Sweet smell of success [DVD]

This film noir has been well described as, ‘a rat trap of a film’, a compelling portrayal of corruption in which an unscrupulous small-time press agent, intent on clawing his way to the top, debases himself for the favours of a monster of a newspaper columnist. While it does not involve murder, the degree of manipulation and self deception is truly noir. Sidney Falco, the agent, is ultimately a more sympathetic figure because the cold bloodedness and self-righteous egomania of the columnist, J.J. Hunsecker, sets Falco’s faint glimmerings of self-disgust into relief. Susan Hunsecker, the object of her brother’s repressed incestuous desire, is the one figure who provides some moral bearings and delivers the retribution that J.J. fears. New York locations, aided by James Wong Howe’s night photography and Bernstein’s limpid jazz score, have never seemed bleaker. Featuring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Screenplay, Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman from the novelette by Ernest Lehman.