{"id":5427,"date":"2015-03-30T05:23:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T04:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=5427"},"modified":"2015-04-03T23:34:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T22:34:26","slug":"the-sweet-smell-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/03\/30\/the-sweet-smell-of-success\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sweet Smell of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sweet<\/a>
The Sweet Smell of Success <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Blu-ray

\nRelease date:<\/B> 30 March 2015

\nDistributor:<\/B> Arrow Video

\nDirector:<\/B> Alexander Mackendrick

\nWriters:<\/B> Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, Alexander Mackendrick

\nCast:<\/B> Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison

\nUSA 1957

\n96 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

***** out of *****<\/b><\/p>\n

Directed to perfection by Alexander Mackendrick and starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis at the peak of their considerable powers as actors, The Sweet Smell of Success<\/i> provides a stunning film noir<\/i> portrait of the sleazy world of 50s press agents and gossip columnists in New York City. Written by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, based on Lehman’s novella and featuring considerable uncredited rewrites by Mackendrick himself, the picture is blessed with one of the great screenplays of all time. In terms of story structure, characterization and dialogue, few American films can match it.<\/p>\n

J.J. Hunsecker (Lancaster) is a Walter Winchell-like newspaperman of unparalleled power and popularity. The signs and billboards splashed everywhere on the Isle of Manhattan are adorned with an image of his trademark heavy-framed spectacles, accompanied by copy that proclaims him to be \u2018The Eyes of Broadway\u2019. Nothing, as the film proves, escapes the God-like gaze of Hunsecker. He makes and breaks politicians and show business personalities with a few deft strokes of his vitriolic pen.<\/p>\n

He is, of course, fed many of his laudatory and\/or scurrilous items by the bottom feeders of the business, the press agents who charge their clients a pretty penny to keep their names in the papers and in the most positive manner possible. The king of them all, the sleaziest benthos in all of New York is none other than Sidney Falco (Curtis). He\u2019s equal parts detritivore and carnivore \u2013 a sea cucumber when he needs to be, and a stingray, which he mostly wants to be. He values his ability to keep his clients happy, score new<\/i> clients and to curry favour with Hunsecker in hopes he\u2019ll achieve the same level of success.<\/p>\n

When Hunsecker\u2019s little sister Susie (Susan Harrison) is courted by Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), an up-and-coming jazz musician, the innate snobbery of the omnipotent scribe kicks in, but even more compelling is his foul, incestuous obsession with her. He charges Sidney with digging up enough dirt on the young fellow in order to keep his sister in his own clutches and no other man\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Sidney\u2019s complex machinations take up much of the film\u2019s running time and are so on the edge of a kind of insanity, that the entire world Mackendrick, Odets and Lehman etch borders on the surreal. What Hunsecker wants is no mere separation twixt his sister and her lover.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want that boy taken apart,\u2019 he intones so quietly and malevolently.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that dialogue seems to drive much of the film\u2019s drama. There have to be more immortal lines in the picture than many of the rest all put together.<\/p>\n

\u2018Match me, Sidney,\u2019 Hunsecker demands, seeking Falco\u2019s compliance with his request for a cigarette light.<\/p>\n

\u2018I make no brief for my bilious private life,\u2019 Sidney slimily ejaculates upon the sleazy rival columnist Otis Elwell (David White), in order to make him believe he\u2019s through with Hunsecker, \u2018but he’s got the morals of a guinea pig and the scruples of a gangster\u2019.<\/p>\n

Every line is a gem and Hunsecker gets the lion\u2019s share of them. One of the best is his descriptive invective hurled in Sidney\u2019s direction:<\/p>\n

\u2018I wouldn’t like to take a bite of you; you’re a cookie full of arsenic.\u2019<\/p>\n

The simplest and most evocative line occurs when Hunsecker considers a woman\u2019s caterwauling laughter and the sight of a drunk being tossed from a 52nd St. bar. He literally salutes the grime and filth of New York, which we see through the gloriously grimy lens of James Wong Howe\u2019s immortal black and white cinematography, as Hunsecker happily declares:<\/p>\n

\u2018I love this dirty town.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dirty, indeed.<\/p>\n

And yet, in spite of the almost non-stop dialogue, one of the more astonishing achievements of the picture is just how visual the storytelling is. Many key set pieces of verbal chicanery and manipulations can be watched with the sound completely off, and by simply observing, one is able to easily ascertain the goals of the characters.<\/p>\n

