Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda) – a housewife whose husband left her for his secretary – begins her own secretarial career at a huge corporation called Consolidated Companies.
Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin), a feisty, veteran office manager, instructs her on the perils and procedures of office life, and of working for Franklin Hart Jr (Dabney Coleman), their chauvinistic, sleazy boss, and his right-hand woman, the crisp, nosy Roz (Elizabeth Wilson).
Meanwhile, Hart’s endless attempts to seduce his happily married secretary, Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton in her movie debut), lead the entire office to think she’s a trollop.
When Hart unfairly passes Violet over for a promotion, she drowns her sorrows at a local bar with Judy and Doralee (who regales the others with tales of Hart’s epic advances).
Later, at Doralee’s house, the women smoke pot, eat barbecue, and concoct hilarious revenge fantasies – a rodeo hog-tie, a Wild West shootout, and a gothic Snow White scenario – about killing their boss.
When a mix-up leads the women to think they have accidentally poisoned Hart’s coffee, they hatch a scheme to protect themselves by stealing Hart’s body from the morgue.
When he ultimately turns up alive, never having drunk the coffee, they must kidnap him to prevent him from blackmailing them or calling the police.
The women then use the absence of their boss to effect some big changes around the office. They set up a crèche, allow flexible working hours, and create a job-sharing plan for those who can’t work full time. Productivity soars – and Hart returns, discombobulated, to find himself credited with the lot.
We learn via the end credits that Violet finally gets her promotion and Judy finds a new husband. Doralee goes off to become a country music star, and Hart is kidnapped by a remote tribe of Amazons.
Judy Bernly Jane Fonda
Violet Newstead
Lily Tomlin
Doralee Rhodes
Dolly Parton
Franklin Hart Jr
Dabney Coleman
Russell Tinsworthy
Sterling Hayden
Roz
Elizabeth Wilson
Mr Hinkle
Henry Jones
Richard ‘Dick’ Bernly
Lawrence Pressman
Missy Hart
Marian Mercer
Director
Colin Higgins
Video
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