The source

I just read an article by a journalism professor who was shocked to discover that not a single one of his students had ever heard of Walter Winchell, the inventor of the gossip column, on whom the character J.J. Hunsecker is based. Apparently, Winchell pulled a similar stunt with his daughter (rather than his sister as in the movie). I don't think familiarity with Winchell is essential to enjoying the film, but it really enhanced the experience for me. I sometimes had difficulty following J.J.'s speech or sometimes found it a little contrived, but then I read that Winchell had a really peculiar, snappy way of speaking: Winchell had a style that others found impossible to mimic. He disdained the flowery language that had characterized newspaper columns in the past. Instead, he wrote in a kind of telegraph style filled with slang and incomplete sentences. Creating his own shorthand language, Winchell was responsible for introducing into the American vernacular such now-familiar words and phrases as "scram," "pushover," and "belly laughs." I think Lancaster pulls this off really well. And apparently the Broadway press agent, played by Tony Curtis, was a real common type and was the source for much of Winchell's material. Also of interest: Winchell often had no credible sources for his accusations. He had no real incentive to be accurate, because for most of his career his contract with his newspaper and radio employers required them to reimburse him for any damages he had to pay, should he be sued for slander or libel. Whenever friends reproached him for breaking confidences, he responded, 'I know—I'm just a son of a bitch.'"