Rating: 
Summary: "From now on, the best of everything is good enough for me!"
Review: The only problem I have with this film (and it is a film, it is cinema, not just a movie) is that it doesn't last long enough.
An hour and a half? I wish there were more scenes of Sidney Falco's life, some more scenes between Lancaster's seething Hunsecker and his timid sister (played by Susan Harrison). More wonderful scenes of Hunsecker baiting Falco. One of the best things about this film is the authentic location shots of NYC in the 50s. This film feels more realistic than other films of the 50s. This is not like "An Affair To Remember" or some other glossy Hollywood fare. "...Success" takes us to the underbelly of the city, and I'm not talking about the teen gangs etc., but the atmosphere of desperation and cynicism that leads certain people to lose their humanity. One of the most underrated (and unseen) films of all time....Brilliant
Rating:
Summary: You Won¿t Believe It . . .
Review: There's no profanity. No blood. No guns, knives, or bombs. But the lack of these things doesn't keep 'Sweet Smell of Success' from being one of the most wicked, hateful, spiteful, vicious, murderous portrayals of how people can act toward one another. Tony Curtis plays Sidney Falco, a two-bit New York press agent trying to reach for the big time. He's such a small time operator that his name is taped to his office door (which is also his apartment door). He makes promises he can't keep and ignores anyone who can't help him in stepping on others on his way to the top. J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) is the King of Gossip. His newspaper column is read by 60 million people a day. He is truly the master of all he surveys, making and breaking celebrities with the stroke of his typewriter. He can see right through you and cut you to pieces in the time it takes you to light his cigarette. Yet you light it anyway. That's how powerful he is. Falco is little more than a minor annoyance to Hunsecker, until the day that Falco learns that Hunsecker's sister is engaged to a musician that Hunsecker hates. Falco sees his opportunity to get in good with Hunsecker by wrecking the musician's career. That's when the sparks start to fly and they never stop until the end of the film. Ernest Lehman's script is sharp, biting, and relentless. Curtis has never been better. And Lancaster, who has had many great roles in his brilliant career, is perfection. 'Sweet Smell of Success' is just as powerful today as it was in 1957. Tough, gritty, hard-hitting...without any four-letter words. Can anyone make 'em like this anymore? Not hardly. 1 hour 36 minutes
Rating: 
Summary: Fine transfer of an enjoyable film.
Review: This film is not, in my opinion, truly great, but it certainly is very good, and offers rewarding viewing particularly in this fine (and inexpensive) DVD format. Tony Curtis gives one of his best performances as the slippery press agent Sidney Falco, while Burt Lancaster is even finer as the ogre-like columnist who can destroy careers and even lives if the mood takes him. The acerbic script has long been famous, with good reason. With such good performances it also enjoys the rare combination of being clever *and* credible which is not always the case, for example with Woody Allen. Occasionally a line doesn't quite come off but for the most part the dialogue really does crackle with electricity. Occasionally certain scenes do outstay their welcome but overall the pace of the film is well handled. Editing and cinematography are excellent: this film has always had the reputation of showing 1950s New York nightlife with great flair. For a 96 minute film it starts relatively leisurely but the pace soon picks up on Lancaster's appearance. His beetle-browed character tries to involve Curtis in his attempts to destroy a jazz musician who has dared to begin a relationship with his 19 year old sister. The DVD transfer is very good: excellent black and white contrast, no shimmering of any kind. The image is nigh on flawless, except for a very thin line which runs down the left hand side of the screen for the first few minutes and then reappears for a short while later on. Little should be made of this, as the line is barely more than a hair's thickness and will in no way interfere with your enjoyment of this film. The audio is excellent mono which handles the dialogue and the modern jazz score very well. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A knockout script, stellar acting, and dazzling photography
Review: This film, barely distributed upon release (it's a thinly veiled barb directed at the Walter Winchells of the world), features what is arguably the finest screenplay ever written. Ernest Lehman started the task, but Clifford Odetts (the later years, more bitter Odetts) was called in to "punch it up," as Tony Curtis later explained in a lecture at the Smithsonian a couple of years ago (the film was never shown publicly in Washington until the mid-1990's). (According to Curtis, such lines as "The cat's in the bag, the bag's in the river" were by Odetts, whom Curtis observed in a trailer on the set after midnight in Manhattan at a typewriter next to a whiskey bottle.) What other movie features lines like: "My left hand hasn't seen my right hand in 30 years"? This is clearly Tony Curtis' greatest role as a sleazy press agent, yet it is nearly topped by Burt Lancaster's chilling performance as a corrupt columnist. The dialog moves at breakneck speed chock full of such artifice that one is left nearly breathless trying to follow along. For jazz aficionados, check out the cameo appearance by Chico Hamilton's quintet with Paul Horn on flute and Fred Katz on cello, a rare film recording of their trademark "Tuesday at 2" late night jazz riffs. (The soundtrack equals the excellence of the rest of the film.) The photography by James Wong Howe is, as usual, impeccable, making ample use of wide angle lenses. For New Yorkers, this film captures the essence of Manhattan after dark. Although the setting is the world of the airwaves, the print media, and publicity hounds, the script is so true to life that I've found astonishing parallels to my workplace. Yet the words are so laden with methaphor as to defy the imagination. Sit back and let this picture take you away. It's a ride you won't soon forget.