Try it sometime.<\/p>\n

Put on the sequence where Sidney tries to blackmail one character, then, upon failing that, attempts to dupe another with an approach he borrows from the man he\u2019s tried to blackmail. ALL the actions and even many underlying motivations can be noted by what is SEEN, but NOT heard. After this, play the scene with sound and thrill to how the dramatic beats are there visually, and of course, enhanced delectably by the dialogue. I\u2019ve done this with my filmmaking students who \u2013 NOT SURPRISINGLY \u2013 had never seen the film before. It works! It\u2019s also proof positive how superb the writing is and most importantly, how breathtaking Mackendrick\u2019s direction proved to be.<\/p>\n

The Sweet Smell of Success<\/i> is simply and purely, one of the best movies ever made.<\/p>\n

Greg Klymkiw<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

The Arrow Blu-Ray release is accompanied by a bevy of sumptuous features. The best of them include Michael Brooke\u2019s magnificent, virtually definitive essay in the attractive booklet and the great Dermot McQuarrie TV documentary <\/i>Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away. The following are not to be sneezed at either: a restored HD presentation of a 4K digital transfer from original 35mm camera negative, the original uncompressed mono, optional English subtitles for those of us who wish to obsessively study the dialogue as the film unspools, an appreciation and scene commentary by Philip Kemp, the theatrical trailer, a gorgeous reversible sleeve with an original poster and new artwork by Chris Walker, as well as the aforementioned booklet, which also comes with Mackendrick\u2019s own analysis of various script drafts.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is this noir<\/i> portrayal of the dirty world of 1950s gossip columnists in New York one of the best movies ever made?
\nReview by Greg Klymkiw<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[1173,133,491,80,1175,1174],"class_list":["post-5427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-dvds-and-blu-rays","tag-1950s-cinema","tag-american-cinema","tag-burt-lancaster","tag-film-noir","tag-press-satire","tag-tony-curtis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-1px","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/02\/01\/the-killers\/","url_meta":{"origin":5427,"position":0},"title":"The Killers","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"February 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There are many great film noirs and Robert Siodmak's film has all the necessary components to be a textbook example but beyond that it is simply an exceptional film. Review by Paul Huckerby","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Killers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/The-Killers-594x363.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/The-Killers-594x363.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/The-Killers-594x363.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2448,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2012\/09\/18\/the-swimmer\/","url_meta":{"origin":5427,"position":1},"title":"The Swimmer","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"September 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A Hollywood oddity from 1968, The Swimmer stars Burt Lancaster as an upper-class suburbanite who, on a summer afternoon, decides to swim home through all of the neighbouring pools. Review by Virginie S\u00e9lavy","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/review_TheSwimmer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/review_TheSwimmer.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/review_TheSwimmer.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2655,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2013\/03\/28\/point-blank\/","url_meta":{"origin":5427,"position":2},"title":"Point Blank","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"March 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The dark side that lurks inside the Western or noir hero is out in the open in Lee Marvin's role as a sociopathic hit man in Point Blank. Review by Paul Huckerby","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Point Blank","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/review_pointblank-594x397.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/review_pointblank-594x397.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/review_pointblank-594x397.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2007\/10\/04\/control\/","url_meta":{"origin":5427,"position":3},"title":"CONTROL","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"October 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Given the subject matter and the art-house photography (apparently Corbijn told the actors how to pose at the end of every scene) you could be forgiven for assuming that the film might be less than a barrel of laughs but it rivals 24-Hour Party People for hilarity. Review by Sean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5588,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/07\/10\/touch-of-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":5427,"position":4},"title":"Touch of Evil","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"July 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Orson Welles\u2019s noir masterpiece in a remastered new edit. Review by Sarah Cronin","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Touch of Evil 4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Touch-of-Evil-4-594x385.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Touch-of-Evil-4-594x385.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Touch-of-Evil-4-594x385.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1155,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2010\/06\/01\/the-killer-inside-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":5427,"position":5},"title":"The Killer inside Me","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"June 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It is rather frustrating that, with a few exceptions, Thompson's remarkable body of work should have led to so many disappointing offerings, and Michael Winterbottom's new adaptation of The Killer inside Me is a particularly deplorable entry into the canon. Review by Virginie S\u00e9lavy","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/review_KillerInsideMe-594x396.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/review_KillerInsideMe-594x396.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/review_KillerInsideMe-594x396.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5427"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5433,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427\/revisions\/5433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}