Sweet Smell of Success
Capsule by Dave Kehr
From the Chicago Reader

The characters of Alexander Mackendrick's 1957 Manhattan melodrama look as if they'd melt if exposed to sunlight. Burt Lancaster, a nightclub columnist, wants to break up his sister's engagement for not entirely noble reasons; he blackmails a nickel-and-dime press agent (Tony Curtis) into taking care of the dirty work. Clifford Odets's dialogue ("I love this dirty town!") is a drawback, but Mackendrick's nighthawk landscape is compellingly, poetically bleak. With Martin Milner, Sam Levene, and Barbara Nichols; photographed by James Wong Howe. 96 min.

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