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). 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 [show more]
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Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is a New York press agent caught up in a complex relationship with the powerful newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). Falco needs to get his showbiz clients placed in the newspapers, and hangs around Hunsecker hoping to garner a mention in his column. Hunsecker is obsessively protective towards his sister Susan (Susan Harrison), and his only apparent desire is to see an end to her budding romance with jazz musician Steve Dallas (Martin Milner). Thus with Falco growing increasingly desperate, Hunsecker lets him know that the one way he can secure access to the column is to break up Susan and Steve, thereby setting in motion a chain of events which will tear them all apart.
Please note this is a region B Blu-ray and will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play. MATCH ME, SIDNEY One of the darkest films ever to come out of the Hollywood mainstream both literally and figuratively this spellbindingly cynical study of Machiavellian media machinations in a neon-drenched New York City was the first and best American film by Alexander Mackendrick, who already had several Ealing Studios classics on his CV (Whisky Galore, The Man in the White Suit, Mandy, The Ladykillers) when he crossed the Atlantic. Considering his star status, Burt Lancaster was famously fearless when it came to risking audience sympathies, and he gives one of his most memorable performances as ruthless gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, who ll go to any lengths to break up his sister s unsuitable romance, even if it means destroying the reputation of press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis). Brilliantly scripted by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman from the latter s autobiographical short story, and filmed in gleaming monochrome by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, Sweet Smell of Success is one of the greatest and most clear-eyed of all American films, lifting up the stone of Fifties decorum and unflinchingly revealing what was crawling underneath.
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