How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Last updated

How to Get Ahead in Advertising
How to Get Ahead in Advertising.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Bruce Robinson
Written byBruce Robinson
Produced byDavid Wimbury
George Harrison
Denis O'Brien
Ray Cooper
Starring
Cinematography Peter Hannan
Music by
Production
company
Distributed by Virgin Vision
Release date
  • 5 May 1989 (1989-05-05)(U.S.)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish, German
Box office$418,053

How to Get Ahead in Advertising is a 1989 British black comedy fantasy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson, and starring Richard E. Grant and Rachel Ward. The title is a pun and can be literally taken as "How to Get a Head in Advertising".

Contents

In the film, an advertising executive has a nervous breakdown and finds himself concerned with the ethics of his profession. In contrast with his moral concerns, a secondary personality manifests itself, being cynical and unscrupulous. A brief struggle between the two personalities leads to the emergence of a third one, but this one is both ruthless and cruel.

Plot

The film is a farce about a mentally unstable advertising executive, Denis Dimbleby Bagley (played by Grant), who suffers a nervous breakdown while making an advert for pimple cream. Rachel Ward plays his long-suffering but sympathetic wife, Julia Bagley. Richard Wilson plays John Bristol, Bagley's boss.

Bagley has a crisis of conscience about the ethics of advertising, which leads to mania. He then develops a boil on his right shoulder that comes to life with a face and voice. The voice of the boil, although uncredited, is that of Bruce Robinson. The boil takes a cynical and unscrupulous view of the advertising profession in contrast to Bagley's new-found ethical concerns. Eventually, Bagley decides to have the boil removed in hospital, but moments before he is taken into the operating room, the boil quickly grows into a replica of Bagley's head (only with a moustache) and covers Bagley's original head, asking doctors to lance it, which is done since nobody has noticed the switch from left to right nor the new moustache.

Bagley, now with the boil head, moustache, and personality (the movie's third personification from Grant after the stressed executive and the raving lunatic) returns home to celebrate his wedding anniversary, with the original head merely resembling a boil on his left shoulder. The "boil" eventually withers but doesn't die, yet Bagley resumes his advertising career rejuvenated and ruthless, although without his wife, who decides to leave his new cruel persona.

Cast

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 60% based on reviews from 15 critics. [1]

In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2019, Richard E. Grant said that Jim Carrey called him a genius for his work in the film. [2]

The film made £201,972 in the UK. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Chicken Run</i> 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film

Chicken Run is a 2000 stop-motion animated adventure comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman's first feature-length film, it was directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park from a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick and based on an original story by Lord and Park. The film stars the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Miranda Richardson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow. Set in post-WWII Yorkshire in the 1950s, the plot centres on a group of British anthropomorphic chickens who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard E. Grant</span> Swazi-English actor

Richard E. Grant is a Swazi-English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He also received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

<i>Withnail and I</i> 1987 film

Withnail and I is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" who share a flat in Camden Town in 1969. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a country cottage in the Lake District belonging to Withnail's eccentric uncle Monty and drive there. The weekend holiday proves less recuperative than they expected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Ward</span> Australian actress and film director

Rachel Claire Ward is an English-Australian actress, film director, screenwriter and television director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Robinson</span> British screenwriter and film director

Bruce Robinson is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed Withnail and I (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on his experiences as a struggling actor, living in poverty in Camden Town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Dimbleby</span> British commentator and presenter

David Dimbleby is an English journalist and former presenter of current affairs and political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programme Question Time. He is the son of broadcaster Richard Dimbleby and elder brother of Jonathan Dimbleby, of the Dimbleby family. Long involved in the coverage of national events, Dimbleby hosted the BBC Election Night coverage from 1979 to 2017, as well as United States presidential elections on the BBC until 2016. He has also presented and narrated documentary series on architecture and history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilford Brimley</span> American actor (1934–2020)

Anthony Wilford Brimley was an American actor. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and working odd jobs in the 1950s, Brimley started working as an extra and stuntman in Western films in the late 1960s. He became an established character actor in the 1970s and 1980s in films such as The China Syndrome (1979), The Thing (1982), Tender Mercies (1983), The Natural (1984), and Cocoon (1985). Brimley was known for playing characters at times much older than his age. He was the long-term face of American television advertisements for the Quaker Oats Company. He also promoted diabetes education and appeared in related television commercials for Liberty Medical.

