March 10 movie: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I can't believe I never saw this before. Robert Morse stars as a cheerful con artist who scams his way to the top of the corporate ladder using an advice book with the same title as the movie. Rudy Vallee is the CEO who gets snookered, and Michele Lee is the secretary who falls for Morse. The movie is stagey at times, and also quite sexist, but if you can overlook those flaws it's so much fun. Great mid-60s decor in the office building. I wanted to copy all the color schemes. Also this movie (well, the play I guess) was the origin of the song "I Believe In You." Alas, the version in the movie can't hold a candle to the Sinatra/Basie version.
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This page contains a single entry by Sarah published on March 11, 2008 12:02 AM.
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Yeah, it's one of the great ones, no doubt about it. I didn't care much for Morse until I saw this, but he was made for the part. (I had high hopes for The Loved One after this, and after reading the book, but the screenwriters -- who should have known better -- softened it too much and threw away the crowning cruel punch line.)
Did you know that it's a real book? Shepard Mead (I think I have the first name spelled right) wrote it. The paperback has an appealing Will Elder cover, but the inside is illustrated by another cartoonist -- Gallegher, or Claude, perhaps. It's a how-to manual, just like the one in the movie. They made a show out of it about the same way as they turned Bruce Jay Friedman's The Lonely Guy's Guide to Life into The Lonely Guy.
I just picked up a Count Basie CD today -- his orchestra, actually (with someone post-Basie at the helm), backing Ray Charles. Second Ray Charles CD I've gotten for free this week: a benefit of volunteering at the radio station.