Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Average Rating: 8.7/10
Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 44 | Rotten: 1
Sweet Smell of Success boasts a top-notch cast, sharp direction, atmospheric cinematography, and an appropriately jazzy score, making it one of the best noir crime thrillers ever made.
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0
Sweet Smell of Success boasts a top-notch cast, sharp direction, atmospheric cinematography, and an appropriately jazzy score, making it one of the best noir crime thrillers ever made.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 6,201
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Movie Info
Ernest Lehman drew upon his experiences as a Broadway press agent to write the devastating a clef short story "Tell Me About Tomorrow." This in turn was adapted by Lehman and Clifford Odets into the sharp-edged, penetrating feature film Sweet Smell of Success. Burt Lancaster stars as J. J. Hunsecker, a Walter Winchell-style columnist who wields his power like a club, steamrolling friends and enemies alike. Tony Curtis co-stars as Sidney Falco, a sycophantic press agent who'd sell his grandmother
Jun 27, 1957 Wide
Jun 19, 2001
United Artists
Cast
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Burt Lancaster
J.J. Hunsecker -
Tony Curtis
Sidney Falco -
Susan Harrison
Susan Hunsecker -
Martin Milner
Steve Dallas -
Sam Levene
Frank D'Angelo -
Barbara Nichols
Rita -
Jeff Donnell
Sally -
Joseph Leon
Robard -
Edith Atwater
Mary -
Emile G. Meyer
Harry Kello -
Joe Frisco
Herbie Temple -
David White
Otis Elwell -
Lawrence Dobkin
Leo Bartha -
Lurene Tuttle
Mrs. Bartha -
Queenie Smith
Mildred Tam -
Autumn Russell
Linda -
Jay Adler
Manny Davis -
Lewis Charles
Al Evans -
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Sweet Smell of Success Trailer & Photos
All Critics (45) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (1) | DVD (11)
Sweet Smell, which could have been offal, is raised to considerable dramatic heights by intense acting, taut direction (by Alexander Mackendrick), [and] superb camera work (by James Wong Howe).
Top CriticMackendrick's nighthawk landscape is compellingly, poetically bleak.
James Hill's production, locationed in Manhattan, captures the feel of Broadway and environs after dark.
The screen was rarely so dark or cruel.
Top CriticA lean, mean amorality tale that still goes down like a cookie laced with arsenic.
The main incentive to see this movie is its witty, pungent and idiomatic dialogue, such as you never hear on the screen anymore in this age of special-effects illiteracy.
A meandering drama about the lure of success and the ignominious aggression of defeat.
It all begins with the title. The irony aside, its lightness and alliteration suggest the last breaths of one of the film's victims.
... one of the most lacerating and vicious visions of the predatory urban world in the American cinema...
Hyperbole doesn't come close to describing the importance and beauty of Criterion's essential Blu-ray release of Alexander Mackendrick's Sweet Smell of Success, a must-own for every film lover.
A masterpiece.
The film is a masterpiece, intelligent Hollywood cinema at its best.
Masterful direction and cinematography are shown off in this restored version, with Bernstein's apt jazzy score nailing all the right notes.
Engaging, at times vicious drama w/Lancaster as acidic gossip monger, Curtis fine as wimpy sidekick.
With some of the sharpest dialogue ever cut in Hollywood, only on the most superficial level is this a movie about gossip and publicity. We're talking show business. We're talking America. We're talking cast-iron classic.
A cruelly cynical take on the seamy side of New York City's swinging nightclub life.
Audience Reviews for Sweet Smell of Success
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Otis Elwell: Like the rest of the human race, I'm bored.
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- Otis Elwell: Consternation reigns.
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- Susan Hunsecker: 10 cents of American tell and tell.
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- Sidney Falco: From now on the best of everything is good enough for me.
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- J.J. Hunsecker: I'd hate to take a bite out of you.You're like a cookie full of arsenic.
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- Sidney Falco: The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river.
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Latest News on Sweet Smell of Success
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July 6, 2005:
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Foreign Titles
- Sweet Smell of Success (1957) (DE)
- Sweet Smell of Success (1957) (UK)
