Sweet Smell of Success

In 1957 a fading Depression-era playwright, two hot box-office stars and a West Coast jazz group all played prominent parts in creating a dark portrayal of New York City showbiz life that’s now considered to be a cinematic masterpiece.

Sweet Smell of Success is a gritty, Faustian-noir film about the exploits of Sidney Falco, an ambitious press agent, played by Tony Curtis. Falco desperately wants to stay in the favor of J.J. Hunsecker, a powerful Broadway columnist, played by Burt Lancaster and allegedly modeled after the legendary media maven Walter Winchell. Hunsecker, who has an almost incestuous-like attachment to his younger sister, orders Falco to destroy her relationship with a jazz guitarist.

Jazz figures in Sweet Smell of Success both as a soundtrack and as a cultural signifier. Drummer Chico Hamilton’s West Coast jazz quintet appeared as itself during several night-club scenes in the film, with actor Martin Milner taking the role of regular guitarist John Pisano. Hamilton’s group included cello, flute and guitar as key elements of its sound, often referred to as “chamber jazz.” The film also featured a crime-jazzy score by Elmer Bernstein.

Caustic and bitterly showbiz-hip, and filled with crackling, memorable dialogue, Sweet Smell of Success was a box-office failure when it was first released, but has since become an enduring film classic that captures the uneasy vibe of American culture between the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s. Indiana University film professor James Naremore (author of a forthcoming book about the movie) and musicology professor Phil Ford join the program to talk about the look, music, dialogue, storyline, and ultimate significance of Sweet Smell of Success.

Read an interview with Chico Hamilton about his group’s role in Sweet Smell of Success.

Director Alexander Mackendrick on how playwright Clifford Odets shaped the film’s story and dialogue.

Watch the Chico Hamilton Quintet and Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell of Success:

Watch the trailer for the movie:

Sweet Smell of Success fun fact: Chico Hamilton told Jazzwax blogger Marc Myers how the filmmakers got around actor Martin Milner’s lack of musical ability:

(Actor Martin Milner) didn’t know how to play guitar. So what happened was Milner put his left hand behind him and John Pisano, my guitar player, put his hand on the strings. It looked like Milner was playing the guitar, the way Jimmy Wong Howe shot it.

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