Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Masterpiece!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Quick wits and fast lips . A film noir taking place inside the corrupt world of newspaper politics.Sidney Falco is a beat journalist for the tycoon J.J., whom treats his newspaper business the way gangsters do - very hands on full with dirty threats. Falco is J.J. personal lap-dog , digging up scandalous stories so he's featured on the front page news column.Falco now in the mix of a very messy love circle involving J.J. little sister and a jazz musician. J.J. wants their relationship broken apart by any means, and employees Falco to resort to numerous tricks to defame him: blackmailing club owners, prostituting cigarette girls for fake column news, and planting drugs for a fake cop bust.Falco just wants the biggest bone in NYC , but unfortunately he's rubbing all the wrong shoulders during the process. The town knows but he and J.J. are not to be trusted, and their scandals eventually come around to bite him on the arse

Fast paced, well acted, tautly directed, and carefully scripted, this superb thriller, in a realistic way, develops a gut-wrenching story, depicts some memorable characters and above all represents the filmmaking of the highest level. It is so dark that you almost feel despair about the world. The dramatic tension is raised a historically new height. If you use one word to describe the movie, then it should be jaw-dropping, which means that you will never close your mouth until the end of the movie.

It's hard to see what people see in this movie. Lancaster is his usual overwrought character and Curtis struggles with a story that makes little sense. All of the characters are caricatures--far more a Hollywood screen-writers idea of life in New York in the 1950s that anything approaching reality. The frequent, shrill jazz music is probably meant to impress but mostly grates. The film is dated and deserves to be retired.

Now how many films could get away with a line like that? Among other memorable lines include, "You're dead, son. Get yourself buried", "I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic", and "Your mouth is as big as a basket and twice as empty". One could argue that Alexander Mackendrick's amorality tale is most remembered for its slickly written screenplay, boasting one sharp one-liner after another. However, the film also succeeds in utilizing its top-notch cast (led masterfully by Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis) set against the backdrop of an atmospheric New York City to the tune of a fittingly accompanied jazz score - never has the city appeared as charming as it does sinister, with its shadowy presence and dark undertones felt throughout the film. To immerse yourself in this film is to hypnotically experience the 'City that Never Sleeps' as a setting of estrangement, overcrowded sidewalks, excessive street noise and the smoke-filled nightclubs and bars.The story is of Sidney Falco and JJ Hunsecker. JJ is a powerful jazz columnist while Falco is an unprincipled press agent much of whose success is contingent on getting that next big story into Hunsecker's column. ("Exactly how does a press agent work?", a man asks him. To which Falco responds, "A press agennt eats a columnist's dirt and is expected to call it manna".) JJ is unhappy with his sister's latest romance with a jazz guitarist named Steve Dallas and seeks out Falco to break it up. We remember these names because these are some highly memorable characters; they talk fast, talk smart and use their charm to persuade people to do what they want from them. Together, both Curtis and Lancaster project a cynicism and otherworldly pizazz that almost transcend their own surroundings. Consider also the script's persistent attribution of its characters to dogs ("Tell me sir, when he dies, do you think he'll go to the dog and cat heaven?") I think what's most compelling about these characters is not so much their complete disregard for human emotion but rather how their hunger and drive for dirt on anyone will come at any cost. Both Falco and JJ are constantly scheming and conniving in their pursuit for success, that 'sweet' smell of it. It's intoxicating to them and their aggressive wordplay distracts us from the true lack of elegance these men have. At their core, their sleaze balls and toy with innocents like puppeteers as a means for personal gain. This kind of greed and narcissism is maybe more relevant today than it was back then and understandably makes this film timeless in its themes and characters. Overall, it's a black and white film whose morals are anything BUT black and white. "I love this dirty town", JJ states in the film's beginning. He's right about the dirty part...