The Sweet Smell of Success: Best Role for Tony Curtis
This is the charm of these movies, the clear distinction between who is bad and who is good and who will win in the end. In Sweet Smell of Success we however do not follow the good guys, we follow the bad guys from beginning to end.
In Sweet Smell of Success Tony Curtis, in arguably his best role, plays a down on his luck press agent, Sidney Falco, who while getting ready to patrol the streets of New York at night to find a job tells his secretary “In brief, the best of everything is good enough for me!”
He is a young and ambitious man who will do anything to get this dream, even if it means doing some dirty work. Enter Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker, the most powerful newspaper columnist in New York. Falco dreams of working with him and dreams of getting his name mentioned in his columns.
Hunsecker agrees to allow Falco to get his name in the column if he helps him out with some “work” This work that he gives Falco is that he must make sure that his kid sister does not continue to date her fiancÃ?© and that she remains living with him because as Hunsecker later tells Falco “I don’t have anyone else”
This is the basic plot of Sweet Smell of Success but there is truly a whole other level to this simple plot that slowly begins to unravel its characters who stay hidden in their nourish shadows for most of the films length. Falco begins to be shown not as an ambitious businessman but as ambitious crook that will do anything to get his big break.
Meanwhile Hunsecker begins to be shown as a fragile businessman who although has everything that money could possibly buy does not have anyone in his life that he loves other than his little sister. Also, while the plot continues to get more and more complicated we also begin to see the dark and sadistic friendship between these two characters begin to grow as Falco becomes Hunseckers right hand man while Hunsecker begins to slowly break down as he sees his sister getting farther and farther away from his grasp.
The reason Sweet Smell of Success continues to be considered one of the greatest movies of all time is very simple. The reason is that anyone can relate to Falco as he tells his secretary “hey, every dog has his day” We have all been that dog at one time or another and we have all always waited for our day to come The film represents the American dream as no other film has ever presented it.
The film shows that what most people consider to be the American dream is money, and having lots of it. .Hunsecker obtained this dream yet he is unhappy, which shows us the classic moral that money does not buy happiness.
Sweet Smell of Success is truly a film that has to be seen to understand its greatness. The brilliant nourish cinematography mixed with top notch acting, a dark 50’s New York, and a moody jazz score by Elmer Bernstein combine to give us a brilliant film that will remain as powerful as ever for years to come.
I give this movie an A+ and if there was a higher grade then I would give it to this film, it is truly that great
