Ah, the sweet sweet smell of success. Everyone is looking for it: that light at the end of the tunnel, the American Dream. Though success is something that one has to work for or so is the theme of the 1957 black-and-white classic THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.
The film tells the story about Sydney Falco played by Tony Curtis, a press agent who dreams of one day smelling the sweet sweet smell of success. He is a born loser, arrogant and annoying to those around him and despised by everyone he meets. He is friends with a Broadway gossip columnist, the messianic J.J. Hunsecker played with impecable hatred by Burt Lancaster.
Hunsecker recruits Falco to, by any means necessary, destroy a budding romance between a jazz guitarist and Hunsecker's sister. Falco, hungry for the success Hunsecker bathes in every day, find this as an opportunity for him to shine and decides to ruin the relationship--by any means necessary.
The film, while made in 1957 and shot in black-and-white, is not an "old" movie. The characters and their polar opposite personas from one another display for us the people we meet every day. There are those like Hunsecker who has success handed to him on a silver platter and who seems to have no breaking point; he is mean inside and out. And there are those like Falco, people who, no matter how hard they try, never fully get ahead in life or get accepted by others, they are blinded by how much of a nusance they are to society.
The film's dialogue is what is worth the DVD price alone. The two main characters, Hunsecker and Falco, talk to one another like junkyard dogs. Their insults are so filthy towards one another they are sheer brilliance. In one scene, Hunsecker says to Falco, "You let the cat out of the bag." Falco replies, "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river." Brilliant zingers like this make you want to write them down and use them the next time you break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend.
THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is one of the greatest movies of all time, combining true to life characters with some of the best dialogue you will ever hear in a film. The Criterion Collection, a premium DVD label, restored and remastered the film from the original camera negatives, bringing out the lush black-and-white images of the film. It is a genius movie. Period.
