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is an absolutely hilarious, nonstop, laugh-generating, comedy, musical! The basic plot has an ernest young man,a window washer, who simply happens to pick up a book at random one day. It’s titled “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”. And he takes that book as though it were the Gospel! And following that, he goes from being a window, washer, to the lowest level of employee in the mail room, all the way up to the executive suite! It’s fast-paced and funny, with excellent songs and dance routines. And along the way, he falls in love with a pretty, kind, sweet secretary as well. Which leads to a romantic misunderstanding, but all works out in the end.
One of my favorite parts is where an executive fires him, recognizing that he’s scheming to take over the executive’s position. Since the executive’s reading the same book! But an off-hand comment by love interest Rosemary about being “a fly on the wall” gives the creative window washer an idea …
Product Description
Big business means big laughs as Robert Morse schemes and scams his way to the top in this bold andbawdy musical that celebrates the Great American Corporate Wayand lampoons it at the same time. With musical supervision by the legendary Nelson Riddle (Pal Joey), this tune-filled comic gem is a goldmine of great Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls) songs, including “I Believe In You,” “Rosemary” and “The Company Way.” Written, produced and directed by David Swift (The Parent Trap) and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit, this classic musical is “bristling with humor, romance and song” (The Hollywood Reporter)!
The story charts the meteoric riseof an ambitious window washer (Morse) who, with the help of a simple guidebook, gets the job, gets the girl (Michele Lee), gets the raise and gets the attention of the Big Boss (Rudy Vallee) himself — all by his second day at work! Now it’s only a matter of hours before he goes from zero to CEO!
Amazon.com
This fizzy musical was a Broadway smash in 1962, and boy, is it a product of its era. Executive washrooms, gray-flannel-suit businessmen, hip-swinging secretaries–they’re all preserved in the movie’s brightly colored amber. J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse) is the window washer who climbs the corporate ladder in a few days, guided by a how-to book. The Frank Loesser songs are great fun, the Bob Fosse dances are very clever and mod, and the gaudy set design may have given Andy Warhol a few ideas.
The jack-in-the-box performance of the elfin Robert Morse doesn’t seem toned down from his Tony-winning stage turn; think Mickey Rooney doing Jerry Lewis. Still, Morse is a unique presence, and his mad little solo dance down a real Manhattan street is an interlude of sublime daffiness. Grand old crooner Rudy Vallee shines as the president of Worldwide Wicket, barking his beloved alma mater’s fight song: “Groundhog! Groundhog!” –Robert Horton
Cast of characters
- Robert Morse (The Emperor’s New Clothes) … J. Pierpont Finch
- Michele Lee (The Comic) … Rosemary Pilkington
- Rudy Vallee (Unfaithfully Yours) … Jasper B. Biggley
- Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague (West Side Story) … Bud Frump
- Maureen Arthur (The Love God?) … Hedy LaRue
- John Myhers (1776; The Prize Fighter) … Bert O. Bratt
- Carol Worthington … Lucille Krumholtz
- Kathryn Reynolds … Miss Smith aka Smitty
- Ruth Kobart … Miss Jones
- Sammy Smith … Twimble / Wally Womper
- Jeff DeBenning … Gatch
- Janice Carroll … Brenda
- Robert Q. Lewis … Tackaberry
- Paul Hartman (The Reluctant Astronaut) … Toynbee
- Dan Tobin (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer) … Johnson
- John Holland … Matthews
- Justin Smith … Jenkins
- Murray Matheson (Love Is a Many Splendored Thing) … Benjamin Ovington
- Patrick O’Moore (Between Two Worlds) … Media Man No. 1
- Lory Patrick … Receptionist
- Wally Strauss … Media Man No. 2
- Hy Averback … 2nd Junior Executive
- George Fenneman … TV Announcer
- Carl Princi … 1st Junior Executive
- Sheila Rogers … 1st Girl
- Robert Sweeney … 3rd Junior Executive
- Ivan Volkman … The President
Songs
- How To
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse
- The Company Way
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse and Sammy Smith
- A Secretary Is Not a Toy
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by John Myhers, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague and office staff
- Been a Long Day
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse, Michelle Wen Lee, Rudy Vallee, Kathryn Reynolds,
- Maureen Arthur and Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague
- I Believe in You
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse, Michele Lee and executives
- Grand Old Ivy
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Rudy Vallee and Robert Morse
- Rosemary
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse
- Brotherhood of Man
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee, John Myhers, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague,
- Sammy Smith, Ruth Kobart and the office staff
- Gotta Stop That Man
- Written by Frank Loesser
- Performed by Robert Morse and executives