This film is very high up in my top 10 films of all time. This worries me slightly as the film is the definition of sleaze. JJ Hunsucker (Burt Lancaster) is a vicious gossip columnist, and Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is an I-will-walk-on-anyone-to-get-ahead press agent. Falco spends his life trying to get snippets into JJ Hunsucker’s column. I have watched this film many times and, like Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in “When Harry met Sally”,  I still can’t work out who wins “Man of the Match”, as Lancaster and Curtis are both riveting in their respective roles. This is a very “dark” film, and none of the people in it have even one redeeming quality except the boyfriend of JJ Hunsucker’s sister; he plays in a jazz band and is a bit TOO wholesome and squeaky clean. I doubt if he has heard of heroin, let alone used it. The film was released in 1957, and captures the taste and smell of that decade. It is shot in Black and White as all “noir” films should be. ”Sweet smell of success” is like all great films because, while it plays in front of your eyes,  you believe you are watching something that rings true; Horribly true, but true nonetheless. The film might be derided in some quarters for taking itself a bit too seriously but, it was released over 50 years ago, and still captures the 1950s like few other films ever did.