The Secret of My Success

This picture deals with three different women and one especially who has a husband who has always loved to study spiders and ants and this couple live in this very huge home with so many rooms you could really get lost inside and the basement is the same way. This woman kills a man and she calls in Scotland Yard and they investigate the crime and then one of the inspectors finds out that there are large spiders roaming around and actually running after them. These spiders are big as large dogs and their lives are threatened, the woman convinces the inspectors that her husband committed this murder and he is taken away to prison. The fact is that this woman actually kept these spiders and helped them grow into huge insects. Remember, there are really two more women in this picture who have another strange story to tell.

The cast is intriguing, with Shirley Jones, Stella Stevens, and Honor Blackman playing three femmes fatales and British character actor Lionel Jeffries pulling an Alec Guinness ("Kind Hearts and Coronets") or Peter Sellers ("Dr. Strangelove") by playing several different roles.

The production values aren't up to par for an MGM release, as the film has a low-budget British feel. But despite its shortcomings, THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS (1965) is a fairly amusing black comedy.

Arthur Tate (James Booth) lives by his mother's advice to have faith in people and not go looking for evil. And that blind faith has carried him up to positions of wealth and power. Or so he thinks. The true secret to Arthur Tate's success in life is his naïvité, coupled with his clever mother's gift for persuasion (extortion?).

Throughout his various careers, Tate encounters beautiful women who may not be the innocent victims they'd have him believe. Does Stella Stevens know more about her husband's disappearance than she lets on? Is Honor Blackman telling the truth about the mutant spiders? Is Shirley Jones really only staging a political coup for a movie? Tate is willing to give the beautiful women the benefit of the doubt.

Tate's mother (Amy Dalby), however, sees through the lapses in her son's logic and pulls some strings behind-the-scenes to secure him the promotions and transfers he attributes to his faith in human goodness.

The movie is cheap-looking and pretty silly (spiders the size of St. Bernard dogs!), but I give it the benefit of the doubt for knowing how silly it is (unlike some schlocky low-budget flicks). This is an off- beat British comedy about murderesses, potentially mad scientists, blackmail, giant spiders, bloodless revolutions, bodies in the cellar, and corpses under the sofa.

The three leading ladies look wonderful: Stevens as a redhead, Blackman her usual blonde, and Jones as a brunette. They have Tate and just about every other male character eating out of their hands, as femmes fatales often do. (Interestingly all three women play characters named after flowers: Violet, Lily, and Marigold.)

Jeffries is always recognizable in his various guises, but it doesn't get in the way of the film.

The ending of the movie is a nice touch of black comedy, proving yet again that Mrs. Tate's advice is rubbish: people should NOT be trusted.

not great. but nice. an ironic story, a decent cast, few scenes with monsters, three beautiful actresses and Lionel Jeffries in a collection of characters. it is far to impress but can be not bad occasion of entertainment. a crazy script, a wise mother and a naive son. levels of a bizarre/unrealistic career and acceptable humor. in fact, a parody and puzzle of usual parts from dramas/thriller/horror of period. a play without great ambitions but acceptable for a rainy afternoon refuge. the acting, like the story is only an exercise to give some soul to a chaotic script. unique sparkle - Amy Dalby performance. result - easy form of fun and a gray movie.

A bumbling bobby, with the aid of his mother, rises through the P.D., becomes the leader of a Latin-American revolution and inherits a fortune. 1st Stella murders her husband and buries him in the basement, then Honor raises St.Bernard size spiders and commits her spouse to a mental institution and Shirley cons the hero into the revolution. All without the knowing sense of the hero, aided and abetted by his mother plottings.

What a wacko plot! The should have made this with John Cleese as the star and it would have been a bigger hoot.

I've just viewed the gorgeous print recently shown on TCM, and I can assure the previous reviewer, and anyone else who has seen a pan and scan copy, that the film is no better in pristine condition than it is otherwise. James Booth is deadly dull as the lead, Lionel Jeffries is obviously trying to channel the spirit of one of Peter Sellers multi-role performances, and the story is ineptly developed. The giant spiders are vaguely amusing but gosh, I went to see Eight Legged Freaks the day before I watched this, and the spiders in that film were a lot more fun.