Success at Any Price is a 1934 film directed by J. Walter Ruben.
Joe (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is a young man with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. As the story opens Joe's brother, a gangster, has been killed in a gangland shooting. Joe, bitter at the world, decides that he's going to get the power and money his brother wanted.
His sweet and affectionate girlfriend Sarah (Colleen Moore) gets him a job at the advertising firm run by her boss, Mr. Merritt. Joe's irascibility and his resentment of white-collar, educated types get him fired, but Sarah gets him another shot and this time Joe impresses Mr. Merritt. Joe as it turns out has a great talent for business. He rises higher and higher in the firm, eventually forcing Merritt out, and taking Merritt's sexy blonde mistress Agnes (Genevieve Tobin) as his wife after dumping Sarah. But will he find happiness?
Next-to-last film for Colleen Moore, a huge star in the silent era who was making an abortive comeback.
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: Told that Merritt is out for a conference, Joe sneers "Conference? Blonde or brunette?" The next scene reveals the answer as "blonde", as Merritt has drinks in a bar with his mistress Agnes.
- Betty and Veronica: Color-flipped with Sarah, the brunette who is sweet and kind and loving, and Agnes, the blonde, high-spirited sexual temptress.
- Call-Back: The scene where Merritt offers Joe a second chance at the firm has Merritt on a massage table, getting a rub down while Joe the supplicant stands by the table asking for his job back. The scene later in the film where Joe forces Merritt out of the business is in the same place, but this time with Joe on the table getting a massage while he tells Merritt that Merritt is fired.
- Downer Beginning: The first scene has Joe sitting on the front stoop of his building, deeply depressed after his brother's funeral.
- Gold Digger: Agnes states this plainly. When Merritt asks her what she wants, she says "Money, money, money."
- Happily Failed Suicide: Joe tries to shoot himself at the end, but bungles it. The film ends with Sarah promising she'll never leave him, as they wait for the doctor.
- Lingerie Scene: Agnes is sitting around wearing a slip and stockings, anticipating Merritt's arrival, and is surprised when Joe shows up.
- Love Dodecahedron: Joe has his sweet girlfriend Sarah, who he throws over for sexy Agnes. Then there's Merritt, who is Agnes's lover early in the film but who makes a pass at Sarah (and towards the end asks Sarah to marry him).
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Agnes comes back home drunk, wearing a sexy backless dress, after a night on the town, while Joe is left at home alone.
- The Mistress: Agnes is Merritt's kept woman who gets $1000/month for being his mistress.
- Time-Passes Montage: A montage shows the Glamour Cream advertising campaigns of 1931, 1932, and 1933, as Joe rises to the top of the business world.
