Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

smart, sharp, thrilling, and made me shiver

I watched this film several months ago, and still the characters stand out sharply in my mind. Tony Curtis plays Sid Falco marvelously, as a man whose mind is quick with an excuse, an accusation, a bit of flattery, whatever the occasion calls for; this is a small, slick man, swimming around the ankles of larger and more powerful men. He knows he's an unscrupulous guy, but wants to work his way up the food chain. Sometimes you think he cares about going too far in his pursuit of fame and wealth - Curtis gives Falco moments of blank pause, expressions of troubled calculation - but he goes ahead anyway with every dirty plot he thinks will serve him well. As the cold colossus J.J. Hunsecker, Burt Lancaster seriously gave me chills; he delivers a brilliant and well-controlled performance. He's sharp and clean, with his powerful stature, squared jaw, and steely glasses; his speech is quiet and precise, and even his little gestures seem to send ripples through the room. I also quite enjoyed Susan Harrison as his sister, Susan, who's winsome and worn down, but still firm enough to try and get out from under her older brother's thumb; I liked how even though she's nineteen, she's got old, tired eyes, an older spirit.

I loved the screaming bright lights and deep shadows of New York City, the energy that ran through the film in electric currents. I enjoyed peering into every bar and jazz club and seedy room that Sid Falco pops up in. I liked how Susan and her beau, a steady and honest jazz musician, seem to speak in clear, round tones while Falco's and Hunsecker's dialogue comes out in a sharp patter, full of quick sharp stabs and quiet turns of the knife. Amidst the poisonous words, the lies and slander, the jibes and jokes that lead to uneasy laughter, you wait and watch for someone with integrity to (hopefully) prevail. I loved how the film shows us the power of words (even just a few words) wielded effectively, whether for good or - in a lot of cases - for the purpose of destroying people. December 30, 2008

Holy Crap!!

I always sort of put off seeing this even though I've heard good things about it. I think it was because Tony Curtis is in it and the only thing I've ever seen him do were really bad introductions to some Alfred Hitchcock DVDs. In those introductions, Curtis fumbled his lines (which were often filled with errors) and so I assumed he was the worst actor in the world. I should kick myself.

This movie is not only one of the best "noir" films I've seen but one of the best movies I've ever seen PERIOD.

It's included in the noir category despite it not being a crime drama at all. The reason for this is it's shadow-filled cinematography and its theme of corruption. According to this movie, human beings are bleak, cold-hearted creatures.

It's about a Broadway columnist (played by Burt Lancaster in one of his best roles) who manipulates everyone he comes in contact with. He is one of the vilest, cold-hearted bastards I've ever seen in a movie because he's just so real. This isn't a noir hit-man in a fedora hat. This guy could be real and I'm sure some of us have met or will meet someone like him. Tony Curtis plays a bastard publicity agent though you sort of feel bad for him even despite his faults. He's the "protagonist" and we are told the story through his eyes. There are a couple of characters who have integrity and are not so corrupted but they only count as victims of the manipulation.

The acting is top-notch. Both Lancaster and Curtis had me in awe throughout the whole movie. Usually movies about "show business" don't interest me all that much but this movie was fascinating. This is dark look at NYC life in the 1950s. I recommend it with every noir-loving bone in my body.
September 14, 2008

Great film - Correct aspect ratio?

I'm not so sure about this being the wrong aspect ratio... IMDB shows it as 1.85:1 but they COULD be wrong.

The director, Alexander McKendrick, was brought over from Britians' Ealing studios to direct this film and the trend for British 'widescreen' was 1.66:1 (as it is today, as opposed to the common American film standard of 1.85:1). I'm assuming that since he was familiar with 1.66:1 he proposed filming it in that ratio to Burt Lancaster (who's production company produced it). There were not a lot of films being produced in a 'widescreen' format yet (1957) and there certainly were no established standards yet so, it was a very progressive decision they undertook.

This film looks marvelous on my Sony 52" LCD - properly anamorphic as far as I can discern. If we have, indeed, been shorted by a cropping of 1.66:1 from 1.85:1 then we may hope for a definitive Blu-ray release soon but, overall, this is a tip-top transfer. August 22, 2008

Impeccable, influential noir.

Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick, 1957)

I've no idea where I got the notion that Sweet Smell of Success is a comedy-- perhaps it's because MacKendrick is these days best known for having directed The Ladykillers, of which the Coen brothers directed a quite useless remake a few years back-- but oh, how wrong I was. This is noir in all its glory, a film to rival Wilder's Ace in the Hole as the definitive muckraking-the-muckrakers movie. Where the latter film deals in the fabrication of news stories by drawing out a tragedy, Sweet Smell of Success gives us the relationship between press agent and columnist, and how that relationship can be abused.

Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is one of those press agents-- a slimy huckster who evades his clients and a would-be stringer for highly influential columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). Hunsecker, however, has "frozen" Falco out of his column, and Falco is getting increasingly desperate. Why did Hunsecker do this? Because he asked Falco to interfere with Hunsecker's sister Susan (Susan Harrison)'s relationship with Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), a promising musician. (Hunsecker explains why he wants this to happen to Falco, but we get the feeling there's more to it than Hunsecker lets on). After Falco finally tracks Hunsecker down, Hunsecker intimates that Falco has one more chance to come between the lovers, and that if he does, he'll be back in Hunsecker's good graces. Falco hatches an elaborate plan which seems to be going well, but Hunsecker, not content to leave well enough alone, tosses a monkeywrench into the works at the worst possible time.

Sweet Smell of Success has been called the most quotable movie ever, and I'm not going to argue-- the script, from Ernest Lehman (based on his own novel) and playwright Clifford Odets, is a jewel from beginning to end. With a foundation this solid, a director as fine as MacKendrick, and two top actors in the lead roles, how can you go wrong? Well, it's certainly possible, and it's been done, but not on MacKendrick's watch. Sweet Smell of Success is a tight, pitch-perfect piece of noir with a comedic bite and, ironically, a gossip columnist's sensibility for wallowing in the depths to which it aspires; think of it as Valley of the Dolls for the newspaper industry and you won't be terribly far off. A brilliant movie. **** ½
May 30, 2008

The Real Price of Success

Apparently screenwriters when characterizing Broadway theater critics refuse to touch them with anything less than a cattle prod. At least that has been my recent film review experience after watching All About Eve and its totally cynical critic Addison played superbly by George Saunders. Here we are confronted with the weasel Broadway critic and man about town J.J played by Burt Lancaster ably assisted by press flak Sydney Falco played to a grovelling tee by Tony Curtis.

The story line is a little thin, mainly concerning J.J.'s overweening concern that his very much younger sister does not wind up with some ne'er do well. The tricks, manipulations, and down right skullduggery hatched up by this pair seem all to real to a modern audience who know that fame is fleeting and one better grab it by the neck, fast. More than a few bargains with the devil have been made fot that elusive commodity. The tricks played in this film set in 1950's Broadway, however, seem almost like kids stuff compared to the vicious action today. That, my friends, was something of a `golden age' of gentile skullduggery by comparison.

A note on Tony Curtis who on the face of it seems to have been billed as something of a `pretty' boy. But then you think about the performance here and in Spartacus and in Some Like It Hot and one, including this reviewer, is compelled to start changing one's opinion of the depth of Mr. Curtis's talent. December 10, 2007

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