Sweet Smell of Success features gorgeously stark black-and-white cinematography, a crackling Elmer Bernstein jazz score rife with jumpy energy, and muscular dialogue in a memorably hard-boiled style. Add two intensely powerful performances by Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, and you’ve got a masterful ode to blackhearted American ambition.
Check It Out Category: Picks by John
John’s Pick: In the Mood for Love
Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are neighbors – his wife is having an affair with her husband. Frequently left alone by their unfaithful spouses, the two develop a bond that hovers agonizingly close to courtship. In the Mood for Love is an abstracted romance played out in the tiniest of gestures.
John’s Pick: The Beguiled
Before Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel teamed up to make the tense, gothic melodrama The Beguiled. Set near the end of the Civil War, The Beguiled tells the story of a Union soldier wounded in Southern territory, who finds refuge in a girls’ school.
John’s Pick: King City
Brandon Graham’s quirkily unique graphic novel King City follows Joe, an aimless master of “cat-fu” (i.e., able to use his pet as an absurdly versatile weapon). Joe traverses through a densely pun-filled futuristic metropolis in this elaborate tale enhanced by a playful, high-energy style.
John’s Pick: A Letter to Three Wives
Addie ran away with one of her friends’ husbands. It may sound like a soap opera gimmick, but a first-class cast and a razor-sharp script make A Letter to Three Wives a classic. Skating the fringes of poignancy and black humor with ease, this picture has aged with remarkable grace.