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Bookmark this pageSweet Smell of Success (1957)
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A film noir from the Ealing funny man? But Mackendrick's involvement with cosy British humour was always less innocent than it looked: remember the anti-social wit of The Man in the White Suit, or the cruel cynicism of The Ladykillers? Sweet Smell of Success was the director's American debut, a rat trap of a film in which a vicious NY gossip hustler (Curtis) grovels for his 'Mr Big' (Lancaster), a monster newspaper columnist who is incestuously obsessed with destroying his kid sister's romance... and a figure as evil and memorable as Orson Welles in The Third Man or Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter. The dark streets gleam with the sweat of fear; Elmer Bernstein's limpid jazz score (courtesy of Chico Hamilton) whispers corruption in the Big City. The screen was rarely so dark or cruel.Author: CA
User reviews of this film
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- Phillipa Charles said...
- Posted on Mar 08 2008 22:55 The Lancaster/Curtis relationship is complex, seductive and utterly compelling - a delicate scent of the homoerotic about it. Susan Harrison is excellent as the brow-beaten but ultimately empowered sister. Dirty and truthfull; a thing of real beauty. Watch it - I doubt you'll be dissapointed . . .
- Report as inappropriate
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- heatherstewart said...
- Posted on Feb 28 2008 17:01 1 of my 'best films of all time' - perfection.
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Cast & crew
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Producer: James Hill
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Sam Levene, Barbara Nichols, Emile Meyer full cast
Rated: 15
Duration: 96 mins
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