One of the most enjoyable parts of this movie was 1950's New York. Can anyone recommend some other great movies of this time period where the setting is just as big a character as the other actors? I would add 'The Third Man' which showcases postwar Vienna, but I can't think of too many others.
A couple I haven't seen, but heard were good: Naked City (New York) and Night and the City (London).
A perfect complement to Sweet Smell of Success is Melville's valentine to American noir from two years later, Two Men in Manhattan. While the interiors were filmed in Paris, all of the exterior shooting was done in the heart of nocturnal New York City. The lush photography of the big city lights is accompanied by a moody, pervasive jazz score...just like Success.
And if we're looking beyond the Big Apple, then The Search was the first movie to be filmed in war-torn Germany and it makes the dilapidated rubble a distinctive character.
YES! I was just going to answer "The Search" 1948. Read through the posts and found yours. Montgomery Clift was excellent along with the kid Ivan Jandl, usually kid actors are terrible, that guy I liked.
This film was shot in Germany two years after the end of WW II.