tarnower-1 I was 11 years old in 1967 and my family came from Texas to New York for my cousin's wedding. It was my first trip to New York. Another uncle was an editor for a prominent magazine and he got a group of the kids into the critic's screening of this movie (probably to get rid of us for the afternoon). The movie wasn't even in theaters yet.I loved it. It synced up perfectly with what I was experiencing NYC to be. We were staying in my uncle's big fancy apartment on 7th Ave at 55th St and everyday was another collection of remarkable memories. But honestly, this movie stood out in my mind for years. Partly because of the exclusive screening and largely because of how great the acting and story was presented. Not surprising, because most of the cast had performed the play together many dozens of times on Broadway, so they couldn't have been more polished.I bought the DVD a couple of years ago and IMHO it holds up as well as when I first saw it 50 years ago.

bkoganbing Next to Guys and Dolls, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is Frank Loesser's best known and best loved musical. It did have the longest run of any of his shows, 1417 performances from 1961 to 1965.Though Hollywood was smart enough to retain Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee in their roles from Broadway, the only flaw with this film is that I do so wish Charles Nelson Reilly had repeated his role as Bud Frump, the rival to Robert Morse's J. Pierrepont Finch the upwardly mobile executive. It was the breakthrough part for Reilly in his career and it would have been nice had it been retained.Frank Loesser did it all in this show, book, music, and lyrics in a wonderful satire on the mores of the business world. How To Succeed is one of the few Broadway musicals that succeeds more on its book than anything else. The songs from this production are more functional than anything else, hits though some of them are. Unlike Guys and Dolls, Where's Charley, The Most Happy Fella there are no really stand alone ballads that could be enjoyed outside the context of the film or the stage show.Robert Morse never got a role like this one, the man who starts out as a window washer and moves up the corporate ladder through careful planning and a lot of nerve. He follows carefully the advice of a book with the title of the show. By the way in the film it is Morse's voice used in the narrative as the character reads from the book. On stage the prerecorded voice of Walter Cronkite was used.Rudy Vallee is the company president and Loesser took advantage of Vallee's unique personality and style with his songs and character. A lot of people who did not grow up with Rudy Vallee today would probably not get a lot of the inside humor. Vallee's big song is Grand Old Ivy and the humor of it would be lost today unless you knew that Vallee had recorded in his career such song hits as The Maine Stein Song, Betty Coed, and The Whiffenpoof Song, back when he was the reigning singer of the day.Though the jokes about Vallee are dated, the overall humor of How To Succeed was ahead of its times. Can you imagine had this musical premiered in the Reagan years? It would have been deified by all those motivational speakers that started to become popular then.For that reason How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is as fresh as when Frank Loesser put those first notes down for this wonderful show.

debo-mills I can't say I enjoyed this movie. I fast-forwarded through all of the songs as I found them dull, uninspired, and repetitive. Not Loesser's best, and no way near as good as those in Guys and Dolls. I found Robert Morse interesting to watch, although I kept hoping right up to the end that he would somehow get his comeuppance and be knocked back down to window washer! Although his tricks were fascinating, he was rather obnoxious and unpleasant in how he used people and didn't care who he crushed on his way to the top (yes, I know it is satire, but he still was irritating!).I did find that things picked up near the end, but the ending itself didn't make sense to me. Why was it suddenly forgotten that Ponty had caused 6 offices to be wrecked and the company to lose money? Why did Michelle Lee suddenly forget that she was disgusted with Ponty for stealing Bud's idea and become his fiancée again? The art direction and colours were fabulous though, and I really enjoyed the sets and those enormous offices!

Poseidon-3 A popular hit on Broadway, the film version has much to offer, even though some of the songs were reassigned or left out. Morse plays a scamp who picks up (the real life!) book "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." He goes from a window washer to a high-level executive at the World Wide Wicket Company in record (make that farcical) time. Referring to the book for advice he plays out scenario after scenario to his advantage, ruthlessly clawing his way to the top (much to the consternation of fellow worker and management relative Teague) while stopping occasionally for a flirtation with pretty Lee, a secretary with the firm. Eventually (and predictably), however, he realizes that success in business isn't all there is to life. The world this film takes place in is a day-glo, candy-confection dream-scape in which everyone is clean, neat, stylish and always ready to break into song or dance. Morse, whose stage version of this character was somewhat less sympathetic and more driven, has here the role of his career. He perfectly suits the goofy, ambitious, resourceful part he was given to play. Lee is appealing and talented, with a very nice singing voice. Oddly, she receives some questionable lighting, at times having a shadow over her face and with catch-lights in only one eye during her solo. This is something she would more than take care of during her 12 year run on "Knots Landing", infamous for its flattering lights. Vallee appears to good effect as the preoccupied president of the company. Arthur provides plenty of pneumatic comic relief as his curvy, air-headed, yet resourceful, mistress. She's a sort of goofy blend of Carol Channing, Marilyn Monroe and Gracie Allen. Teague gives a broad, but enthusiastic performance. Hobart, who plays a stern employee with a secret soft spot, would later turn up as a bus driver in "Dirty Harry'! The musical numbers tend to be dispersed fairly evenly among the cast, with many folks getting a crack at a song rather than the leads getting most of them. There's a lot of ensemble work, both in the songs and in the impressively staged (by Fosse) dances. Sadly, one of the memorable dances from the stage show – "Coffee Break" – was eliminated from the finished picture due to a quality issue with the film. Another, "A Secretary is Not a Toy" should drop the jaws of some modern-day audience members with its jubilant incorrectness. The script begins to overstay its welcome and veer off into tiresome subplots, but overall it's a pretty lively and entertaining affair. The opening shots of a shimmering and vintage New York City are to be treasured.