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People are voting emotionally.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The 1960s. Where we transitioned from a button down society to a vision of what people thought of as a modern society. I remember the tail end of this era as we transitioned into the 1970s, and this film gives a snapshot (in a hyper-reality sort of way) of that era. There were no personal computers, "mobile phones" were large things installed in cars, and email was a "top secret" thing.J. Pierpont Finch puts on a show of being the ideal employee, uttering flattery and showing what a great employee he is without actually being one (sort of).It was a familiar and yet alien time altogether. Most people had economic and society success on their minds, and were forward thinking only in terms of raking in new profits for services and products. Not a bad thing, but this film shows a kind of narrow mindedness that was extremely pervasive at the time. Conformity and corruption melded and split all at the same time, only to rejoin and split at the same time as business men (and women) rallied for one idea, then bailed on both idea and idea-man when it failed.Processing insurance forms, processing inventories, year end fiscal reports, reading marketing data and lab reports from R&D, are touched on, but the film is more about marketing yourself to succeed in your dream job. Finch will discover that true success comes from within.The hot secretary, the wholesome female worker, the gawky awkward hard worker, the yes men, the worry wart of the company, the bean counter, the company man, it's all here.It reminds me of the smells of office ink, carbon paper, hole punches, the clanging of typewriters, scratching of pencils, a time when no one but punks made crank phone calls, and certainly no one was hacking your email. This film will bring back those memories for those old (or young) enough to remember them. I can't say it's a period I remember with any fondness, though as a boy times were simpler then. There's a kind of Disney like quality or gloss to it. When you see Disney features or TV shows from the 1960s you get a kind of contemporary presentation where colors are slicker, styles of clothes, furniture and everything else are simpler, and yet everyone maintains a kind of casual form of 1950s etiquette while, strangely enough, at the same time being more formal (if that doesn't sound too paradoxical). And that's the kind of movie it is. We don't see any period specific trappings; no coke bottles, no Howdy Doody reruns, no references to the Space Program, no off handed references to the Soviet Union and whatever else was going on (though we do get an actor's portrayal of the Chief of State at the time).It's a window into a time when we could capture what life and styles were like in the middle of the 1960s, again presented in the hyper- reality that musicals offer, and from there we're launched into Finch's tail. The proverbial Campbell-Lucas "Hero's Journey"? In a "turned on its head" sort of way, sure.I guess what I'm saying is that in spite of everything I've written here, there isn't a whole lot to this movie. Boy meets girl, boy wants to get ahead, girl helps him, boy loses girl, and wins her back. How many movies are like that? Most of them, this one included.It's worth seeing once, or perhaps more than once if you're into the whole romantic comedy musical thing.Give it a shot.

Definitely a product of the 1960's, this film version of one of the longest running shows of that decade hasn't done bad for one that seemed to be almost forgotten until the release of the video in the early 1990's and the two subsequent Broadway revivals. The movie isn't totally faithful to the original show, and several of the show's best songs are cut out to be heard simply over the action. But to cast the show's original star, Robert Morse, repeating his role as J. Pierpont Finch, was a testament to how the producers really made an effort to transfer the show to screen with dignity. Certainly, Morse had gone onto a fairly successful film career, and even if he's a bit older than when he created the role, his boyish charm is certainly present.Finch is a window washer who reads the title book and longs to make it as an employee of World Wide Wickets (whatever wickets are.....) and hired to work in the mail room, he soon schemes his way out of there, gaining the attention of practically everybody in the company, including the romantic aspirations of secretary Michelle Lee. With that gorgeous smile and winning personality, Lee (who took over the role of Rosemary in the original Broadway production), is excellent, and those who only know her as Karen from "Knot's Landing" will find her totally down to earth personality refreshing. Rudy Vallee adds charm to his otherwise pompous character of J.P. Bigley, the big boss, and Ruth Kobart brings an earthiness to the otherwise hardboiled executive secretary. When she breaks out in her beautiful singing voice in the 11:00 number, "Brotherhood of Man", she may have you cheering! Anthony Teague is appropriately smarmy as the company snitch, and Kay Reynolds adds "the perfect pal" quality to Rosemary's friend, Smitty, especially playing matchmaker in the delightful "Been a Long Day" where three characters express their thoughts out loud in song as they prepare to leave for the day and find a way to get Finch and Rosemary together for their first date. Busty Maureen Arthur adds a Lorelei Lee like sensibility to her otherwise dumb sexpot Hedy LaRue. Individual performances playing the various secretaries and executives are too many to mention, but everybody contributes. Frank Loesser's score is brilliantly rousing, a fine successor to his most remembered Broadway show, "Guys and Dolls", and includes one of the finest songs about self-confidence ("I Believe in You") which actually reveals the lead character's hidden insecurities.Of the songs cut from the show, "Paris Original" is perhaps the most missed, but it really didn't move the plot along, so I can understand why it ended up being cut. In a movie era where most movie musicals were epics or lavish spectacles, "How to Succeed" is a simple delight, filled with many fun moments, and is certainly worthy of repeat viewings.

