The Secret of My Success (1987 film)
The Secret of My Success (sometimes stylized as "The Secret of My Succe$s") is a 1987 American comedy film produced and directed by Herbert Ross and starring Michael J. Fox and Helen Slater. The screenplay was written by A.J. Carothers, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. from a story written by Carothers. It was filmed on location in Manhattan. Plot. Brantley Foster is a recent graduate of Kansas State University who moves to New York City, where he has accepted an entry-level job as a financier. Upon arriving, he discovers that the  company for which he is supposed to work has been taken over by a rival corporation. As a result, Brantley is made redundant before even starting work. After several unsuccessful interviews to get another job, mostly because he is either overqualified or underqualified and has no experience, Brantley ends up working in the mailroom of the Pemrose Corporation, which is directed by a distant relative though he identifies him as his uncle, Howard Prescott, the CEO. Pemrose was founded by Howard's father-in-law; Howard received presidency of the company by marrying his boss's daughter, Vera Pemrose. Upon  inspecting company reports, Brantley realizes that Howard and most of his fellow "suits" (executives) are making pointless or damaging decisions. After Brantley notices an empty office in the building due to one of Howard's frequent firings, he uses his access to the mailroom and his understanding of company processes to create the identity of Carlton Whitfield, a new executive. Brantley then assumes this character. While handling two jobs (switching between casual apparel and business suits in the elevator), Brantley also sparks romantic interest in Christy Wills, a fellow financial wizard who recently graduated from Harvard. Brantley meets Vera after  driving her home in a company limo (at his employer's request), and she seduces him after persuading him to stay for a swim. Upon seeing Howard arriving, Brantley and Vera realize they are related through marriage. Vera only seduced Brantley to get back at her husband for having an affair with a woman in his office. Brantley then gets changed as fast as he can and narrowly escapes the mansion without being spotted by Howard. Howard, unbeknownst to Brantley, is having an affair with Christy. When Howard asks her to spy on Carlton Whitfield who might be a corporate  spy for Donald Davenport, Christy falls in love with "Whitfield", not knowing he is actually Brantley. The Pemrose Corporation is preparing for an impending takeover by the Davenport Corporation. If Davenport Corporation absorbs Pemrose, all workers get fired. Howard, unaware that Whitfield and Brantley are the same person, suspects "Whitfield" is a spy for corporate raider Davenport. Brantley's double identity is discovered when he, Christy, Vera and Howard end up in the same bedroom after a party at Howard's home that all four are attending. Brantley and Christy end their blossoming relationship and Brantley gets sacked from his  job he did as Whitfield, as does Christy for refusing to continue the affair with Howard. Vera and Howard are getting divorced, since she found out that Howard was having an affair with Christy and was planning on proposing to marry her. While both Christy and Brantley are moving out of their offices, they end up in the same elevator and reconcile, conceiving a revenge plan with Vera. In the end, they raise enough cash, bonds, and stocks to remove ownership of the Pemrose Corporation from Howard, and to proceed with a hostile takeover bid of Davenport's Corporation. Vera , already hating Howard for his inept business practices, which were driving her father's empire into the ground, tells the board about his affair as well. She promptly replaces him with Brantley, with Jean (Carlton's secretary), Christy and Melrose (Brantley's mailroom colleague) at his side. While security guards escort Howard and his aide, Art Thomas, from the Pemrose Building, Brantley and Christy start planning their future together, personal as well as professional. Soundtrack. The soundtrack was released on LP and cassette tape on April 10, 1987. Seven of the 10 tracks were produced, and either written or co -written, by David Foster, who also scored the film and has three tracks of his own on the album. Not all of the songs featured in the film are included on the soundtrack, or, at least not in the same version. The film version of the song "The Secret of My Success" is slightly different, and also features a mini-instrumental version. The film version of "I Burn for You" does not feature vocals, whereas the soundtrack version does. The "Restless Heart" track from the film has a different title ("Something I Gotta Do"), and different lyrics than the  soundtrack version. Popular songs "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina & The Waves and "Oh Yeah" by Yello are heard in the film but do not appear on the soundtrack. The soundtrack peaked at No. 131 on the "Billboard" 200. The theme from the picture "The Secret of My Success", performed by Night Ranger, was one of the songs that competed for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1988. The winner was "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", the theme from "Dirty Dancing", performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. Reception. Critical response. The film received a  mixed response from critics. Roger Ebert in the "Chicago Sun-Times" wrote, ""The Secret of My Success" seems trapped in some kind of time warp, as if the screenplay had been in a drawer since the 1950s and nobody bothered to update it." He concluded "Fox provides a fairly desperate center for the film. It could not have been much fun for him to follow the movie's arbitrary shifts of mood, from sitcom to slapstick, from sex farce to boardroom brawls." However, Vincent Canby, writing in "The New York Times", felt it was "close to inspired when the ambitious  Brantley finds himself leading two lives", although he noted that "Hanging over "The Secret of My Success" is the long shadow of Frank Loesser's classic musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"." The film holds a 51% "rotten" rating at website Rotten Tomatoes based on 37 reviews with the consensus: "A miscast Michael J. Fox gives "The Secret of My Success" all the madcap energy he can muster, but it isn't enough to overcome confused direction and a recycled plot." On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 36/100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable  reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Box office. The film opened on April 10, 1987, and debuted at number one at the box office, taking $7.8 million in its opening weekend. It stayed at No. 1 for 5 weeks, and was in the top ten films for 2 months. It grossed $66,995,000 in the US, becoming the 7th highest-grossing film in the United States for the year 1987, and outgrossing such films as "RoboCop", "Predator", "Lethal Weapon" and "Dirty Dancing". The film went on  to gross an additional $44,001,000 worldwide, giving it a total of $111 million. Additionally, the film made through video rentals. Musical. In 2020 a musical based on the film was mid-run for its world premiere and pre-Broadway tryout at the Paramount Theatre in March 2020 with Sydney Morton (Christy Lockhart) and Billy Harrigan Tighe (Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield) as leads and Greenberg directing when production was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. It had been scheduled to run from February 21 – March 29, and the final performance was March 12, as Illinois governor J. B.  Pritzker shut down all performance venues starting March 13.