Favorite scene

Did you have a favorite scene in "Sweet Smell of Success"? I'm partial to the scene in the theater where all the main characters are present and J.J. and Sidney are tag-teaming Steve (and Susie runs off to cry). I also liked the scene where Sidney was trying to blackmail the married man in front of his wife and the guy was so disgusted that the consequences of his wife learning about a sexual dalliance were preferable to — more comfortable to his conscience than — giving slimy Sidney what he wanted.

Have a cigarette

I just thought I’d draw attention to the cigarette girl. We first see Sidney interact with his secretary. She is trying to show some compassion for his problems, but he brushes her off in annoyance. So right off you realize that he must be a bit limited on compassion himself, but maybe he’s not a bad bloke—just tired and preoccupied. But then we get the cigarette girl. She seems to truly like Sidney and thinks they have something going on. He had no doubt been flirting with her to develop her as a source and she has taken it seriously. I think the scene that reveals Sidney’s true colors is the one in his apartment where she has been waiting eagerly for him in expectation that he can help with her problem. But for Sidney, her problem is nothing but a business opportunity, and he has no remorse in throwing her to the wolves, or wolf, as it were. From that point on, we see that Sidney isn’t just a guy on the make willing to cut a few moral corners. He’s bad to the bone.

Square Steve

Steve Dallas showed gumption by standing up to J.J., but I never thought of him as the hero (nor Susan a heroine) so much as a square. He also seemed miscast as a musician. Within the means of the script, his character served a purpose: a competitor for Susan's affections, a chance to pit integrity vs. deceit, a means to introduce New York's music scene. But the actor himself seemed washed-out next to larger-than-life Sidney and J.J.

I wonder whether anyone else had the same impression, and if so, what might be behind it. Was he not to compete with the film's big names, especially (as in Tony Curtis' case) when some thought playing villains was a risky career move? If the audience felt more in touch with Steve and Susan, would J.J. and Sidney's actions been more turn-off than intrigue?

The writer back from exile

Clifford Odets, on whom the character Barton Fink was based (doesn't he look like him?!), was called in to polish the screenplay for "Sweet Smell of Success" following director Alexander MacKendrick's disappointment with the original screenplay. Odets had been mired in Hollywood by then, like Fink, and had even been blacklisted by McCarthy as a Communist. He was supposed to "doctor" the script in a couple of weeks, but he ended up taking months, completely redoing it, and he wasn't even finished by the time the movie started shooting in New York. From Wiki: Odets had to accompany the production to Manhattan and continued rewriting while they shot there. Returning to the city that had shunned him for going to Hollywood made him very neurotic and obsessed with all kinds of rituals as he worked at a furious pace with pages often going right from his typewriter to being shot the same day.

Gosh, that does sound like Fink.

My question: Do you get any sense that the movie was actually thrown together in this way? My own view is that it doesn't show, but I'd like to hear what you think.

Sidney's opposite

I had read that Tom Cruise modeled his "Jerry McGuire" press agent on Tony Curtis' Sidney Falco. And yet the movie I keep thinking of is "Broadway Danny Rose," one of my favorite Woody Allen comedies (and my favorite Mia Farrow role) — and one that he did in black and white (maybe to resemble the classic New York movies of the '50s, like "Sweet Smell of Success.") In it, Woody plays a Broadway press agent, but he's the polar opposite of Sidney. If anyone wants to watch this as a companion piece, I'd be thrilled to discuss it.

Another movie that comes to mind is "Good Night and Good Luck," about journalist Edward R. Murrow's quest to topple Sen. Joe McCarthy. It's set in the same era, black and white, about journalism and gossip-driven hysteria. But the thing that reminds me most of "Sweet Smell" is the tight, tight focus of the film. "GN&GL" is about one thing and one thing only. There are no subplots, no gratuitous love interests, no side "color." It's relentlessly about what it's about: one episode in a life. Similarly, "Sweet Smell" takes an isolated incident (the attempted breakup of a relationship) and turns it into a stark statement about a whole era.

The cause of all the commotion

Did you think J.J.'s relationship to his sister was "unnatural"? Did you find yourself rooting for Susan? Did you find her likeable, or did you see weaknesses in her that made her less sympathetic? And did you find her realistic? Would it be possible to grow up in the shadow of such a monster and still be so innocent and darling?

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.'"

And all that jazz

Something I often like about late ‘50s movies are the brassy jazzy scores. Such music was even more apt for this film since there is a jazz band in it. I thought it was a bit unfortunate that there was a longish spell in the middle that reverted to sappier generic movie mood music. It would have been better to stay loud and brassy straight on through. No?

The lesser evil?

Did you have any sense that one of these characters was more evil than the other? Neither of these characters could have wielded the power that he did without the backdrop of a hungry-for-gossip, mean-spirited public. Do you think more attention should have been given to that aspect of the story, or is it proper to just treat it as a given?

A success?

A simple question to begin: Did you like this movie?

Kim's pick

Beware these "gentlemen" of the press.

This 1957 film, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis — ack! as a bad guy! — is based on an incident from the gossip columnist Walter Winchell's life. It was written by American playwright Clifford Odets, on whom the Barton Fink character was loosely modeled.

Has anyone seen it?

I was actually going to pick another Burt Lancaster film, "Elmer Gantry," but reading about that led me to this, which sounds more up my alley.