SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS [1957 / 2015] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
A Visceral and Vicious Depiction of the Evil that Power-Hungry Men Do!
One of the darkest films ever to come out of the Hollywood mainstream both literally and figuratively this spellbindingly cynical study of Machiavellian media machinations in a neon-drenched New York City was the first and best American film by Alexander Mackendrick, who already had several Ealing Studios classics on his CV like ‘Whisky Galore,’ ‘The Man in the White Suit,’ ‘Mandy’ and ‘The Ladykillers’ when he crossed the Atlantic.
Considering his star status, Burt Lancaster was famously fearless when it came to risking audience sympathies, and he gives one of his most memorable performances as the ruthless gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, who’ll go to any lengths to break up his sister s unsuitable romance, even if it means destroying the reputation of press agent Sidney Falco [Tony Curtis].
Brilliantly scripted by Clifford Odets and from Ernest Lehman’s autobiographical short story, and filmed in gleaming monochrome by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ is one of the greatest and most clear-eyed of all American films, lifting up the stone of Fifties decorum and unflinchingly revealing what was crawling underneath.
There’s an old rule among directors that you see a film in its totality about four times. The first is when you really decide you love the story and you want to make it. The second is just before you go on the floor when, for god or evil, you’ve done the best you can with the script, you’re stuck with it —after which you lose sight of it entirely because it’s chaos and you’re just working from the memory of the previous one. The third one — the suicide feeling — is when it’s all put together; at that point you are aware of problems—at each stage, really, you are aware of the same problems—at that point they suddenly hit you back in the face. And the final stage is when you see it with an audience. With ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ it was obvious that it was a direct insult to what they’d come to the cinema to enjoy. — Alexander Mackendrick
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1957 Faro Island Film Festival: Nominated: Golden Train Award for Best Film for Alexander Mackendrick. 1958 BAFTA Awards: Nominated: Best Foreign Actor for Tony Curtis [USA]. 1958 Bambi Awards: Win: Best International Actor for Tony Curtis [Tony Curtis was not present at the Awards ceremony]. 1958 Laurel Awards: Nominated: Golden Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance for Tony Curtis [5th place]. Nominated: Golden Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance for Barbara Nichols [4th place]. 1993 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Win: National Film Registry for the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.’ 2012 Online Film & Television Association: Win: OFTA Film Hall of Fame for the Motion Picture ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.’
FILM FACT No.2: Faced with potential unemployment from the sale of Ealing Studios to the BBC in 1954, director Alexander Mackendrick began entertaining offers from Hollywood. Alexander Mackendrick rejected potential contracts from Cary Grant and David Selznick and signed with independent production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, enticed by their offer to adapt George Bernard Shaw’s play “The Devil's Disciple.” After the project collapsed during pre-production, Alexander Mackendrick asked to be released from his commitment. Harold Hecht refused and asked him to start work on another project – adapting Ernest Lehman’s novelette “Sweet Smell of Success” into a film. Ernest Lehman’s story had originally appeared in the April 1950 issue of Cosmopolitan, renamed "Tell Me About It Tomorrow!" because the editor of the magazine did not want the word "smell" in the publication. It was based on his own experiences working as an assistant to Irving Hoffman, a New York press agent and columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. Irving Hoffman subsequently did not speak to Ernest Lehman for a year and a half. Irving Hoffman then wrote a column for The Hollywood Reporter speculating that Ernest Lehman would make a good screenwriter, and within a week Paramount Pictures called Ernest Lehman, inviting him to Los Angeles for talks. Ernest Lehman forged a screenwriting career in Hollywood, did the writing for ‘Executive Suite,’ ‘Sabrina,’ ‘North by Northwest,’ ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘West Side Story,’ ‘The King and I’ and ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Jeff Donnell, Sam Levene, Joe Frisco, Barbara Nichols, Emile Meyer, Edith Atwater, The Chico Hamilton Quintet, Jay Adler (uncredited), Mary Bayless (uncredited), Nicky Blair (uncredited), Nick Borgani (uncredited), Ralph Brooks (uncredited), Brad Brown (uncredited), Steve Carruthers (uncredited), Robert Carson (uncredited), Lewis Charles (uncredited), Dick Cherney (uncredited), Chico Hamilton [Chico Hamilton Quintet drummer and leader] (uncredited), Buddy Clark [Bassist in Chico Hamilton Quintet] (uncredited), Paul Horn [Chico Hamilton Quintet woodwind player (uncredited), Fred Katz [Chico Hamilton Quintet cellist] (uncredited), Paul Cristo (uncredited), Joe Di Reda (uncredited), Lawrence Dobkin (uncredited), Tom Ferrandini (uncredited), John Fiedler (uncredited), Bess Flowers (uncredited), William Forrest (uncredited), Joseph Forte (uncredited), Raoul Freeman (uncredited), Paul Frees [Trailer Narrator] (uncredited), Kay Garrett (uncredited), Joe Gray (uncredited), Marion Gray (uncredited), James Hill (uncredited), Charles Jordan (uncredited), Fred Katz (uncredited), Colin Kenny (uncredited), Joseph La Cava (uncredited), Mike Lally (uncredited), Joseph Leon (uncredited), King Lockwood (uncredited), Thomas Martin (uncredited), Hans Moebus (uncredited), King Mojave (uncredited), Sol Murgi (uncredited), Forbes Murray (uncredited), George Nardelli (uncredited), William H. O'Brien (uncredited), Clifford Odets (uncredited), Charles Perry (uncredited), Bill Raisch (uncredited), Waclaw Rekwart (uncredited), Edward Rickard (uncredited), Jane Ross (uncredited), Autumn Russell (uncredited), Charles Sherlock (uncredited), Carson Smith (uncredited), Queenie Smith (uncredited), Bert Stevens (uncredited), Arthur Tovey (uncredited), James Turley (uncredited), Lurene Tuttle (uncredited), Harry Tyler (uncredited), Philip Van Zandt (uncredited), George Washburn (uncredited), David White (uncredited) and H.M. Wynant (uncredited)
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Producers: Burt Lancaster (uncredited), Harold Hecht (uncredited), James Hill and Tony Curtis (uncredited)
Screenplay: Clifford Odets (screenplay), Ernest Lehman (screenplay/novel) and Alexander Mackendrick (uncredited)
Composer and Conductor: Elmer Bernstein
Jazz Themes: The Chico Hamilton Quintet
Costume Designer: Mary Grant
Cinematography: James Wong Howe, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-andWhite)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 96 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Arrow Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Directed to perfection by Alexander Mackendrick and starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis at the peak of their considerable powers as actors, ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ [1957] provides a stunning “film noir” portrait of the sleazy world of 1950’s press agents and gossip columnists in New York City. Written by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, based on Ernest Lehman’s novella and featuring considerable uncredited rewrites by Alexander Mackendrick himself, the film is blessed with one of the great screenplays of all time. In terms of story structure, characterization and dialogue, few American films can match it.
J.J. Hunsecker [Burt Lancaster] is a Walter Winchell-like newspaperman of unparalleled power and popularity. The signs and billboards splashed everywhere on the Isle of Manhattan are adorned with an image of his trademark heavy-framed spectacles, accompanied by copy that proclaims him to be “The Eyes of Broadway.” Nothing, as the film proves, escapes the God-like gaze of J.J. Hunsecker. He makes and breaks politicians and show business personalities with a few deft strokes of his vitriolic pen.
J.J. Hunsecker is, of course, fed many of his dirty laundry or scurrilous items by the bottom feeders of the business, the press agents who charge their clients a pretty penny to keep their names in the papers and in the most positive manner possible. The king of them all, the sleaziest benthos in all of New York is none other than Sidney Falco [Tony Curtis]. He’s equal parts detritivore and carnivore – a sea cucumber when he needs to be, and a stingray, which he mostly wants to be. He values his ability to keep his clients happy, score new clients and to curry favour with J.J. Hunsecker in hopes he’ll achieve the same level of success.
When J.J. Hunsecker’s little sister Susie [Susan Harrison] is courted by Steve Dallas [Martin Milner], an up-and-coming jazz musician, the innate snobbery of the omnipotent scribe kicks in, but even more compelling is his foul, incestuous obsession with her. Steve Dallas charges Sidney Falco with digging up enough dirt on the young fellow in order to keep his sister in his own clutches and no other man’s.
Sidney Falco’s complex machinations take up much of the film’s running time and are on the edge of a kind of insanity, that the entire world Alexander Mackendrick, Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman etch borders on the surreal.
There is no doubt that dialogue seems to drive much of the film’s drama. There have to be more immortal lines in the picture than many of the rest all put together. Every line is a gem and J.J. Hunsecker gets the lion’s share of them. One of the best is his descriptive invective hurled in Sidney Falco’s direction.
The simplest and most evocative line occurs when J.J. Hunsecker considers a woman’s caterwauling laughter and the sight of a drunk being tossed from a 52nd St. bar and J.J. Hunsecker literally salutes the grime and filth of New York, which we see through the gloriously grimy lens of James Wong Howe’s immortal and brilliant black-and-white cinematography.
