CLASSIC FILM YOU’VE NEVER SEEN: SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

A powerful gossip columnist uses his power to ruin his sister's relationship with a man he deems unworthy of her

Long before TMZ and the Daily Mail, readers would get their gossip fix from syndicated newspaper columnists. Two of the shrewdest and most notorious were Louella Parsons and Walter Winchell. Both had must-read columns in newspapers across the country and could either create, advance or destroy a celebrity’s career.

“Sweet Smell of Success,” is a 1957 film that follows crooked press agent Sidney Falco, played by Tony Curtis, as he struggles to help get his clients’ names in J.J. Hunsecker's influential newspaper column, which due to a failed promise he once made, proves almost impossible. Hunsecker is played by a steely-eyed Burt Lancaster and supposedly loosely based on Walter Winchell. Taking any means necessary to get back in Hunsecker’s good graces, Falco agrees to help him break up his innocent, younger sister’s romance with a Jazz musician.

There’s nothing Falco won’t do to achieve acceptance from Hunsecker, including blackmailing a rival journalist and prostituting his pregnant girlfriend to another rival columnist. Watching Curtis’ fraught and frantic machinations will leave you feeling both disgust and pity for him.

The film, which was shot in New York City and features a cool jazz score by the Chico Hamilton Quintet, is just as relevant today as it was shocking when it premiered.