The Secret of My Success (1987)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater, Richard Jordan, Margaret Whitton, John Pankow and Fred Gwynne star in this 1987 comedy. Fox (Back to the Future) plays Brantley Foster, an ambitious young man from Kansas who longs to work in the corporate world. He heads to New York where things go unexpectedly for him at first. The late, Jordan (The Mean Season) plays his distant uncle, Howard Prescott who is the boss of a company that's on the verge of a hostile takeover and he gives Brantley a job working in the mail room. Soon, Brantley decides to climb the corporate ladder by secretly masquerading as a phony executive on the side and help the company. He also finds romance with female executive, Christy Wills (Slater) whom Howard is having an affair with. Whitton (Major League) plays Howard's attractive wife, Vera who not only lusts after Brantley, but tries to get even with Howard, Pankow (To Live and Die in L.A.) plays Brantley's co-worker, Melrose and the late, Gwynne (The Munsters) appears near the end of the film as businessman, Donald Davenport. I grew up watching this film, Fox & the cast are great in it as well as David Foster's score. I recommend this good 80's comedy.

Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox) is fresh in New York from Kansas. He loses his job before he starts when it disappears in a hostile takeover. New York is tougher than he ever imagines. In desperation, he visits his distant wealthy grumpy uncle Howard Prescott (Richard Jordan), and is given a mail room job. He falls for top executive Christy Wills (Helen Slater).It's a bad 80s take on corporate America. It lurches from ridiculous humor to serious. It seems to be heavily influenced by other 80s movies. Director Herbert Ross gives us crazy clothes, popular music interludes, and cheesy humor. The only good thing is the charismatic Michael J. Fox. His boyish charm is able to keep this mess on track.

Saw this recently and was overwhelmed by them.Movies, music etc are made for general consumption and yet manage to have incredibly personal meaning. Become an inseparable part of you without you even realizing it.First saw this as a kid. Good music. Story that any kid would want to believe.Liked Michael and he was good as ever but he barely registered.Slender, elegant blonde walked onto the screen.Heart stopped.Started again.And the world had changed.Helen Slater was in it.Knew she would never set eyes on me and could not love her less. Could not forget her either.She is now a pale shadow of her young self. As am I. They say there is no such thing as ghosts but movies have magic. As light and shadow danced on screen, just for a moment a beautiful girl and a boy who loved her flickered to life once again.That time is long lost, as are those people. But not that love.Just wanted some record of it other than my memory.Wish them well.Thank you.

Many strange people come from Kansas and all of them are dreamers like Dorothea. And the way to success is paved with yellow bricks. In this film the dream comes true and the means used to do so are standard in business. One share of women, using them and being used by them. One share of good sound logic and practical intelligence. One share of pure righteous and deserved brutality with the higher-ups who are so narrow minded and egotistic that they don't even see their personal interest. One share of a well developed sniffing device known has a nose that is the intuition of a dog but also the best sanity of a man. And you get to the top. Just use the elevator please and don't get it stuck accidentally on purpose because plenty of people are expecting to use it. And you have the secret of success for a comedy that is nothing but an American Psycho in Hell's Kitchen turned into an unrestricted American Dreamo in Heaven's Dining-room. Very good, very fast, very dynamic, quite convincingly absurd and absurdly funny. Just what we need when we look at the stock exchange and think sub-prime.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines