Day 14: This Book Is All That I Need...

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (1967)
Directed by David Swift
Starring: Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony Teague

J. Pierpont Finch (that's F-I-N-C-H) is a rising star at the World Wide Wicket Company!  In a matter of days, he goes from window washer to Vice President in charge of Advertising.  How does he do it?  What's his secret?  Well, it's nothing you can't do, too!  Just pick up the new book How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and you can climb that corporate ladder in record time!  Learn how to make it look like you worked all weekend!  Learn how to fake your way through board meetings!  Learn how to break out of the mail room and pick the right secretary!  It's all here in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying!  Now in paperback!*

*DISCLAIMER: Author and publisher are not responsible for consequences that may stem from using the suggestions outlined in this book which may include, but are not limited to: finding, then losing the girl of your dreams; being outsmarted by your secretary; having the entire board of directors looking for a way to get rid of you; embarrassment of your company on national television; loss of job and benefits.

Now, as you can probably tell, I enjoyed this one for the most part.  It's a very effective farce that takes on the corporate world, and not much has changed from the 60's to the...whatever this decade is called.  Are we back in the teens?

Anyway, this is the movie adaptation of the Broadway hit.  In fact, it was a HUGE hit, winning seven Tonys a freakin' Pulitzer Prize in Drama.  Not many musicals have gotten that honor.  So I really wanted to see this movie.  And it was....okay. 

Oh, it was funny, alright.  And the actors, reprising their Broadway roles, were pretty good, too.  But here's the thing.  There's really nothing new from a film-making standpoint.  The problem with bringing stage shows to the screen that there in a tendency to make them too true to the stage by making the film, essentially, a filmed play.  The song "I Believe In You" was filmed almost entirely in one extremely long close up.  Nearly everyone involved with the original production (including choreogapher Bob Fosse) was brought on board.  As a result, we have...pretty much what audiences in New York saw.  There are some differences, such as songs cut or rearranged and the like.  And it's perfectly entertaining.  But it's not very cinematic. 

As for the songs (written by Frank Loesser of Guys and Dolls fame), they're really nothing special, though there are a few that are nice and hummable.  Of particular note is the especially funny "A Secretary is Not a Toy," which features some of the best song and dance in the film.  But by and large, the songs sounded like an afterthought, which is a weakness in a musical.  As an old-time sound man once told me, "Nobody ever leaves the movie humming the picture."

I think this movie is pretty much a product of its time.  It's a great picture of the '60s before the hippies took over; back when everything was swinging and ultra-modern.  It holds up pretty well, though if it took place today, there would have to be a new number written for when the President of the company testifies before Congress about embezzling the employees' pensions.