The Secret of My Success

The Secret of My Success was released in 1987 and directed by Herbert Ross. Rather than simply retelling the plot, the film is worth revisiting for the characters, conflicts and ideas that give its story its identity.

Corporate power, Family and Love emerge through what the characters face and the choices they make, giving the story more to explore beyond its immediate plot.

Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield, Christy Wills and Howard Prescott do not begin the film seeing one another clearly, and watching those first impressions break down is a big part of why The Secret of My Success still works.

Brantley Foster is a recent college graduate who has moved to New York City, where he has accepted an entry-level job as a financier.

Upon arriving, he discovers that the company has been taken over by a rival. That detail matters because it shapes the way the characters initially see one another.

As a result, Brantley is laid off before even starting work. From there, the film can concentrate less on explaining the setup and more on what happens between the people inside it.

Michael J. Fox plays Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield. Using his access to the mailroom and his understanding of the company, he creates the identity of Carlton Whitfield, a new executive.

Brantley meets Vera by driving her home in a company limo.

Seeing Howard arrive, Brantley and Vera realize that she is his aunt by marriage.

Helen Slater plays Christy Wills. While handling two jobs, Brantley sparks romantic interest from Christy Wills, a fellow financial wizard who recently graduated from Harvard.

That attraction becomes an important part of what pulls Christy Wills deeper into the story.

Howard, unbeknownst to Brantley, is having an affair with Christy.

The movie has more on its mind than the basic setup suggests. corporate power sits close to the centre of the film, but it is explored through the characters rather than treated like a lesson.

family matters just as much. The film keeps challenging the assumptions its characters make about one another, which is where much of its emotional weight comes from.

There is also plenty here about love and the safety of home. Those ideas overlap rather than sitting in separate boxes, which helps the movie feel like a story about people rather than a checklist of themes.

The film could hardly be separated from the decade that produced it. Released in 1987, it carries the attitudes, style and filmmaking rhythms of the 1980s without needing to announce them.

It also sits comfortably within the era's comedy filmmaking, even if the movie itself is more interesting than any single genre label suggests.

That is part of why it still appears in conversations about 1980s movies and 1980s comedy movies. The film has become tied not only to its own story but to the wider memory of what 1980s movies felt like.

Watching The Secret of My Success now means seeing both what has lasted and what unmistakably belongs to 1987.

What still works best is the human material. Ideas around corporate power, family and love have not stopped being relevant simply because the clothes, language and cultural references belong to another era.

Brantley ends up working in the mailroom of the Pemrose Corporation, directed by his "uncle" Howard Prescott, a distant relative. Those choices are part of the film's identity, even when they make its age obvious.

Some moments inevitably land differently for a modern audience. Revisiting an older film properly means enjoying what still works without pretending every choice has aged equally well.

A large part of that staying power comes from the characters. Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield, Christy Wills and Howard Prescott are still useful shorthand for the personalities and pressures the film explores.

Carpenter's film has lasted because people continue to recognise something in it. Nostalgia helps, but nostalgia alone does not keep a movie in the conversation for decades.