DVD: Sweet Smell of Success | reviews, news & interviews
DVD: Sweet Smell of Success
DVD: Sweet Smell of Success
Mackendrick's timeless depiction of showbiz realpolitik is re-released
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
'You're dead, son. Get yourself buried': Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of SuccessUnited Artists
It’s difficult now to imagine Hollywood conceiving a one-two punch as ferocious as Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd and Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success, which were released a month apart in the summer of 1957. Their target was the absolute corruption of media figures who acquire untrammeled fame and power: Face’s coarse cracker-barrel philosopher “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith), an ex-hobo who becomes a politically influential TV superstar; and Sweet Smell ’s monstrous Broadway gossip columnist J J Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) whose Stalinesque sway has senators quaking at his restaurant table.
It’s difficult now to imagine Hollywood conceiving a one-two punch as ferocious as Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd and Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success, which were released a month apart in the summer of 1957. Their target was the absolute corruption of media figures who acquire untrammeled fame and power: Face’s coarse cracker-barrel philosopher “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith), an ex-hobo who becomes a politically influential TV superstar; and Sweet Smell ’s monstrous Broadway gossip columnist J J Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) whose Stalinesque sway has senators quaking at his restaurant table.
Explore topics
Share this article
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Film
theartsdesk Q&A: Eddie Marsan and the American Revolution, posh boys and East End gangsters
Versatile actor on playing John Adams opposite Michael Douglas in Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin'
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana Feet
The comic caught on the cusp of his fame as he tours Ireland in 1975
Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Michael Head's gangland drama is a bit of a dog's breakfast
Two Tickets to Greece review - the highs and lows of a holiday from hell
Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte and Kristin Scott Thomas star in a silly French comedy
Hoard review - not any old rubbish
A star is born amid the muck and squalor of Luna Carmoon's ambitious directorial debut
Blu-ray: Chocolat
Claire Denis' African debut is a nostalgic yet unsparing look at colonial life
DVD/Blu-ray: The Holdovers
Bittersweet, beautifully observed seasonal comedy - not just for Christmas
Our Mothers review - revisiting the horrors of Guatemala's civil war
Hard-hitting first feature from director Cesar Diaz
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes review - a post-human paradise
A richly suggestive new era for the franchise reconnects with its 1968 start
La Chimera review - magical realism with a touch of Fellini
Josh O’Connor excels as an archaeologist turned graverobber in the Italian countryside
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger review - the Archers up close
Adoring tribute by Martin Scorsese to British filmmaking legends
Love Lies Bleeding review - a pumped-up neo-noir
There's darkness on the edge of town in Rose Glass's sweaty, violent New Queer gem
Add comment