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The Secret of My Success

Original title: The Secret of My Succe$s

“There's no such thing as an overnight success. Brantley Foster took two weeks.”

1987 · 1 h 51 min
Directed by Herbert Ross · USA · New Hollywood
Comedy

Where to watch in the United States: Stream: Netflix, Philo, AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC+ Roku Premium Channel, Netflix Standard with Ads · Rent: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home · Buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home. Streaming data from JustWatch via TMDB; availability changes.

Cast

Michael J. Fox Helen Slater Richard Jordan Margaret Whitton John Pankow Christopher Murney

Plot

Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York City, but once there, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When he visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the mail room.

Sinekatalog’s take

A breezy office farce in which a hungry newcomer fakes his way up a corporate ladder in Manhattan. The comedy runs on mistaken identities, doors slamming and a lively eighties energy, and it never pretends to be deeper than that. Light, dated in spots, but still amiable fun.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

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Ratings

IMDb: 6.5 / 10 (39,893 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 46%
Metacritic: 36/100
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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