The Secret of My Success - where the success is earned the old fashioned way

Mistaken identity, corporate espionage, and sexual intrigue. The Secret of My Success was a surprisingly funny movie starting the baby-faced Michael J. Fox between Back to Futures I and II as a Kansas college grad who moves to the big city in search of riches, falls for a girl (a Supergirl, no less) and, with some help from new friends, makes it big in perhaps the least believable – but still enjoyable – way imaginable.

After moving to the city, Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox) convinces his “uncle” (a distant relative by marriage) to give him a job in the mailroom of their 30,000-employee company. Foster uses his access in the mailroom to study the company’s memos, stockholder reports, and other inside information to gain insights into the business. He befriends his “aunt” who quickly seduces him at her “country” estate in Connecticut, and they meet up a few more times, Foster trying in vain to avoid her advances.

Meanwhile, with the threat of a hostile takeover looming, Foster’s uncle, CEO Howard Prescott, makes cuts to raise capital, leaving a number of offices open. Foster sneaks into one, assumes a new identity and uses his mailroom resources to fulfill the requisite forms to get a secretary, office supplies, and release a memo about his own hiring. Of course, he has to maintain his job in the mailroom, so he ends up running back and forth – changing clothes in the elevator, avoiding people who know him as one identity when dressed as the other – and this is where much of the comedy derives from. It’s screwball, and Michael J. Fox has the physicality to pull it off, no matter how silly or ludicrous it becomes.

Meanwhile, Foster, as Charlton Whitfield and wearing what I have to assume is the smallest double-breasted suit ever made, falls for the female executive, Christy Wills (Helen Slater), who has been sleeping with CEO Prescott. They fall for each other and try to break things off with the old folks, though the Prescotts refuse to listen and continue their advances. The executives meet at the Prescott estate in CT to discuss options and Foster spends much of his time hobnobbing with rich people, whom Aunt Vera introduces him to in an effort to “guide him up the ladder,” as she did with Uncle.  That night the four major players all learn the truth about one another. Foster is, naturally, fired.

At work on Monday, it appears as though the company is moving forward with the takeover, and Prescott will remain with the new company. But, Foster, having raised money from his new friends and with the help of Aunt Vera (and daughter of the company’s founder (?)) has bought 50.1% of the shares of the larger company and is now running things. Prescott is fired, Foster and Wills are in love and in charge of a multi-billion dollar company. And Aunt Prescott even hooks up with Foster’s friend in the mailroom.

Look, this is a crazy movie. In no world would business people back – with millions of dollars – some 23-year-old kid they met two days earlier. Foster is, remember, working two jobs simultaneously. This isn’t a Mad Men, assume a new identity thing, break off connections to the old. This is a dude working two jobs in the same building with no one catching on. At least Clark Kent wore glasses. But I’m willing to forgive these improbabilities because this movie is a true descendant of the 1930s screwball, right down to the great, extended scene at the country house where the four major players – and one accidental participant – sneak around the house and into each other beds. Since both Foster and Prescott are looking for Wills they naturally end up together in her bed, with Prescott unwittingly putting the moves on his nephew.

And how can you not root for Michael J. Fox? He’s just so earnest, you excuse the zaniness because he’s initially overwhelmed by the situations he finds himself in but works through them, just short of laughing with us along the way.

The Secret of My Success: 4 of Patrick Swayze’s 6 Abs.

 Extra Abs

- I really hope there were people in 1987 who confused this movie with Wall Street, which opened a few months afterwards. Imagine their surprise when, instead of five minute bedroom swapping scene they get a coked-up Charlie Sheen. Had to be confusing.

- I think they were going for a “meet cute” between the two young people, but this one is more creepy than cute. Helen Slater approaches Michael J Fox at the water fountain and asks if she can have some water. He stares at her with a vacant expression on his face and watches her creepily as she drinks. She walks away and neither says anything else. Creepy.

- The soundtrack for this one is essentially one long synthesizer song. It is great.

- In true cheesy movie tradition, there is a scene in the first half of the film that flashes back to a scene that just took place 3 minutes before. You know, in case you forgot that Foster vowed to make it to the top on his own. (You should probably ignore that he does, in fact, use Vera's connections to reach the top. Not sure why they chose to point this out twice, then do the opposite.)

- The theme song says (yes) that the secret to his success is working 25 hours a day. Really, he just assumes a new identity and weasels his way into the board room. Oh, and sleeping with a millionaire also helped.

- While his neighbors have sex, bouncing his own bed off the wall, Foster uses a stick as a baton and conducts the proceedings. He also opens a can of beer at the climax, gushing the stuff on the floor. Good joke. Seems wasteful.