The following are notes that I jotted down immediately after viewing the 1957 film "The Sweet Smell of Success" for the first time.
These are personal notes, so they'll not only contain spoilers for a great movie that should definitely be seen, but they'll also be pretty damn incomprehensible to anybody that hasn't seen it. Good thing blogs aren't democratic endeavors.
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"The Sweet Smell of Success" - Falco is constantly moving, as is the camera, as is the story structure. Flooded with shadows and liquor, moist and steamy and seamy. Corruption oozes like sweat from the city's pores. Sun in two scenes - publication of initial smear column, and when sister leaves / Falco arrested. All else dark, night. Two evil men destroying love. Incestuous undertones. A brilliant and predatory super intellect and a dynamic dervish of desperate opportunism. Constantly working angles, never resting, never planning, grabbing rings as they whirl by whether he discards them afterwards or not. Linking of corruption to JJ's gossip column linked to democracy/"fake patriotism." Surface images, reputations, exteriors contrasting with malnourished, infantile, or hobbled inner lives. Exploited women constantly terrorized and lorded over by men - columnist's wife is the exception, as is the curious ethos of immediately revealing the tryst rather than publishing lowbrow smear. Cigarette girl evokes Marilyn Monroe. Jazz band played by jazz band? Inversion of 50's morality - corrupt cop, immensely perverse American dream, villain preaches democracy (even takes personal attack as an attack on his millions of readers), journalists (agents of truth) are immensely corrupt (personally and/or professionally), jazz musician is sympathetic character. Cigarette girl is shown to be immensely victimized even as she fucks journalist, moralistic judgements blunted very carefully through scene development, lighting, etc. Line between success and failure shown to be razor thin. JJ and Falco act in collusion throughout film but the trust between them cannot survive one single encounter, but the loving relationship endures staggering attacks. Journalists wield their columns as extensions of their personal interests, fearless of all others due to their columns. Information is key, but there were very few gatekeepers in those days; personal indiscretions rooted out to obtain cachet as press agent.
JJ is immensely intelligent - speaks in strangely artificed poetic language. So brilliant, and so powerful/influential, and so emotionally desolate/predatory (psycopath?) that boredom is the inevitable result. Poetic language the result of a need to constantly amuse himself to alleviate this staggering lack of personal substance in his life and the accompanying boredom. Does his connection with his sister arise as a result of incestuous indications, or do the incestuous indications arise as a result of the connection to his sister? Where are the parents? How long have they been living together? Their relationship encompasses that of a brother, a husband/lover (fur coat, lingering kiss on cheek), father (furious that she would leave without consulting with him, orders her to go to a psychoanalyst). She is 19. Rat king lording over jealous rats. His need for substance in his life, encoded in his relationship with his sister, becomes so all consuming that he puts all interests (even the stewardship of his column) behind this relationship. Everything he says is a threat, never relaxes, never exercises anything but immense suspicion towards anybody. Power for pleasure? Power reflecting obsessive need for control? Not a man at peace with himself.
Falco isn't evil, just desperate and unscrupulous. JJ is evil. In the world this film shows, how could a press agent possibly be honest? Falco scrabbles and struggles and cheats and blackmails and just barely gets by. It takes a corrupt man to succeed in a corrupt world - statement of American Dream? If America is corrupt, does it take a corrupt man to succeed within it? If so, mustn't the American Dream itself be corrupt? There is happiness and salvation in love's eventual vindication, but this victory is utterly apart from any sort of financial/professional success. American Dream is the capacity for capitalism in America to reward a person of any background, but the rightness of that dream, of that capitalism, and of that reward, is not guaranteed. JJ is the king of New York, but Falco isn't - his dream is, quite simply, without much particular adulteration, the American dream - the heights of comfort and success as a result of his constant work. Cop is agent of corrupted system, JJ is agent of corrupted capitalism/mass media/democracy, Falco is agent of corrupted American dream. Marxist influences evident - Dallas is a working class man of simple speech and direct action, unadulterated by impurities of desire, action, a man apart from the perversities of the systems of nighttime New York.
Fur coat - sister always wears it, symbolizes brother's enveloping influence. Emerges in duffel coat - more commonplace, less extravagant, representative of lower socially classed Jazz player fiancé.
New Yorkers of this film are all night people - very little happens in day, even Jazz musician is a deeply nocturnal profession.
