Taglines: For anyone who’s ever won. For anyone who’s ever lost. And for everyone who’s still in there trying.
Working Girl movie storyline. Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a hard working young woman who is determined to reach the top of the stockmarket world by hard work but as she turns 30 she is stuck in secretarial work so when she starts working for Katherine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) she is glad that Katherine is willing to accept input and ideas from her.
However when Katherine goes on holiday and breaks her leg she asks Tess to look after things and this causes Tess to discover that Katherine is going to pinch her big idea that would save a large company from a a foreign takeover. Enraged that her boyfriend is also cheating on her, Tess sets out to do a deal by using her idea herself while Katherine is away. She teams up with Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) to close the deal before Katherine’s return and the two slowly fall in love little knowing that Jack is Katherine’s boyfriend.
Working Girl is a 1988 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis, Amy Aquino and Elizabeth Whitcraft. It was written by Kevin Wade.
The film features a notable opening sequence following Manhattan-bound commuters on the Staten Island Ferry accompanied by Carly Simon’s song “Let the River Run”, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The film was released on December 23, 1988, in 1,051 theaters and grossed $4.7 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $63.8 million in North America and $39.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $103 million.
Melinie Griffith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, while both Weaver and Joan Cusack were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture.
About Filming and Music
Many scenes were shot in the New Brighton section of Staten Island in New York City. Tess’s office building lobby scenes were shot in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center (one of the buildings destroyed in the September 11 attacks). The scenes of Tess’s secretarial pool and Katharine Parker’s office were filmed at One State Street Plaza at the corner of Whitehall and State Street. One Chase Manhattan Plaza was featured at the end as the Trask Industries building.
The film’s main theme “Let the River Run” was written and performed by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, and won her an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy Award for Best Song. The song reached number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in early 1989. The credits for the film read “music by Carly Simon, scored by Rob Mounsey”. A soundtrack album was released on August 29, 1989, by Arista Records, and it peaked at number 45 on the Billboard 200.
About the Story
Tess McGill is a working-class girl from Staten Island with a bachelor’s degree in business from evening classes. She works as a stockbroker’s secretary in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank, aspiring to reach an executive position. Tricked by her boss into a date with his lascivious, cocaine-snorting colleague, she gets into trouble by using the office ticker to insult him and is reassigned as secretary to a new executive, Katharine Parker.
Seemingly supportive, Katharine encourages Tess to share ideas. Tess suggests that a client, Trask Industries, should invest in radio to gain a foothold in media. Katharine listens to the idea and says she will pass it through some people. Later, she says the idea was not well received. When Katharine breaks her leg skiing in Europe, she asks Tess to house-sit. While at Katharine’s place, Tess discovers some meeting notes where Katharine plans to pass off the merger idea as her own. At home, Tess finds her boyfriend Mick Dugan in bed with another woman. Disillusioned, she returns to Katharine’s apartment and begins her transformation.
Tess decides to use her boss’s absence and connections, including Katharine’s fellow executive, Jack Trainer, to put forward her own idea for a merger deal. She uses Katharine’s name to set up a meeting with Trainer. She wants to see who Trainer is by attending a party the evening before the meeting, wearing one of Katharine’s expensive designer dresses. Before the party, when Tess suffers a panic attack, her friend Cynthia gives her a Valium from Katharine’s bathroom.
At the party, Tess unknowingly meets Jack, who is fascinated by her. They have a couple of drinks, and the combined effect of Valium and alcohol lead to her waking next morning in Jack’s bed. She leaves before he wakes and, entering the meeting, realizes Jack Trainer is the man she had spent the night with. She thinks the pitch goes badly.
Back at “her” desk, she is mortified about the night before, but Jack comes in and says her idea has potential. Days later, Tess and Jack gatecrash Trask’s daughter’s wedding and pitch their plan. Trask is interested, and a meeting is scheduled. When Tess and Jack end up in bed again, Tess wants to explain the truth, but keeps quiet after learning Jack has been in a relationship with Katharine, which he assures her is all but over.
Katharine comes home on the day of the meeting with Trask. Tess overhears Katharine asking Jack to confirm his love for her, but he avoids answering. Tess rushes off, leaving her appointment book, which Katharine reads. The meeting goes well until Katharine storms in, accusing Tess, a “mere” secretary, of having stolen her idea. Tess protests but leaves, apologizing.
Days later, Tess clears out her desk and then bumps into Jack, Katharine, and Trask at the lobby elevators. Tess confronts Katharine and starts to tell everyone her side of the story. Katharine tries to lead the group away, but Jack says he believes Tess. When Trask hears a convincing tidbit, he hops off the closing elevator, leaving Katharine still in the lift.
Trask gets on another elevator with Jack and Tess, where Tess then gives her elevator pitch to Trask, telling him the roundabout way in which she came up with the idea for the merger. When they get to their floor, Trask confronts Katharine, asking her how she came up with the idea. She stumbles and balks and is unable to explain the idea’s origin. Katharine is fired on the spot for her fraud, and Trask offers Tess an “entry-level” job with his company.
Working Girl (1988)
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Starring: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis, Amy Aquino, Elizabeth Whitcraft
Screenplay by: Kevin Wade
Production Design by: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Cinematography by: Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by: Sam O’Steen
Costume Design by: Ann Roth
Set Decoration by: George DeTitta Jr.
Art Direction by: Doug Kraner
Music by: Carly Simon, Rob Mounsey (score)
MPAA Rating: R for adult situations and language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: December 21, 1988 (United States)
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