I hadn't really heard much about this one and it was recommended to me by other IMDb posters. I think it's a very good movie, I enjoyed it a lot. Robert Morse (who I recognized from the cast album for the musical "Sugar") is hilarious and unpredictable as Finch (F-I-N-C-H), a former window cleaner who decides to use the tricks from a self-help manual to get him to the top of the corporate ladder. Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows, of "Guys and Dolls" fame, provide the excellent music for this fully integrated show that spoofs inter-office politics and sex.Michele Lee is very perky and vivacious in sort of a generic 60s kind of way that reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore, but she does a good job with her character, playing up the motherly elements as an ironic contrast to her real position. Rudy Vallee has a good role too, as the President of the company beset by his wife's interventions on behalf of the idiot nephew Bud Frump (Anthony Teague) and trying desperately to please his showgirl type paramour, Hedy (Maureen Arthur). Carol Worthington also puts in a notable performance as the head of all secretaries who takes her job very seriously.Morse's performance carries the film, a sort of variation on the kind of comedy that Jerry Lewis used to be so good at, or maybe Danny Kaye and guys like that. At least that's the closest thing I can think of to compare it to, because I really haven't seen anybody give a performance quite like this one. He's all up in everyone's faces and very "touchy" in the literal sense that he touches everybody, all over. Somewhat spastic, and yet inclined to the passive shrug of the shoulders and sly smile.My opinion is pretty much always that Abe Burrows was a better lyricist than Frank Loesser was a musician, and my feelings about this play in particular aren't any different based on the movie version. Burrows had the kind of wit that could be unobtrusive, not cutesy, the kind of thing you could compare to the greats of the previous generation like Lorenz Hart and Ira Gershwin. Loesser's music is good enough, but not particularly special in and of itself here.A very well made movie, I don't know how close it is to the show because I don't know very much about the show. But at the very least this film made me want to know more. And I wonder why Robert Morse isn't in more movies? I've been informed he's doing television these days at least.

A popular hit on Broadway, the film version has much to offer, even though some of the songs were reassigned or left out. Morse plays a scamp who picks up (the real life!) book "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." He goes from a window washer to a high-level executive at the World Wide Wicket Company in record (make that farcical) time. Referring to the book for advice he plays out scenario after scenario to his advantage, ruthlessly clawing his way to the top (much to the consternation of fellow worker and management relative Teague) while stopping occasionally for a flirtation with pretty Lee, a secretary with the firm. Eventually (and predictably), however, he realizes that success in business isn't all there is to life. The world this film takes place in is a day-glo, candy-confection dream-scape in which everyone is clean, neat, stylish and always ready to break into song or dance. Morse, whose stage version of this character was somewhat less sympathetic and more driven, has here the role of his career. He perfectly suits the goofy, ambitious, resourceful part he was given to play. Lee is appealing and talented, with a very nice singing voice. Oddly, she receives some questionable lighting, at times having a shadow over her face and with catch-lights in only one eye during her solo. This is something she would more than take care of during her 12 year run on "Knots Landing", infamous for its flattering lights. Vallee appears to good effect as the preoccupied president of the company. Arthur provides plenty of pneumatic comic relief as his curvy, air-headed, yet resourceful, mistress. She's a sort of goofy blend of Carol Channing, Marilyn Monroe and Gracie Allen. Teague gives a broad, but enthusiastic performance. Hobart, who plays a stern employee with a secret soft spot, would later turn up as a bus driver in "Dirty Harry'! The musical numbers tend to be dispersed fairly evenly among the cast, with many folks getting a crack at a song rather than the leads getting most of them. There's a lot of ensemble work, both in the songs and in the impressively staged (by Fosse) dances. Sadly, one of the memorable dances from the stage show – "Coffee Break" – was eliminated from the finished picture due to a quality issue with the film. Another, "A Secretary is Not a Toy" should drop the jaws of some modern-day audience members with its jubilant incorrectness. The script begins to overstay its welcome and veer off into tiresome subplots, but overall it's a pretty lively and entertaining affair. The opening shots of a shimmering and vintage New York City are to be treasured.