Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Sweet Smell of Success

1957 · 96 min · Directed by Alexander Mackendrick

New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can't control is his younger sister, Susan, who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Hunsecker strongly disproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method.

6.4K

839

13%

22:1

More info on IMDb TMDb

Comments

MrE2Me

Wow, the psychological brutality waged by the characters in this film is unrelenting. The lowest depths of human nature are plumbed. Great stuff.

ChrisReynolds

The writing is brilliant, and everybody's on top form, especially Curtis as Sidney Falco, the "cookie full of arsenic", and Lancaster as J J. Hunsecker, the man with "more twists than a barrel of pretzels".

DeathShrike

This movie is fucking SINISTER. Loved every damn second of it.

Sweet Smell of Success

Comments

In 22 official lists

IMDb's Film-Noir Top 50

Halliwell's Top 1000: The Ultimate Movie Countdown

Roger Ebert's Great Movies

iCheckMovies's 1950s Top 100

IMDb's 1950s Top 50

Jennifer Eiss's 500 Essential Cult Movies

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese

TSPDT's 100 Essential Noir Films

TSPDT's 1,000 Noir Films

Emma Beare's 501 Must-See Movies

Library of Congress's National Film Registry

Rotten Tomatoes's 300 Best Movies of All Time

BFI's 360 Classic Feature Films Project

TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films

Empire's The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Jonathan Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

David Thomson's Have You Seen?

Sight & Sound's The Greatest Films of All Time

The Criterion Collection

The New York Times's Book of Movies

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