Sweet Smell of Success

Burt Lancaster stars as J.J. Hunsecker, a despotic newspaper columnist who wields his words like weapons. Tony Curtis costarring as Sidney Falco, a desperately ambitious press agent who sells what's left of his soul to curry favor with Hunsecker in this stunning 1957 Broadway noir, which is set almost entirely at night on the streets and in the clubs and bars and offices of New York's theater district. Lancaster plays the king of this jungle like a human panther, dominating the film even when he's off-screen, while Curtis delivers the most dynamic performance of his career as the jittery toady circling Hunsecker to get his scraps of the American dream. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick and written by screenwriter Ernest Lehman (who based Lancaster's character on Walter Winchell) and acclaimed playwright Clifford Odets (responsible for some of the most acidic lines), Sweet Smell of Success is one of cinema's most lacerating visions of the predatory urban world—all without a single murder, gunshot, or pulled knife. The nocturnal photography is electric, while the cutting dialogue is razor-sharp: “You're dead, son. You're just not buried.” Criterion has restored and remastered the film for a stunning new DVD edition and Blu-ray debut, with extras including audio commentary by cinema scholar James Naremore, interviews with James Mangold (on Mackendrick) and film critic Neal Gabler (on Winchell), archival documentaries on Mackendrick and cinematographer James Wong Howe, and a booklet. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)