Sweet Smell of Success

1957 movie

Rating: 18/20

Plot: Sleasy weasel Sidney Falco's hit the big time, the sort of big time where you get your name taped on the door of your office/bedroom. He's a press agent, successful because of bigwig newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker, a shady but powerful man who can make or break a career with a few typewriter taps. Hunsecker wants a favor in exchange for helping Falco reach the top--the break-up of his sister Susie and her jazz guitarist boyfriend Steve. Falco shoves any existing morals aside in order to please J.J., but he may find out that success doesn't smell quite as sweet as he thought it would.

The dialogue, as crisp and cutting as you'll find, is nearly perfect in Sweet Smell of Success. It dates our story, sure, but it dates it in the same way that Shakespeare's plays date his stories. This is endlessly quotable, and the words that Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster's characters get to say add paint to the already colorful black and white urban setting and to these nocturnal creatures. I'm as cynical as the tone of this movie and therefore have my doubts that anybody has ever talked like the characters in this movie, but who cares? The words are funny and haunting, at times simultaneously, and the script shades the circumstances like the shadows and smoke in your typical film noir. This doesn't exactly fit in with that genre, but it's got similar ideals with almost every scene taking place at night and a hopeless hopeful character fumbling in this web of his own invention. 50's black and white cinematography doesn't look better than this, and I loved how the camera moves in this movie, simply but elegantly focusing on those characters but doing it without ignoring their surroundings. Lancaster's performance as Hunsecker has the perfect amounts of sinister and confident, and Curtis's Falco, a guy you just know isn't going to win in the end despite his unscrupulous craftiness, has this terrific loser frenzy. They could have almost added foaming at the mouth and made it seem appropriate. I liked the fringe characters, too, except Steve was pretty uninspiring. Most people named Steve are though. This is the type of movie that just feels completely right, and it's about perfect.

Speaking of terrific loser frenzy, Cory recommended this one, his way of saying thanks for my recommendation of Eraserhead.