MovieChat Forums > Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Discussion > Terribly Underrated Noir

Terribly Underrated Noir

posted 18 years ago by ShellOilJunior
11 replies | jump to latest

It's not in AFI's top 100 from 1997 (i voted for it in the new 2007 top 100) and most people fail to name it as one of the greatest noir pictures or even one of the great classics.

Burt Lancaster is DYNAMIC as JJ Hunsecker and Tony Curtis is brilliant as Falco. Couple that with snappy dialog, NYC at night and overall exceptional story and you have an absolute gem.

Easily a top 100 American Film ever.

Discuss

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] wilky37 17 years ago

The Writer's Guild of America last year when they released their list of the top 101 screenplays ranked this at like #37 I believe. It gets some recognition. Not enough, though.

[–] texecution 17 years ago

Agreed. Can something be noir without a gun? I suppose hypothetically it could...

[–] maverjoe 17 years ago

I think you are taking an incorrectly narrow view of what fits into film noir...Sweet Smell of Success is classic film noir, no question.

[–] Jackdon 17 years ago

Its definitely noir. Noir isn't always guns, murder mysteries, and femme fatales. Look at Bruce Force. Tremendous film noir set in a prison.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Percivalx 17 years ago

It's a brilliant film. The script by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman is fantastic.

Let's see if you bastards can do 90.

[–] watkins39 16 years ago

I was surprised by how good this was. Some noirs have dated quite badly, but this has a modern pace, a great script and two brilliant performances from Lancaster and Curtis.

[–] WarpedRecord 13 years ago

It's at 8.2 on this site, which I think is pretty high praise for IMDb. I think it' a strong 8/10, but maybe I'll upgrade when I watch again.

[–] Egg_MacGuffin 12 years ago

8.2 with scarcely over 12,000 votes.

It seems the select few people who have seen it, loved it.