How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (film)
| How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Swift |
| Produced by | David Swift Walter Mirisch Irving Temaner |
| Screenplay by | David Swift |
| Story by |
Abe Burrows Willie Gilbert |
| Based on |
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by Shepherd Mead |
| Starring |
Robert Morse Michele Lee Rudy Vallee Anthony Teague |
| Music by |
Frank Loesser (Songs) Nelson Riddle (Incidental music) |
| Cinematography | Burnett Guffey |
| Edited by |
Allan Jacobs Ralph E. Winters |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2,900,000 (US/ Canada) |
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a 1967 musical comedy film based on the 1961 stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on Shepherd Mead's book. The film was produced by United Artists and directed by David Swift, with original staging by Bob Fosse.
The cast includes Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee (reprising their original Broadway roles), Michele Lee, Anthony Teague, Tucker Smith (in an uncredited role), and Maureen Arthur. The film marks the debut of Lee.
J. Pierpont Finch buys a book, How to Succeed in Business, describing in step-by-step fashion how to rise in the business world. The ambitious young window cleaner follows its advice carefully. He joins the "World-Wide Wicket Company" and begins work in the mailroom. Soon, thanks to the ethically questionable advice in the book, he rises to Vice-President in Charge of Advertising, making sure that each person above him gets either fired or moved or transferred within the company.
Finch begins to fall in love with Rosemary Pilkington, a secretary at the company. Finch finds out that the president of the company, J. B. Biggley, has made advances towards Hedy LaRue, a beautiful but incompetent woman the company has hired. Finch uses this information to assist his climb on the corporate ladder.
Biggley's annoying nephew, Bud Frump, also takes advantage of the situation and tries to get to the top before Finch. By story's end, however, Finch has become chairman of the board, and might make the White House his next step to success.
The Union Carbide Building (now the JPMorgan Chase Tower) at 270 Park Avenue in New York City was used in exterior shots as the headquarters for the "World-Wide Wicket Company" in the movie, most notably in the sequences in which Finch dashes into the building before his boss arrives in order to arrange coffee cups on his desk and pretend to have fallen asleep on it after apparently working all night, as a way to convince his boss to promote him to a higher position in the company.
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