Put on the sequence where Sidney Falco tries to blackmail one character, then, upon failing that, attempts to dupe another with an approach he borrows from the man he’s tried to blackmail. ALL the actions and even many underlying motivations can be noted by what is SEEN, but NOT heard. After this, play the scene with sound and thrill to how the dramatic beats are there visually and of course, enhanced delectably by the dialogue. I’ve done this with my filmmaking students who – NOT SURPRISINGLY – had never seen the film before. It works! It’s also proof positive how superb the writing is and most importantly, how breath-taking Alexander Mackendrick’s direction proved to be.
To sum up, ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ is simply and purely, one of the best films of its genre ever made.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Arrow Films presents us the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ with a wonderful rich black-and-white 1080p with a 4K digital transfer from the original 35mm camera negative and the quality is fantastic and is equally enhanced with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. But what is really stunning is that the print is looking very clean and detailed. It’s almost too good as it shows up a few out of focus shots. A few of the exteriors retain some grain because of fast exposure times, presumably, but the ominous high-key lighting that accompanies J.J. Hunsecker everywhere, giving a cold glitter to his glasses, has a delicious crispness and sparkle. Subtle effects such as the up lighting on Rita [Barbara Nichols] the cigarette girl’s worried face in the jazz club are captured beautifully, and even the monochrome greys of Sidney Falco’s crummy apartment have great sold presence. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Arrow Films brings us the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ with just one standard 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio experience which is very strong, that has a scintillating dialogue coming through clearly and the composed film score by Elmer Bernstein is belting out effectively too. In spite of the almost non-stop dialogue, one of the more astonishing achievements of the picture is just how visual the storytelling is. Many key set pieces of verbal chicanery and manipulations can be watched with the sound completely off, and by simply observing, one is able to easily ascertain the goals of the characters. So all in all, this gets a five star rating from me in its wonderful audio experience.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: An appreciation of ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [26:56] Here we have an appreciation of the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ by Philip Kemp author of “Lethal Innocence: The Cinema The Cinema of Alexander Mackendrick” and is also a freelance reviewer and film historian, a regular contributor to Sight & Sound and Total Film, and teaches Film Journalism at the University of Leicester and covers a wide range of subjects in this special video essay. It’s a really smart piece that fills in some necessary perspective on the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ that today’s modern viewers may have overlooked. Philip Kemp informs us that the main film’s locations were filmed within the midtown district of Manhattan and most of the filming was shot at night. Philip Kemp talks in-depth about the director Alexander Mackendrick who was born on the 8th September, 1912 the only child of Francis and Martha Mackendrick who had emigrated to the United States from Glasgow in 1911. Then went on to spend three years at the Glasgow School of Art. In the early 1930’s, Alexander Mackendrick moved to London to work as an art director for the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson. Between 1936 and 1938, Alexander Mackendrick scripted five cinema commercials and later reflected that his work in the advertising industry was invaluable, in spite of his extreme dislike of the industry itself. Alexander MacKendrick wrote his first film script with his cousin and close friend, Roger MacDougall. It was bought by Associated British and later released, after script revisions, as ‘Midnight Menace’ [1937]. At the start of the Second World War, Alexander Mackendrick was employed by the Minister of Information making British propaganda films. In 1942, he went to Algiers and then to Italy, working with the Psychological Warfare Division and then shot newsreels, documentaries, made leaflets, and did radio news. In 1943, he became the director of the film unit and approved the production of Roberto Rossellini's early neorealist film, ‘Rome, Open City’ [1945]. Philip Kemp informs us that Alexander Mackendrick often spoke of his dislike of the film industry and decided to leave the United Kingdom for Hollywood in 1955. When the base of Ealing studios was sold that year to the BBC, Alexander Mackendrick was cut loose to pursue a career as a freelance director, something he was never prepared to do. At Ealing studios Alexander Mackendrick felt tremendously spoilt with all the logistical and financial troubles lifted off my shoulders, even if I had to do the films they told me to do. Alexander Mackendrick found that in order to make films in Hollywood, you have to be a great deal-maker and he felt he had no talent for that, so he realised I was in the wrong business and got out. The rest of his professional life Alexander Mackendrick was spent commuting between London and Los Angeles and his first major film was ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ [1957] and Philip Kemp informs that the film was a complete flop, but some of the critics liked it, but, on the whole it was just wasn’t saying the kind of thing about America that Americans wanted to hear in the mid 1950’s, and the newspaper journalists hated the film, as they were not portrayed in a good light. Apparently after the complete failure of the film, Ernest Lehman the screenwriter who by then had recovered form his hyperplastic polyp of the colon, from his jaunt to Hawaii, met up with actor Burt Lancaster at a Hollywood party, and Burt Lancaster said to Ernest Lehman, “You could of made this film a hell of a lot better, I ought to beat you up,” and Ernest Lehman replied back, “Go ahead, I could use the money.” Anyway, Philip Kemp’s insight into the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ is a real tour de force and is definitely well worth viewing, as you learn so much, especially on all aspects of the film.