Rating:
Summary: Dripping with contempt, loathing, and hatred
Review: This is a film that holds up well to repeated viewings. The jazzy score by Elmer Bernstein combines with the beautiful black & white cityscapes of cinamatographer James Wong Howe and the acid dialog for one hell of a ride. Burt Lancaster projects icy menace as the powerful, Walter Winchell-derived J. J. Hunsecker. Tony Curtis has the role of his life as the oily, grasping press agent, Sidney Falco. (In fact, I think this is the only movie in which Curtis could be mistaken for a good actor.) Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman turned out a script that's a caustic indictment of the American worship of money, fame, power...but that makes it seem serious and dull. There's a tightly-wound, over-the-top quality to the dialog and characterizations that's fun and enormously entertaining. The evocation, too, of New York circa 1957 gives the whole thing context and heft. There are loads of location shots, almost all at night, that give a real feel of the city----the clubs, the all-night diners, the newstands, the trash, the neon. You can almost taste it. Plus the real-life Chico Hamilton Quintet plays on screen!
Rating:
Summary: Dripping with contempt, loathing, and hatred
Review: This is a film that holds up well to repeated viewings. The jazzy score by Elmer Bernstein combines with the beautiful black & white cityscapes of cinamatographer James Wong Howe and the acid dialog for one hell of a ride. Burt Lancaster projects icy menace as the powerful, Walter Winchell-derived J. J. Hunsecker. Tony Curtis has the role of his life as the oily, grasping press agent, Sidney Falco. (In fact, I think this is the only movie in which Curtis could be mistaken for a good actor.) Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman turned out a script that's a caustic indictment of the American worship of money, fame, power...but that makes it seem serious and dull. There's a tightly-wound, over-the-top quality to the dialog and characterizations that's fun and enormously entertaining. The evocation, too, of New York circa 1957 gives the whole thing context and heft. There are loads of location shots, almost all at night, that give a real feel of the city----the clubs, the all-night diners, the newstands, the trash, the neon. You can almost taste it. Plus the real-life Chico Hamilton Quintet plays on screen!
Rating:
Summary: WOAH HO HO!!
Review: This is a grand movie. One of my favorite films of all time. Everything about it is great. Let's start with the look: It perfectly captures the feel of night life. The picture is crisp and clear, and the movie wisely was made in black and white. Colorizing this movie would be the most awful thing you could ever do..... EVER! Hands off, Ted Turner! The pace moves along at such a perfect speed that this movie almost feels like it was made today. The dialogue is amazing; you hear something new everytime. And the characters are some of my favorites to come from any movie. Except for the melodramatic parts played by the two tragic lovers, the acting is great. The only flaw in this film is what I mentioned above; the melodramatic parts. But they only make the great scenes with Curtis and Lancaster seem even greater. The melodrama is just there to remind you that this is a 50s movie. Buy this today. You know you got the money!
