The Sweet Smell of Success

The best thing about The Sweet Smell of Success is the New York street scenes from the 1950s. They shine like a neon dream and in crisp black & white look like an art print come to life. There is much else to like about this film, particularly the performances of Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster. Lancaster is JJ Hunsecker, a powerful gossip columnist, modelled on a real-life columnist of the time, one Walter Winchell. If you find it hard to believe, as I did, that a gossip columnist can wield such power just think of the likes of Alan Jones and John Laws to put it in a contemporary Australian setting. These men wield great power from their bully pulpits and are no more than the gossip columnists of the day. Neither Hunsecker nor Falco, the character played by Curtis have a skerrick of morality and its not giving away much to say that they end up paying a high price. There are stylish scenes and much cracking dialogue to be enjoyed along the way.