I just popped in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying into the DVD. Jerry Lewis, what a fine actor. No doubt about it, Finch was Jerry Lewis’ finest role.
Yep. I love Jerry Lewis in that movie.
I am an idiot.
That is all.
Robert Morse doesn’t have the name recognition he deserves. I’m not surprised if you misremembered Jerry Lewis in that role – a much bigger name. But Jer didn’t sign, AFAIK. Morse originated the role on Broadway, then reprised it in the movie.
For a while, he had a TV show, That’s Life, that was essemntially a new musical each week (long before Cop Rock). I liked it, when I was a kid. I haven’t ever seen it syndicated, or on any video media.
Interesting thing: Morse and Rudy Vallee (also in HTSIBWRT) later went on to appear in an episode of Night Gallery together. No singing, though.
It gets worse. I just the whole movie to hear “What Kind of Fool Am I?”
I am an idiot.
I first saw How to Succeed as a play at the Ocala Civic Theater, and the casting was brilliant, brilliant. (My mama was Rosemary.) I ushered every night the show ran to get in free and watch it again. So that, to me, is the definitive version. I never liked Robert Morse in the part. Icky little mouse-man!
In the movie version, there are rumors that somewhere a version exisits with the Coffee Break number intact.
That’s my favorite number from the musical and I’m wondering if anybody’s heard of such a thing.
Doesn’t say if it still exists, or , if so, where.
There was apparently a 1975 TV version (that I didn’t know about). Maybe IT has the number in question:
Here are several versions of “COffee Break” from stage versions, but no film version:
The Robert Morse vehicle that I’ve been wishing would come on DVD for years (though I haven’t checked lately so perhaps it has) was TRU, his one man show of Truman Capote. It was taped for PBS’s GREAT PERFORMANCES but never released to video, and it was exceptionally well written and well acted.
ETA: Nope, still not on video.
Of course, his greatest movie role was in Quick Before It Melts/The Loved One/Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad/A Guide for the Married Man/Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?/The Boatniks. :o
I’ve read various on-line sites (sorry no links) that say some foreign version of the film (usually an Asian country) had the scene in it.
Two points:
Other sources make the claim that the “Coffee Break” number was deleted to fit the demands of Radio City Music Hall for running time. At any rate, people have been looking for at least a decade, and haven’t found it
In addition, the 1975 “How to Succeed” is a pilot for a proposed sitcom based on the source material. It would be a major surprise if it used any of Loesser’s music.
Jerry Lewis’s best role was in Mad,Mad .Mad,World.
Lewis gets panned heavily nowadays, but in the day he was a genius with physical comedy, and could appeal to the little boy in all of us. I could never buy him in the role of loverboy or the suave playboy, however.
If you find it, will you let me know? I loved that show and I thought I was the only one who remembered it. It was a big AHA moment for me a number of years later when I saw Fiddler on the Roof and recognized one of the songs from there as one I’d seen on That’s Life. I wished it could have run longer, even as I realized it had probably run its course.
Paul in Saudi, I may be mistaken, but I thought What Kind of Fool am I was from the musical, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. (Sorry, no cite, just a vague recollection of Sammy Davis Jr stating as prelude to singing the song, "here’s a little number from Stop the World (etc.)) I could be wrong.
Love, Phil
What?! No mention of ‘A Guide for the Married Man’? For shame…
Post #9.
But it’s buried, and easy to miss…
thirdwarning, didn’t find anything about recordings of That’s Life, but here’s an episode guide:
http://www.tv.com/thats-life-1968/show/15418/episode.html
There’s very little about it on the 'net. Wikipedia has a very brief entry. The iMDB entry doesn’t even seem to realize that Robert Morse and E.J. Peaker were the stars – it gives Tony Randall top billing, and has no info on the series.
Weird coincidence – Morse created the part of Barnaby in the stage version of the Matchmaker, and repeated it in the film version. The Matchmaker got turned into Hello, Dolly. E,J. Peaker played one of the girls in the filmed version of Hello Dolly.
Robert Morse fans might want to check out Mad Men on AMC (there are plenty of other reasons to check it out, too). He plays the head of the advertising agency. He isn’t in every episode, but it’s great to see him when he is.
Season 1 is available on DVD, and season 2 starts airing in July.
According to the iMDB, he’s apparently in the upcoming Hulk movie, too (!)