How does a director whose credits include Ealing comedy classics like The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955) find himself unable to build a career? It seems all Alexander Mackendrick had to do was come to the United States, helm Sweet Smell of Success (1957), star Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, and hire writer Clifford Odets and master cinematographer James Wong Howe.
The result is one of those strange moments when a near-perfect movie is initially scorned, by both audiences and critics — so someone, it seems, must be blamed. And Mackendrick, as director, was the logical choice. After Sweet Smell of Success, he never regained his footing; while respected — in 1969 he was made Dean of the Film Department of the California Institute of the Arts — he went on to direct only a handful of minor films.
This is a great loss, because his American debut is risky and brilliantly executed, a fast-talking, late-noir expose not only of the dark side of show business but of the American urge toward greatness — with, in passing, a creepy king-sized dose of Freudian mad love. Hmm. Considering all that, its failure to please in 1957 makes sense.
Bathed in "Low-Key" Howe's deep-focus camerawork, the film gives us a New York that, both on the street and in its smoky nightclubs and bigshot eateries, comes off as a giant, glistening snake, black and sparkling in perpetual midnight. It's the perfect setting for the story of J.J. Hunsecker, make-em-and-break-em columnist — played by Lancaster with his patented clipped glee, arch and almost prissy, but sharp as a serpent's tooth — and his uncomfortably close bond with his sister, Susan (Susan Harrison), whom J.J. wants all to himself.
Her relationship with a jazz musician, Steve Dallas (Adam-12's Martin Milner), sends him into sinuous rage, and to break up their romance J.J. enlists the help of a seedy publicity agent. Agent Sidney Falco is played by Tony Curtis with Newyawk perfection, looking seriously beautiful — as a starlet observes, she took him for an actor because he was "so pretty" — but also deeply fed up with being Hunsecker's toady.
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Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
Nice review, great movie. I reviewed it ages for blogcritics ages ago as well.
2 - A. Horbal
I was struck by the cadence of your review--there's a bit of the jazzy, late-night, wise guy verbiage that reflects the film's dialogue and score.
Reading over your other Blogcritics reviews I'm digging your writing in general. "Searching for Bond" is quite entertaining and, if Sweet Smell of Success and The Last Laugh are any indication, I enjoy your taste in DVDs.
Just a tip of the hat, if you catch my drift!
3 - Rodney Welch
Nice work. Sounds like Sweet Smell of Success did to Alexander Mackendrick what Peeping Tom did to Michael Powell or Night of the Hunter did to Charles Laughton. Someone ought to make a list of Great Films That Destroyed the People Who Made Them.
As a sidenote, anyone interested in the real J.J. Hunsecker should definitely read Neal Gabler's masterful Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity, which reveals in exhausting narrative detail just how much make-or-break power he had. It's been years since I read it, but I believe the "Susan" character in the film was actually Winchell's daughter. Anyway, the book does go into the relation between Mackendrick's movie and real life.
P.S. Winchell wasn't a totally bad guy, by the way. He was anti-Hitler way before it was cool, and Philip Roth made him into something of a hero in his imaginative rewrite The Plot Against America.
4 - Paul J. Marasa
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