Working Girl is a 1988 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and produced by Douglas Wick. The screenplay was written by Kevin Wade. Melanie Griffith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress while both Sigourney Weaver and Joan Cusack were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Rated: R (movie contains language, sexual content/nudity and brief drug material)
Run Time: 1h 53min
Release Date: December 21, 1988 (USA)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Mike Nichols
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Working Girl stars Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis, David Duchovny, Ricky Lake and Amy Aquino.
Working Girl is the story of Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), a savvy working-class girl from Staten Island with a bachelor’s degree in Business from evening classes who works as for Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) as her secretary in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank. Katharine tells Tess that they are a team and she is willing to accept input from her and trusting her, Tess gives Katharine an excellent business tip. While Katharine is away on a ski holiday, she breaks her leg and is forced to stay in the hospital. She notifies Tess and asks her to take care of things while she is out. Tess inadvertently comes across a memo that Katharine had put together detailing the idea Tess shared with her and was planning to simply steal without giving due credit to her Tess.
While Katharine is out, Tess decides to exact revenge for stealing her idea and reaches out to Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), pretending to be her boss and introduces her idea to Trainer to try and close the deal and save his clients’ company from a hostile takeover. Before Katharine’s return, Jack and Tess spend a lot of time together working through the deal points and begin to slowly fall in love without knowing that Jack is also Katharine’s boyfriend. Things turn ugly when Katharine discovers what Tess has been up to as she tries to swoop in and claim credit for the idea and discredit Tess and reveal that she is actually her private secretary and not the person she has pretended to be.
Movie Quotes
“You want to be taken seriously, you need serious hair.” – Tess McGill
“We haven’t been invited to this thing have we?” – Jack Trainer
“Not exactly, but that makes us…” – Tess McGill
“Total idiots!” – Jack Trainer
“At the right place at the right time.” – Tess McGill
“I have a head for business and a bod for sin. Is there anything wrong with that?” – Tess McGill
“This woman is my secretary!” – Katharine Parker
“She is not!” – Jack Trainer
“Oh, no? Ask her!” – Katharine Parker
Official Movie Trailer
Movie Stars
Harrison Ford as Jack Trainer
Sigourney Weaver as Katharine Parker
Melanie Griffith as Tess McGill
Alec Baldwin as Mick Dugan
Joan Cusack as Cyn
Philip Bosco as Oren Trask
Nora Dunn as Ginny
Oliver Platt as Lutz
Kevin Spacey as Bob Speck
Olympia Dukakis as Personnel Director
Ricky Lake as Bridesmaid
Amy Aquino as Alice Baxter