THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
Directed by: Alexander Mackendrick
Written by: Clifford Odets & Ernest Lehman
Internet Movie
Database Entry for full details
GRADE: A (3.7/4)
1957.
A drunk is tossed out of
a nightclub and onto the streets of New York – and straight
into a garbage can. J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), a
conniving and contemptible columnist, looks-on before he turns and
mutters, “I love this dirty town.” Such
is the New York of The
Sweet Smell of Success, by a nose the filthiest New York
movie ever filmed; perhaps cleaner on its face but nastier in its heart than even Taxi Driver. Rarely does a film bare its teeth as
flagrantly as a feral dog.
Tony Curtis plays Sidney, a sycophantic press agent so desperate to get
an item into Mr. Hunsecker’s cloutful column that
he’ll ruin the lives of every innocent person he
meets. He'd even "sell out his own girl," (!) as the original movie poster
explains. With the aid of a snaking camera and a hot jazz
soundtrack, the film propels forward as Sidney peregrinates through
nightclubs, theaters, and offices, its propulsion seemingly unstoppable
(except for a few dragging respites when Curtis is
off-screen.) Most of the film plays out like a voyage through
the subconscious of a castrated capitalist; everywhere Sidney goes, by
nearly everyone he meets, he is embarrassed, emasculated, and
chewed-out. As Hunsecker pointedly avers,
“you’re a prisoner of your own fears, ambition, and
greed” and it seems like just about everybody knows it.
Clifford Odets’ screenplay (with Ernest Lehman) is thick with dirty dialogue, some
of the best ever heard in pictures. Whereas some of
Odets’ stagework, like Awake
and Sing!, feels dated today in its idealism, The Sweet Smell of Success’
undiluted cynicism still tastes fresh (a sensation buttressed by James Wong
Howe’s stark black and white photography.) Go back
to bed boychik, the world’s a mess.
While Curtis carries the movie, it’s Lancaster, who also
co-produced, as Hunsecker who stays with you long after the credits
roll, like the slimey nauseous sensation that accompanies having eaten too much
popcorn. His performance carefully dances that fine line
between (insincere) genteel amiability and bitter, contemptuous
cruelty. It’s a dirty performance as an ornery character in an altogether nasty film.
--
Henry Stewart
