Head Office is a 1985 comedy film. It stars Judge Reinhold, Eddie Albert, Lori-Nan Engler, Jane Seymour, Richard Masur, Michael O'Donoghue, Ron Frazier, Merritt Butrick and was directed and written by Ken Finkleman.
Description
Jack Issel (Reinhold) just graduated from business school and joined I.N.C., a large American corporation. On his trip up the corporate ladder, he sees the dirty underside of the corporate world and how it corrupts people. His two mentors, the stuffy and buttoned up corporate president Scott Dantley (Michael O'Donoghue) and the head vice president Bob Nixon (Ron Frazier), in fact, show him first-hand how to cheat and blackmail one's way to the top. Jack is furthered aided by his personnel officer Max (Richard Masur) who also tells Jack that money and power come first before people, as does Jack's supervisor Jane (Jane Seymour) who's hell-bent on sleeping her way to the top by seducing every man she meets to get ahead in what she sees as a man's world.
Unsure of his abilities, and often incompetent, Jack can't figure out why he keeps getting promoted. Could it have something to do with his father (George Coe) being an influential (but corrupt) Senator?
Among the numerous subplots, Jack meets and falls in love with a young woman named Rachel (Lori-Nan Engler), who turns out to be the radical, left-wing daughter of the ruthless chairman of the board, Pete Helmes (Eddie Albert), who is revealed to be promoting Jack so he can gain Jack's father, Senator Issel's support to close down a textile plant in a small upstate town called Allenville, and move it into the Latin American country of San Marcos for company self interest. Jack spends the rest of the movie trying to stop I.N.C. from closing down the plant, and trying to win Rachel's heart to prove that he can be a good businessman.
This film has a surprisingly strong supporting cast in the many interrelated and unrelated subplots who include such established stars as Danny DeVito and Rick Moranis who have roles that are little more than cameos.
Location
The film was largely filmed in Toronto, Ontario, part of a growing trend in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s of making American films there. Scenes were also filmed in nearby Oshawa, Ontario at the Parkwood Mansion.
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