HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

US, 1967, 121 minutes, Colour.
Robert Morse, Michelle Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Maureen Arthur.
Directed by David Swift.

How to Succeed in Business was a popular musical and has been revived many times since. It was based on a play by Abe Burrows who had written the original book for Guys and Dolls as well as Can Can. He also wrote The Solid Gold Cadillac, the play for Silk Stockings and the play for Cactus Flower. The film was directed by David Swift who had worked in television in the 1950s but moved to films with Pollyanna and The Parent Trap and two comedies with Jack Lemmon, Under the Yum Yum Tree, Good Neighbour Sam.

The film is an enjoyable spoof of American business principles and lack of them. It parodies the board meetings, the double standards of the executives, the emphasis on sex and money. There are a number of very strong songs – which have become standards over the years.

While the play and the film are of the 60s, they are not a long way from such more serious presentations of business ethics and lack of them as in Wall Street, 1987.

1. An enjoyable musical? What conventions of the musical did it use? well? Was it a good satirical musical? Why?

2. What was the film's main targets? How well did it satirise the world of business, management, ambitions? Was it merely superficial satire or did the film make some telling points? (Through the music, the humour and the associations of musical comedies?)

3. The main responses to Finch? a likable hero? when he was a window cleaner? as he changed with the book and ambitions? His tricks and his ruses? Did Rosemary change him at all? How agile was he in manoeuvring himself out of difficult situations? that he ultimately succeeded? Was the final joke part of the theme or was it just a post script amusing point? Why?

4. Even though the book was a joke and the rules were rather humorous (with a slight touch of viciousness), what was really being satirised in the book? is this, despite the jokes, how many men behave? Is this what was implied?

5. How well did the song and dance routines fit into the overall theme of the film and the satire? e.g, The Ccompany Way, The Brotherhood of Man, I Believe in Me etc.? Were the songs successful (have they been memorable?)

6. Pointdexter's rise in the firm: how he played the various stages well, his understanding of people, his use of people, his rivalry with Buck Front, his using of J. B. Biggley, to walk over people and remove them from their offices, the only thwarting he got was from someone who was using the same book.

7. How interesting a character was J. B. Biggley? Was he merely a comic figure? What was being satirised in him? The inefficient business executive? His Ivy League background? His relationship with his wife and the subjection to her? His promotion of his nephew? His knitting and his golf? His relationship with Hedy? His foolishness in running meetings and falling for Pointdexter's tricks? His attempts to get himself out of his difficulties? sorry for him as a victim? Or was he just a fool being satirised?

8. How well did Robert Morse's performance give Ponti credibility: pretence, cutting, shrewdness? His use of his smile? His naive innocence? The innocent mask of deceit? Was this part of the film's success?

9. Ponti and his relationship to women? To the secretary who promoted him? To Rosemary? Did he genuinely love Rosemary at all? Why did she love him? (Rosemary's song with the office girls, the song of Rosemary itself?) Was Rosemary just a musical comedy heroine or did Michele Lee give her more vitality?

10. Comment on Ponti's techniques of causing hidden fighting among the executives, e.g. the hedgehogs versus the chipmunks etc.?

11. How humorous was the whole section of the TV programme? Buck Front utilising Ponti's ideas and trying to down him? Ponti's reversing the situation?

12. The song sequence in the men's room? The meeting and Biggley's accepting the TV programme?

13. As comedy, how did the TV session rank? The oath and Hedy's poor performance? And the chaos in the afternoon? What was being satirised in people's greed here?

14. The final meeting showing Ponti's resiliance? Of Wally taking his side rather than Biggleys? The significance of the song of the Brotherhood of Man? Its irony at this particular stage of the story and of the people singing it?

15. How romantic was the ending? Did Ponti actually redeem himself at all? Was he going to become genuine? Was he satisfied now that he was at the top? Did Rosemary have any influence in making him a normal person?

16. Are questions like this about a musical too serious for the tone that it takes? Or has a musical this kind of power?