Sweet Smell of Success

Deception, betrayal, slander and the most acrid, corrosive dialog you'll ever encounter on film. All set against the lights of Broadway and the urban jungle of Manhattan.The film was shot in late 1956-early 1957 and the on-location night shots of... Full review

The fact that in 1957 this film was made at all is proof that Walter Winchell's decline was already setting in. Burt Lancaster's J.J. Hunsecker based on Winchell and very frightening accurately portrays the columnist and the power he wielded.For... Full review

There are three reasons that movie fans should check this film out, if you haven't seen it yet:1 - Outstanding dialog. I can't recall a film in which I heard so many clever film-noir lines as this one. Almost everyone... Full review

Read all my reviews at www.midnitcafe.blogspot.com This is the kind of film that could coin an expression like "They don't make 'em like that anymore," except that people have been using that line for every piece of crap that was... Full review

**MILD SPOILERS** It is amazing the number of different ways a great film can weave its alluring web and pull you into its story. Of my 100 favorite films, this one's journey into that rarefied status is unique, based on... Full review

Another poster "stole" the one line summary I wanted to use: "Match me, Sidney." Damn. It's one of the best lines in the movie. Oh, well."Sweet Smell of Success" is a great, wildly entertaining movie. It reminds me of "Dangerous... Full review

After reading Neal Gabler's biography of columnnist Walter Winchell, I watched this again with new eyes. Lancaster captures not the mannerisms or speech patterns of Winchell, but the sense of menace and terror the man held over anybody who wanted... Full review

Remember how scary Robert Mitchum was in Night of the Hunter? Or Darth Vader in the first Star Wars movie? Well Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker is right up there with them. With his clipped words, ice-cold gaze, rigid neck... Full review

This film really brings an air of nostalgia when you compare it to current productions. There are no special effects or noisy music, but nevertheless you are riveted to your chair form beginning to end thanks to a wonderful cast, dialogue,... Full review

"I love this dirty town". "Match me, Sidney". "Maybe I left my sense of humour in my other suit". Great dialogue. Great script, great cinematography, great acting, great music. Christ, what do you want, blood? From the first moment we... Full review

it has some of the best lines ever written for a film.....Turner Classic Movies tip for Mar. 31, 2009:....Other invaluable assets include James Wong Howe's razor sharp black-and-white cinematography and Elmer Bernstein's hard-hitting jazz score..... ... Full Review

Blistering dialogue by characters whose morals are misplaced in a midnight Manhattan combine to make Sweet Smell of Success a sizzling example of film noir, stylistically impeccable, moody and penetrating. Tony Curtis pitches Falco perfectly in the first role of his career that really gives him a chance to show his great talent. ... Full Review

like that other great New York story, All About Eve -.... ... Full Review

like that other great New York story, All About Eve -....a touch of the monster is required and Lancaster doesn't disappoint..... ... Full Review

If it weren't so slick and superb, it would almost resonate like a brilliant accidental note from a master's saxophone.....For example, director Alexander Mackendrick made only two other interesting films, both Alec Guinness comedies ( The Ladykillers and The Man in the White Suit ) of the type that director Robert Hamer ( Kind Hearts and Coronets ) was better at.....and the two genius writers Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets, who refined a razor-sharp, acid-nasty script with some of the cinema's greatest d ... Full Review