Cheap How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Not Up To Par With The Stage Play
"How to Succeed..." on film is not a total disaster. There are some very good moments in it, such as Rudy Valee hamming it up in "Grand Old Ivy" and Robert Morse doing the same in "Brotherhood of Man" and "I Believe in You", but some moments in the film are completely uncalled for. <
>Michelle Lee singing "I Believe in You" as a romantic song towards the end of the Act I absolutley ruined the sardonic, unromantic tone of the show. This scene, while only lasting three minutes, ruins the entire story and concept. <
>Most of the songs sung by Lee's Rosemary from the stage play are also cut from the film, ruining her characther, turning her into a sympathetic romantic lead, not a tough as nails broad. <
>Bud Frump is also given less to do here. His two big numbers are cut, making him more of a straightfoward antagonist than a comic villan. <
>While Morse, Sammy Smith, Valee and Ruth Kobart are preserved wonderfully on the screen, the rest of the film flops rather badly.

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One of the funniest musicals.
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is one of my favorite musicals from the 1960s (none of which I like as much as the best musicals of the '40s & '50s, like "Singin' In The Rain," etc.). It follows the rapid advance of a window washer (Robert Morse) in the corporate world, exploring every way to get ahead except for hard work: Sucking up, stealing credit, shifting blame; it's all here, with a measure of cynical humor worthy of The Simpsons. As Morse works his way up from the mail room to VP of Advertising, he falls in love with secretary Rosemary (Michele Lee). Rudy Vallee, rarely seen in the movies, has a major role as the president of the World Wide Wicket company. There are several good songs, mostly with humorous lines in clever rhyming schemes, including "The Company Way," "Been A Long Day," "Rosemary," and the redeeming "Brotherhood of Man." Morse is outstanding in the lead role. Michael J. Fox played a similar character in "The Secret Of My Success" a couple decades later.

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"A day without a wicket, is like a day without sunshine!"
"How to Succeed" is an energetic and snappy satire of big business. As the story opens, J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse) is a poor but ambitious window washer; he finds a "how-to" book that can teach him to climb the corporate ladder in no time at all. Ponty follows the book's advice and advances from the mailroom of the World Wide Wicket Company to become its president, falling in love with secretary Rosemary (Michele Lee) along the way. <
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>The movie looks like a staged play, and that's a good thing, since this was such a smash hit on Broadway. It preserves forever the look of the early sixties with vibrant colors, pillbox hats, and references to Metrecal and Wildroot Cream-Oil. The unique Robert Morse is the whole show here. He originated the stage role of Ponty and this movie made him an even bigger star. He is a great singer and dancer, but it's his irresistible personality and charisma that keep you rooting for him. Michele Lee is perfect as his leading lady, and Rudy Vallee reprises his stage role as the singing, dancing, and knitting Big Boss. This is a happy, fun movie. <
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>Kona