Review of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) by Allan C — 28 Dec 2014

I'm not a huge musical fan, so not too many appeal to me, but his one is quite charming. Robert Morse plays a scheming window washer who worked his way up the corporate ladder, featuring many songs and dances along the way.

The main suspense of the film is if the company will find out that Morse doesn't really know what he's doing and really isn't working very hard. The film also had an added level of meta fun since Morse is now best known for portraying Bert Cooper of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce on AMC's "Mad Men," itself a 1960s story set in a big company.

As an aside, that show actually let Morse's final scene in the show be a musical number that was just wonderful. But back to this film, Michele Lee plays Morse's likable love interest and Rudy Vallee plays the company boss.

David Swift directed this lavish musical, but he never really did anything like it again, even though this film was quite successful. He spent most of his career directing forgettable Disney films and TV episodes.

If you're a fan of musicals and even if you're not, this film is quite winning an entertaining.