“A rat trap of a film … The screen was rarely so dark and cruel.”
—Time Out

“The film’s rank cynicism surrounding the journalism community can only be matched by cinematographer James Wong Howe’s deep blacks and blinding whites, which keep each serpentine character in its shadow until their time to strike. Every element gives heat to the drama until it boils over — then adds more.”
—Brooklyn Magazine

With special guest Paramount Theatre film programmer Stephen Janisse at the Friday screening. With the Paramount Theatre closed for renovations this summer, Janisse joins us to discuss the long-running Paramount Theatre Summer Series and to reminisce about some favorite memories of the iconic downtown institution.

Generally, noir films feature protagonists who are cops, detectives, or innocent bystanders caught in a web of crime. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is probably the only PR-noir. It takes place in a fast-paced Broadway milieu where reputations are made and destroyed by powerful tastemakers. Burt Lancaster is as good as he has ever been as the newspaper columnist with an agenda. Tony Curtis gives a career-best performance as the press agent who navigates the newsprint sewer better than anyone else. In 35mm.