moonspinner55 Review of Sweet Smell of Success

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

The constant backbiting and bitterness wears one down quickly...

[6/10 · 9 February 2008]

Critically-lauded but (in its day) unsuccessful adaptation of Ernest Lehman's short story about a New York press-agent supplying gossip to a powerful newspaper columnist, unwisely getting involved in the man's fragile relationship with his gullible sister. Brittle, cynical film isn't juicy or enjoyable, just one-note sour. James Wong Howe's cinematography is vivid and Tony Curtis gives an excellent performance as Sidney Falco (he and co-star Burt Lancaster also served as co-producers), but the screenplay (by Clifford Odets!) offers no let-up from the sleaze, and without a reprieve it loses touch with its audience. Ostensibly aimed at the urban-based intelligentsia, yet it is more melodramatic than sophisticated. ** from ****