Media sleaze and corruption, New York newspaper-columnist style, as the abrasive and arrogant J.J. Hunsecker with his poison pen looks to get exactly what he wants. Fawning publicist Sidney Falco (a never better Tony Curtis – Some Like It Hot, Spartacus) is prepared to do almost anything to get a client’s name in print.
A magnificent black and white hard-edge narrative with an abrasive, jazz-flavoured score from Elmer Bernstein and snappy dialogue, Sweet Smell of Success is a shadowy intensity of a feature. Both Curtis and Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry, Birdman of Alcatraz) as Hunsecker play against type as the columnist calls upon Falco to destroy his younger sister’s relationship with a jazz musician.
Taut and intense, director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers, The Man in the White Suit) saw his film poorly received at the time but which has since grown in stature, frequently appearing in 100 Greatest Movies of All Time lists.
Rating: 88%
An Opinion or Two 