Continuing with the HOLD THE FRONT PAGE series of films, the Cambridge Film Festival brings us SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. A cautionary tale, we follow the Machiavellian machinations of one Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), a press agent with a problem. He needs pieces for his clients in the widely syndicated column of J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), but he’s been shut out.

To get back into Hunsecker’s graces Falco instigates a smear campaign against the boyfriend of Hunsecker’s younger sister – the start of a convoluted plan by the pair to separate the couple, destroying the young man and allowing Hunsecker to keep his incestuous influence over his sister. Soon, the deceit escalates and they risk the stack of lies collapsing to its specious foundations.

The dialogue is the kind of smart film-noir sparring that, although it could seem slightly dated, is a pleasure to hear Lancaster and Curtis volley back and forth.

The dialogue is the kind of smart film-noir sparring that, although it could seem slightly dated, is a pleasure to hear Lancaster and Curtis volley back and forth. Not that anyone is left out; the dialogue in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is sharp across the board. Curtis is suitably feisty and deceitful as “a man of 40 faces, not one – none too pretty and all deceptive”. The counterpoint to Curtis’s unscrupulous mine of quips and spin is Lancaster – playing the more subdued and unethical, but also more imposing, presence of Hunsecker.

Another 50s noir with improved reception over time, the razor-sharp wit of the script and the engaging lead performances will keep audiences coming back to Mackendrick’s classic satire.

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