TotalTelly.co.uk
Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV
The Sweet Smell Of Success [1957]
![The Sweet Smell Of Success [1957]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41T3AAQEHTL._SL160_.jpg)
Written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets (who based the Hunsecker character on the similarly brutal and power-mad Walter Winchell), the film follows Falco's attempts to promote a client through Hunsecker's column--until he is forced to make a deal with the devil and help Hunsecker ruin a jazz musician who has the nerve to date Hunsecker's sister. Shooting on location, mostly at night, director Alexander MacKendrick and cinematographer James Wong Howe capture this New York demi-monde in silky black and white, in which neon and shadows share a scarily symbiotic relationship--a near-match for the poisonous give-and-take between the edgy Curtis and the dismissive Lancaster. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com Original Theatrical Trailer
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £2.85 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
A classic from the late 1950s, The Sweet Smell of Success looks at the string-pulling behind-the-scenes action between desperate press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) and the ultimate power broker in that long-ago showbiz Manhattan, gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster).
Editorial
Video Description
DVD Special Features:
Interactive Menu Screens
Chapter Selections
Subtitles: French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
Soundtrack: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English, German
Editorial
Synopsis
Director Alexander Mackendrick breaks away from black comedy (THE LADYKILLERS) and goes for full-fledged noir in this spectacular hard-boiled tale of greed, corruption, and brutality. In the flashing neon nighttime of NYC, grasping press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) trawls the city's toniest nightspots--21,the Elysian--searching for the king of celebrity columnists, J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). Falco is on the outs with Hunsecker because he hasn't successfully broken up the romance between Hunsecker's sister, Susie (Susan Harrison), and straitlaced jazz guitarist Steve Dallas (Martin Milner). The all-powerful Hunsecker is punishing Falco's failure by not printing any of the publicist's items. Desperate to make a living, Falco reveals a dirty plan to separate weak-willed Susie from her beau. While disgusted by Falco's slimy trade, the threatening, malicious columnist is determined to keep Susie for himself, so he agrees. In this jazzily scored, seamy nocturnal world, everyone is expendable as Hunsecker pushes for his twisted desires and Falco grasps for success. With their machine-gun dialogue and despicable behavior, Hunsecker and Falco are as dangerous as gangsters. The person who comes out on top when the sun rises, however, is a true surprise.
Editorial
From the Back Cover
A powerful film about a ruthless journalist and an unscrupulous press agent who’ll do anything to achieve success, this fascinating, compelling story crackles with taut direction and whiplash dialogue. Bristling with vivid performances by Curtis and Lancaster, this gutsy expose of big-city corruption is a timeless classic that cuts deep and sends a chilling message.
It’s late at night in the steamy, neon-lit streets of New York’s Times Square, and everything’s buzzing with nervous energy. But press agent Sidney Falco (Curtis) is oblivious top the whirlwind of street vendors, call girls and con men bustling around him as he nervously waits for the early edition of The Globe. Whose career did gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker launch today … and whose did he destroy.
Short and very sweet
Review date: 2008-07-13 Rating: 10 out of 10
This movie is noir, but with a little more edge. The only film like it I can think of is the classic Double Indemnity, not alike in storyline, but similar in style and attitude. They both have a very suave screenplay, choc full of sharp and streetwise parlance. Like the earlier, Ray Chandler scripted movie, this Cliff Odets piece oozes cool but with a little more attitude. It is cynical, worldly and downright memorable. The dark b&w photography suits the mood of the picture perfectly and the finest performance of Tony Curtis' career just falls out of him as if he knows that sort of character so well. It doesn't aim too high in movie terms, it just deals with its tight little story, while saying alot about the world the main characters inhabit and then finishes without too much of a bang. It is neat, classical noir delivered beautifully. Unfornunately its relative modesty, and an uncommonly good year for movies meant it picked up no major award from Hollywood, but you can't watch this and say it's unnoticable. One of those slightly smaller Hollywood movies that seems to get more worthy as the years go by, and earns its classic status better than many of the bigger more celebrated films of the era. That screenplay and that New York vibe make sure of that.
Similar Products
- The Night Of The Hunter [1955]
- Kiss Me Deadly [1955]
- The Big Heat [1953]
- The Killers [1946]
- Out Of The Past [1947]
Reviews
Not so sweet
Review date: 2005-04-30 Rating: 8 out of 10
A wonderful slice of not so sweet life, with Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster putting in sublime performances. Burt Lancaster plays a newspaper columnist who is rich, powerful, cold and controlling. Tony Curtis as a press agent, despises him but wants to be him at the same time. The casual manipulation of the peoples lives they come into contact with, with catastrophic results is fascinating to watch. Thoroughly recommended, the only drawback being the lip synch is badly out. If you can get past that, you're in for a treat
Magnificent sharp and bitter urban masterpiece
Review date: 2002-04-25 Rating: 10 out of 10
Fifties New York. A few night hours in the life of a parasitic press agent, Sidney Falco (Curtis) and the monster he feeds off, big-time showbiz columnist JJ Hunsecker (Lancaster).
Falco willingly submits to JJ's humiliations because he needs the scraps of publicity JJ deigns to throw Falco's clients in his daily column.
But now JJ needs a favour; will Falco destroy the lives of two innocent people just to stay JJ's favoured pet?
The two leads are brilliant. Curtis is nervous, cynical and strangely beautiful. By turns disgusted at the squalid lapdog he has become and thrilled by the reflected power of JJ.
Lancaster as JJ is as monumental a screen presence as Kane or Kurtz; the ground shakes and the air hums when he gets angry.
The scene where a Senator is paying court to JJ with Falco hovering between revulsion and reverence is near perfect: machine-gun dialogue with each bullet carefully dipped in venom.
You could cut yourself on the sharp black and white night photography and the music adds to the jittery atmosphere.
Sure, some of the lesser characters pale against the screen presence of Lancaster and Curtis, and the plot takes over a bit too much toward the end, but this is a riveting essay on power and self-loathing.
A word about the director: nothing in the prevoius work of Alexander Mackendrick prepares you for this. He directed some equally wonderful but very different films (The Ladykillers, The Man in the White Suit, Whisky Galore! ) and is sadly neglected in some quarters. This a dark and brutal masterpiece.
"Match me, Sidney. "
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Sam Levene
Tony Curtis
Burt Lancaster
Susan Harrison
Martin Milner
Creators:
Burt Lancaster (Primary Contributor)
Tony Curtis (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: MGM Entertainment
Manufacturer: MGM Entertainment
EAN: 5050070007800
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2002-04-15
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 92 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1957
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)