Rating:
Summary: Prospecting for Dirt
Review: This is a nearly perfect 1950s meatgrinder of a film. I saw it about 20 years ago when I was a teenager, and just "liked" the movie. But, rewatching it, I sat awestruck by Alexander Mackendrick's fast-paced direction, James Wong Howe's simultaneously sumptuous and repulsive photographic portrait of 1950s Manhattan, Elmer Bernstein's street-smart jazz score and a screenplay by Ernie Lehman and Clifford Odets that's so cynical it makes Billy Wilder come off like Frank Capra -- what more can I say? Wow! Burt Lancaster as the caustic and ruthless gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker is one of his greatest roles. The ever-present horn-rimmed glasses that span his eyes and bridge his nose are somewhat off-putting on the screen idol at first, but they grow on you. Lancaster is droll and owlish as Hunsecker -- who's based on real-life dirt maven Walter Winchell -- and the glasses are so much more appropos for the wiseacre Hunsecker than Winchell's trademark newspaperman's hat. As immutable as a force of nature, Lancaster plays Hunsecker ramrod-stiff-and-straight, a man so consumed by his own megalomania and self-righteousness that his blinding certainly in his own infallibility radiates brilliantly and deadly. No one can rival Lancaster in this type of role, which was followed by equally stirring performances as Elmer Gantry (1960) and Gen. James Matoon Scott in "Seven Days in May" (1964). Constantly about the immovable mover Lancaster is Tony Curtis as sleazy publicity man Sidney Falco, a scurrying rat of a satellite whose sole purpose in life is to revolve around Lancaster, scrounging for crumbs along the way. It is fascinating watching Curtis plead, cajole, manipulate, self-efface and backstab just to get his clients' names in Hunsecker's column. Curtis' mind, soul and being are so accustomed to the gutter that he cannot even contemplate the stars. Like Hunsecker, Falco is a force of nature, but on a much smaller scale, sort of like the flu, or syphillis. One day, though Falco finally sees daylight as Hunsecker offers him the opportunity to guest-write his column while Hunsecker is on a cruise. The price, though, is to destroy an up-and-coming musician played by Martin Milner, who is wooing Hunsecker's sister. Falco barely flinches as he sets about setting the boy up, causing Hunsecker's sister to attempt suicide. An engrossing indictment of the insatiable quest for celebrity, "Sweet Smell of Success" is a wonderful companion piece to Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd" and Sidney Lumet's "Network." One caveat: Lancaster speaks his trademark line "of course," but doesn't repeat it immediately thereafter.
Rating:
Summary: An Autopsy of "Success" in Manhattan
Review: This is among the nastiest of films about a world which few of us ever experience: The highly competitive world of publicity-seekers in Manhattan. At its center is J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), a character reputedly based on gossip columnist Walter Winchell who attacked the film viciously when it was first released in 1957. Ernest Lehman wrote the short story ("Tell Me About Tomorrow") on which he based his screenplay. Hunsecker has a constant need for material to include in his newspaper column. He is fed by ambitious and (when necessary) unscrupulous publicists such as Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) who earn their living and sustain their influence by placing items in Hunsecker's columns. There are several sub plots which include a romantic relationship between Hunsecker's beloved daughter Susan (Susan Harrison) and Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), a young jazz musician of whom her highly-protective (if not psychotic) father thoroughly disapproves. Lancaster is brilliant as Hunsecker but so is Curtis as Falco, fawning over the columnist who can make him or break him at any time. Or have his personal thug Harry Kelso (Emile Meyer) do so. How interesting that Alexander MacKendrick (renowned for his direction of Alec Guinness in two masterpieces of nuanced comedy, The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers) agreed to direct this film. The cinematography by James Wong Howe is first-rate. As indicated in this film, the "Great White Way" can also be dark and dangerous for those who do not understand how and why the "sweet smell of success" can so quickly become the stench of failure...if not of their own decomposition.
Rating:
Summary: Laserlike
Review: This is not a good DVD. The sound is variable, and the picture isn't always sharp. But it's impossible to deny the film 5 stars: the oxyacetylene cuts right into the bone. Lancaster exudes a sick, evil power with a hyper-tense performance unmatched by anyone else in any other movie. And it's believable: I've known Hunseckers just like this character, and still do. Curtis plays up to perfection. There is some kind of merciless, unblinking truth about the way these protagonists interact, and the remorseless manner in which their motivations convert humanity into granite. Did little Suzy deliberately plan the finale, and set up Falco's destruction? The question is left unanswered, and the hard fact in the end is that Hunsecker is still not going to crack. That would be just too generous of him.
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