<i>Question Time</i> (TV programme) British topical debate TV programme

Question Time is a topical debate programme, typically broadcast on BBC One at 10:45 pm on Thursdays. It is usually repeated on BBC Two and on BBC Parliament, later in the week. If there is a Leaders special, it would be broadcast simultaneously on BBC News. Question Time is also available on BBC iPlayer. Fiona Bruce currently chairs the show having succeeded David Dimbleby as presenter in January 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Tweedy</span> American musician (born 1967)

Jeffrey Scot Tweedy is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high school in his band The Plebes with Jay Farrar, which subsequently transitioned into the alternative country band Uncle Tupelo. After Uncle Tupelo broke up, Tweedy formed Wilco which found critical and commercial success, most notably with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, the latter of which received a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2005.

<i>The Long and the Short and the Tall</i> (film) 1961 British film

The Long and the Short and the Tall is a 1961 British war film directed by Leslie Norman and starring Richard Todd, Laurence Harvey and Richard Harris. The film, which is based on a 1959 play with the same name, by Willis Hall, takes place in 1942 during the Malayan Campaign.

<i>Cornered</i> (1945 film) 1945 film by Edward Dmytryk

Cornered is a 1945 film noir starring Dick Powell and directed by Edward Dmytryk. This is the second teaming of Powell and Dmytryk. The screenplay was written by John Paxton with uncredited help from Ben Hecht.

<i>Head Office</i> 1985 film by Ken Finkleman

Head Office is a 1985 American satirical black comedy film, produced by HBO Pictures in association with Silver Screen Partners. It stars Judge Reinhold, Eddie Albert, Lori-Nan Engler, Jane Seymour, Richard Masur, Michael O'Donoghue, Ron Frazier, and Merritt Butrick and was directed and written by Ken Finkleman. It is also the first film to be composed by James Newton Howard.

<i>Jana Aranya</i> 1976 Indian film

Jana Aranya is a 1976 Bengali film directed by Satyajit Ray, based on the novel of the same name by Mani Shankar Mukherjee. It is the last among Ray's Calcutta trilogy series, the previous two being, Pratidwandi and Seemabaddha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Robinson (actor)</span> American actor and comedian (born 1971)

Craig Phillip Robinson is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for portraying Darryl Philbin on The Office (2005–2013). He also portrayed Ray Heyworth on Mr. Robot (2016), LeVar "Freight Train" Brown on The Cleveland Show (2009–2013), and Doug "the Pontiac Bandit" Judy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021). He also frequently collaborates with Seth Rogen, including the films Pineapple Express (2008), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), This Is the End (2013), and Sausage Party (2016). Robinson has appeared in numerous other television shows and films, including Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Get on Up (2014), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), and Dolemite Is My Name (2019), as well as voicing characters in films such as Shrek Forever After (2010) and The Bad Guys (2022). He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Morris from America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aubrey Powell (designer)</span> English album cover designer and film director

Aubrey Powell is a British graphic designer. He co-founded the album cover design company Hipgnosis with Storm Thorgerson in 1967. The company ran for 15 years until 1982, and created some of the most acclaimed record cover art of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s for many of the most famous rock bands of the era including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Yes, Genesis, 10cc, Peter Gabriel, UFO, Bad Company, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Scorpions, Styx, Syd Barrett, and Black Sabbath. The company was nominated five times for Grammy Awards.

<i>Sharkys Machine</i> 1981 film by Burt Reynolds

Sharky's Machine is a 1981 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Burt Reynolds, who stars in the title role. It is an adaptation of William Diehl's first novel Sharky's Machine (1978) with a screenplay by Gerald Di Pego. It also stars Vittorio Gassman, Brian Keith, Charles Durning, Earl Holliman, Bernie Casey, Henry Silva, Darryl Hickman, Richard Libertini, Rachel Ward and Joseph Mascolo.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a 1997 British romantic comedy film directed by Robert Bierman and based on the 1936 novel by George Orwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Plater and was produced by Peter Shaw. The film stars Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham Carter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lex Luthor (DC Extended Universe)</span> DC Extended Universe character

Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor, Jr. is a fictional character in the DC Extended Universe based on the DC Comics supervillain of the same name. He is portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg. Luthor first appeared in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, pitting Batman and Superman against each other in an attempt to eradicate the two superheroes. He also appears briefly in Justice League and its director's cut. Eisenberg's portrayal of Lex Luthor has been described as unorthodox compared to most depictions of the character, with his performance in Batman v Superman receiving mixed reviews.

Peter Hannan is an Australian cinematographer who spent the majority of his career in Great Britain.

Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role is a documentary about Charles III, then Prince of Wales, broadcast on 29 June 1994 on ITV. It was presented by Jonathan Dimbleby.

References

  1. "How to Get Ahead in Advertising". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  2. Richard E. Grant on Oscar Nomination, Steve Martin, Star Wars & French Kissing. Jimmy Kimmel Live! . 8 February 2019. Event occurs at 1:07. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  3. "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 24.