Sweet Smell of Success movie storyline. A caustic, dark film noir based on the short story by Ernest Lehman titled Tell Me About It Tomorrow, and filmed on location in NYC. MacKendrick’s debut American film. Opportunistic, vicious, hustling, slimy press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) provides publicity for showbiz clients, hoping for exposure in the syndicated columns.
Ruthless, sadistic, monstrously-manipulative newspaper columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) unscrupulously plots with Falco to disrupt and destroy the romantic relationship of his younger sister Susan Hunsecker (Susan Harrison) with a jazz musician Steve Dallas (Milner). Unethical and immoral but desperate to please Hunsecker, Falco smears Dallas as a drug addict and Communist by planting evidence, but causes Susan to become suicidal. Ultimately vengeful, she walks out on her ‘incestuous’ and obsessed, overprotective brother, while a raging Hunsecker has Falco beaten up.
Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 American film noir made by Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions and released by United Artists. It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick and stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison and Martin Milner. The screenplay was written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman and Mackendrick from the novelette by Lehman. Mary Grant designed the film’s costumes.
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Directed by: Alexander Mackendrick
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Jeff Donnell, Sam Levene, Joe Frisco, Barbara Nichols, Emile Meyer, Edith Atwater, The Chico Hamilton Quintet
Screenplay by: Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman
Cinematography by: James Wong Howe
Film Editing by: Alan Crosland Jr.
Costume Design by: Mary Grant
Set Decoration by: Edward G. Boyle
Art Direction by: Edward Carrere
Music by: Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: June 27, 1957
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