Special Feature: Selected Scene Audio Commentary by Philip Kemp [2015] [1080p] [1.66:1] [31:56] Philip Kemp’s audio commentary provides a really special in-depth fascinating insight into seven specific iconic scenes in total for the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ and they are as follows: Sidney's Office; J.J. Hunsecker; Sidney and Rita; Hunsecker's Trap; Harry Kello; The Showdown and Mackendrick vs Posterity. You can as usual; either view each scene separately or Play All.
Special Feature: Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away [1986] [480i / 1080i] [1.37:1] [44:36] The man in question was writer/director Alexander Mackendrick, and here we get to view a rare Dermot McQuarrie’s Scottish Television (STV) documentary that looks at the life and times of director Alexander Mackendrick. We get to hear the personal views of Alexander Mackendrick talking about his time at Ealing Studios and the joys of making the films his enjoyed directing films at that studio, but realised that Ealing Studios were at the end of its shinning period and especially he saw that the BBC was going to buy the studios and felt it was his destiny to direct films in Hollywood and talks in-depth about those particular films and his experiences in directing them and also some the technical problems he experienced filming in New York for the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ [1957] because it was the first time the location of New York had been filmed, whereas in the past cities in America were always filmed on the backlot of the Hollywood studios. On top of all that, Alexander Mackendrick talks about the films he directed that turned out to be total box office failures and how the film industry turned their back on this director. But with the lean times in the wilderness for Alexander Mackendrick, got a lucky break when Walt Disney put up the money for the California Institute of the Arts and they needed a dean and so via his wife in London telephones Alexander Mackendrick in California to say this man from California was in England to ask Alexander Mackendrick to be the dean of the California Institute of the Arts, which he excepted and felt it was a great honour and to pass his vast experience onto the students. As we get to the end of this special feature, Alexander Mackendrick talks about wanting to film ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ and had been working on it for over 20 years and now feels it is a good job it never got made and had no regrets.We also get to view rare archival interviews with people who knew the director Alexander Mackendrick very well and their thoughts on this Scottish director and they are as follows: Burt Lancaster [Actor], John Milius [Screenwriter], Gordon Jackson [Actor], James Coburn [Actor], James Hill [Producer], Jack Valero [Director], Joanna Barnes [American actress], Alexander Mackendrick [Director], Diana Morgan [Ealing Studios Screenwriter], Michael Relph [Director], Charles Crichton [Director], Mandy Miller [Actress], Charles Champlin [Arts Editor of the Los Angeles Times], F. X. Feeney [Film Critic for the Los Angeles Weekly], Thom Mount [Producer] and John Sorensen [Assistant to Alexander Mackendrick]. We also get the added bonus of viewing a plethora of clips from the following films: ‘Midnight Menace’ [1944], ‘Rome – Open City’ [1945], ‘Dance hall’ [1950], Saraband For Dead Lovers’ [1948], ‘Whisky Galore’ [1949], ‘The Man In The White Suit’ [1951], ‘MANDY’ [1952], ‘The Maggie’ [1954], ‘The Ladykillers’ [1955], ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ [1957], ‘Sammy Going South’ [1962], ‘A High Wind In Jamaica’ [1965] and ‘Don’t Make Waves’ [1967]. Written and Directed by Michael Pye. Directed by Dermot McQuarrie.
Theatrical Trailer [1957] [1080p] [1.66:1] [3:05] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.’
BONUS: Reversible printed Blu-ray cover featuring an original poster and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Walker.
Finally, ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ is a true “film noir” classic showing the director and actors at their best and it was down to the brave work of Alexander Mackendrick as well as Burt Lancaster, who also was an executive producer of the film that got it made, and for fans of film we should be thankful of this fact, because ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ is a true classic showing the director and actors at their best. On top of all that, with a script that is amazingly quotable, keep a listen out for Burt Lancaster’s very sarcastic comment towards Tony Curtis, where J.J. Hunsecker says to Sidney Falco, “I’d hate to take to take a bite out of you; you’re a cookie full of arsenic.” Also the special features is created with a focus of educating the audience about the history of the film. ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ is an excellent release from Arrow Academy and its treatment of older films is so enjoyable, they show a love that really helps bring out the best in the film’s release. Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis may play against their typical role, which at first feels slightly jarring, but by the end of the film these memorable performances are where the ‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ can truly be found and that is why if you’ve not seen this film this is your perfect chance to rectify that situation. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
