SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
This is a film noir, albeit without a femme fatale, about corruption: the corruption of power as represented by celebrity columnist J.J.Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), and the corruption of ambition as represented by struggling press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis). Their seedy and symbiotic relationship is at the heart of the film. Falco needs items in Hunsecker’s column about his clients, and Hunsecker needs Falco to dig up juicy items of gossip and to do his dirty work. The power dynamic between them is very much in one direction, with Falco prepared to debase himself every which way, and Hunsecker all too happy to show his contempt for Falco. The film has impressive production values: stunning black-and-white location photography of New York by James Wong Howe, a jazzy score by Elmer Bernstein, and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets. The only surprise perhaps is that this very American film is directed by British Alexander Mackendrick, whose experience ...