The secret of my success

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Movie
German title The secret of my success
Original title The Secret of My Succe $ s
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Herbert Ross
script Jim Cash ,
Jack Epps Jr. ,
AJ Carothers
production David Chasman ,
Herbert Ross
music Jack Blades ,
David Foster
camera Carlo Di Palma
cut Paul Hirsch
occupation

The Secret of My Success (Original title: The Secret of My Succe $ s ) is an American comedy film from 1987. The director led Herbert Ross , the writer wrote Jim Cash , Jack Epps Jr. and AJ Carothers . The main role was played by Michael J. Fox .

action

Brantley Foster, 24, is a graduate of Kansas State University. He is about to start a job in New York, but his employer has just been hired by another company. As a result, the workforce is reduced, and it does not even happen that he takes the job, but rather he is on the street with the other 90 percent of the laid-off employees. After many other unsuccessful applications due to his lack of work experience, he turns to his uncle Howard Prescott. This gives him a job in the mail room of the Pemrose corporation, which Prescott heads. Prescott owes this position to his marriage to Vera, the daughter of the company founder.

On the postal tours through the company, his colleague Melrose makes it very clear to him that those from the "lower levels" never address the tie-wearers because they do not exist / are not visible to them. As Foster curiously researches the company mail, he discovers numerous organizational weaknesses in the company.

When he drives the wife of one of the executives to her villa, he learns after she has seduced him that she is the wife of Uncle Howard Prescott and thus his Aunt Vera. This offers him to support him in his professional advancement, which he refuses because he wants to make it to the top on his own. Nevertheless, he lets himself into a little affair.

When he “probes” in one of the empty boardrooms on one of his mail tours, it turns out that he simply appropriates the detached office and poses as the new member of the board, Carlton Whitfield. He requests a secretary and all kinds of office supplies. Since around 30,000 people work in the office complex, nobody notices, and since he is doing his “new job” almost perfectly, nobody asks about it. In everything he does, he must always make sure that, as Whitfield, he does not run into his uncle. He thinks Whitfield is a confidante of Donald Davenport, for whom he is spying and who is about to take over Pemrose.

In this role, he also meets the financial expert Christy Wills personally for the first time, with whom he has been secretly in love since he first met her in the entrance hall. After some efforts and business disputes, she too falls in love with him and spends a night with Foster, whom she knows as Carlton Whitfield. What Foster just doesn't know is that Wills is having an affair with his uncle Prescott. This pretends to her that he would leave his wife for her. In reality, however, he does not think of what he says to his nephew Foster.

After Prescott receives a takeover offer from Donald Davenport, he invites all board members to a party at his villa over the weekend. During the party, Prescott hires Foster to take care of his Aunt Vera so he can mend his crumbling affair with Wills. Prescott later asks Foster to take care of Carlton Whitfield - whom he has never met personally - as he believes he is getting on with his Christy Wills affair. During the party, Aunt Vera introduces her nephew Foster to all important business people, because she has eaten a fool on him and wants to help him professionally despite his breaking off of their little affair. Without exception, everyone is enthusiastic about the smart nephew with the good ideas.

That night, Foster and Wills, as well as some of the other guests, spend the night at the Prescott's house. Both Foster and Prescott want to surprise Christy Wills in their room that night. In turn, she and Aunt Vera want to visit Foster, so all four of them sneak through the villa. Foster and Prescott think of getting into bed with Wills in the dark, and at that moment they are caught by Wills and Vera. This is where all the confusions are cleared up: Vera learns about her husband's affair with Wills, Foster learns that Wills should spy on Whitfield for Prescott and Prescott learns that Carlton Whitfield and his nephew Brantley Foster are one and the same person. At the end of this whole "clearing up" Prescott fires Foster and Wills.

When Foster and Wills coincidentally run into each other while clearing their offices on the way to the elevator, an argument breaks out again. When the elevator arrives on the first floor and the doors open, they both kiss and have a plan. With the help of Whitfield's former secretary Jean and his friend Melrose from the postal department, they devise a plan to save the company. With the help of Aunt Vera and her relationships in the business world, they manage to build a group of investors that will bring Pemrose straight to the top:

Vera takes over 51 percent of the entire share capital of Pemrose and will be introduced by Foster / Whitfield as the future boss of the company at the next board conference, at which Donald Davenport will also be present to negotiate the takeover by his company. She fires her husband and takes over the position of CEO herself. She then puts her nephew and their friends at the top of the business and in turn takes over the company from Donald Davenport because they have also bought the necessary shares from his company.

In the final scene, Foster and Wills, meanwhile engaged, as well as Aunt Vera and Melrose, who is now with her, drive to the opera in the company's limousine, the driver of which is Foster's former supervisor from the postal department, who treated him unfairly at the time.

synchronization

role actor speaker
Brantley Foster (Carlton Whitfield) Michael J. Fox Sven Hasper
Christy Wills Helen Slater Cornelia Meinhardt
Howard Prescott Richard Jordan Joachim Kerzel
Vera Prescott Margaret Whitton Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif
Fred Melrose John Pankow Ronald Nitschke
Barney Rattigan Christopher Murney Helmut Gauss
Kind Thomas Gerry Bamman Norbert Langer
Donald Davenport Fred Gwynne Arnold Marquis
Jean Carol Ann Susi Hansi Jochmann
Grace Foster Elizabeth Franz Monica Bielenstein
employee Bruce McGill Andreas Mannkopff

Reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on April 10, 1987 that the film looked as if the script came from the 1950s. It's not all bad (“ there's really nothing wrong with the premise ”), but it could have been smarter. None of the characters have any ethical principles, which the filmmakers don't seem to notice.

Rita Kempley wrote in the Washington Post on April 10, 1987, the film is not just " another harmless stupid film " ( " just another harmless dumb movie "), but the end of civilization and the art of film. She compared the film with the shows on MTV . She also mocked the script of the writers, who are also not responsible for films like Top Gun and Prosecutors Kisses You . The cut with “ Madonna-like musical performances” (“ Madonnaesque musical interludes ”) carries what is left of the plot.

The lexicon of international films found an “ unreflective climber mentality ” in the film, which was “ technically solid, but staged without life ”. Furthermore, he represents the " modern luxury world as the only worth striving for ".

Awards

Jack Blades , David Foster and Michael Landau were nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1988 for the song The Secret of My Success . David Foster won the BMI Film Music Award in 1988 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Synchronkartei.de
  2. ^ Film review by Roger Ebert
  3. ↑ Film review by Rita Kempley
  4. ↑ The secret of my success. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used