Yahoo! Sweet Smell of Success is one of my favorite movies and was
#1 on my ballot. I've seen it several time and wrote two reviews on it that I just combined into one which I posted below. Sorry this is long but it's worth it....at least I think so
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
I love this film! The dialogue snaps and sparkles with clever-tudes. Every word spoken either drives the plot forward or expands the characters and their story. The dialogue is fast paced, yet nothing is superfluous. Every word has it's place. Every action, every scene is designed to fill in the details. The film's razor sharp dialogue is a trademark of screenwriter Clifford Ordets. In
Sweet Smell of Success words are weapons...One well placed remark, one turn of the screw and someone is elevated to high places...or burnt to the ground.
The film is powered by two fine actors both at odds with each other and yet both similar in their utter lack of morals. As the story unfolds we're swept up in this amazing world of power, greed, ballyhoo and empty promises.
Burt Lancaster is J.J. Hunsecker, the power driven columnist. He's cold, cruel, intelligent and full of self importance. Lancaster really brings this role to life...J.J. Hunsecker was patterned after real life newspaper columnist Walter Winchell, a man reportedly as notorious as the fictional Hunsecker.
"Walter Winchell was so obsessive about his daughter's love life that he had her institutionalized as being emotionally unstable, and with the help of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had forced her lover to leave the country."
But it's Tony Curtis who gives new meaning to dimension in his portrayal of a sleazy operator who calls himself a publicity agent. He's a man who wears many faces and can work every angle. I can't image a better actor for this role than Curtis. Despite how low his character goes and what he's willing to do to the people around him....he maintains a charming facade. Curtis infuses his character with just enough charm with that 'ice cream face' of his, that just maybe one day he'll wise up and stop allowing his all consuming greed to drag him down to the gutter...Then again this is noir, sophisticated, but a noir none the less...and like any good noir the 'heavy' might have a touch of humanity residing in him somewhere but not enough to save him from himself.
The cinematography of legendary James Wong Howe is critical to the film...So many movies use tight shots of the actors, as it's economical to shoot with a telephoto lens. But bless James Wong Howe! He uses mid to wide angle lenses out on the actual streets of NYC and in that way he captures a realistic feel of night life and raw power that flows from the streets into the veins of men like Sidney Falco and J.J. Hunsecker.
I've seen only a few films that I would deem flawless.
The Sweet Smell of Success is one of them.
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