The Sweet Smell of Success

The Sweet Smell of Success reeks of the putrid kingdom bounded on all four sides by Broadway and ruled by the powerful typewriter of J.J. Hunsecker, columnist for the New York Globe. It is the story of sleazy press agent Sidney Falco's ruthless attempt to follow his nose, which he doesn't hesitate to use in his dealings with J.J. It is also the story of J.J.'s equally ruthless attempts to prevent the marriage of his neurotic sister Suzy with a straight arrow guitarist, Steve Dallas, who has "integrity--acute, like indigestion."

All of the characters are somewhat exaggerated, and the most interesting of them is Falco, "the boy with the ice cream face," portrayed by Tony Curtis. Falco wants to climb the "golden ladder," to arrive "way up high, where it's always balmy." "Nice to people where it pays to be nice," Falco is assigned by J.J. to break up Suzy's romance. Since he won't get space in J.J.'s column until he does, Falco resorts in turn to blackmailing one rival columnist and procuring a prostitute for another in order to have an item smearing Dallas printed in the papers. Just to make sure, he plants marijuana in Dallas' coat and has him beaten and then arrested by a Hunsecker-owned police officer. Indeed, Sidney walks in "moral twilight," "a cookie full of arsenic."

J.J. himself is no angel. Operating a rumor factory, he has something on everybody ("Everybody knows Manny Davis--except Mrs. Manny Davis"). Yet he appears on television each afternoon, spreading the American Gospel: "Our best secret weapon is D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y." His weakness is his devotion to Suzy, whom he doesn't want to lose. When he finally does, one feels very satisfied.

Susan Harrison, a "find" when the film was first made, who has since enjoyed an undistinguished career, is adequately pathetic as Suzy. Driven from the happiness of her first love to attempted suicide by her brother ("I'd rather be dead than live with you"), Suzy is inextricably caught in the web of corruption, and it is a wonder that she comes out of it all alive.

Elmer Bernstein's music heightens the drama captured by the sensitive cameras of James Wong Howe, A.S.C. In addition, there are several jazz numbers by the Chico Hamilton quintet (plus guitar), a group whose modern arrangements lend a suitably syncopated rhythm. The screenplay, by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman (who wrote the book), is for the most part brilliant, capturing the lingo perfectly: "What am I? a bowl of fruit? a tangerine that peels itself?" Or: "Starting today, you could play marbles with his eyeballs." And the pace of director Alexander Mackendrick keeps up with that of the music.

Preceded by a delightful cartoon fantasy called The Peppermint Tree, The Sweet Smell of Success brings back to the Brattle good entertainment without subtitles, and the change is welcome.