Best of James Wong Howe: Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Video by Mark Laurila
"With all our modern technology, there is no one who can match James Wong Howe's ability to control light in the service of story." Roger Deakins, Cinematographer
James Wong Howe was a legendary Hollywood cameraman who remains too little known today, despite having been nominated ten times for Academy Awards (and winning twice). This video presents the highlights of Wong Howe's cinematography in the 1957 Film Noir masterpiece "Sweet Smell of Success." Burt Lancaster plays powerful and ruthless New York newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker who manipulates Press Agent-on-the-make Sidney Falco, played by Tony Curtis, into doing his bidding, breaking up his younger sister's romantic relationship.
As the film's Director of Photography, James Wong Howe, a master of black and white, brought his characteristic, nuanced control of darkness and light to the cinematography. This video demonstrates Wong Howe's brilliance in several modes: Sidney Falco and the Restless Camera (in which the constantly moving camera emphasizes the press agent's non-stop hustling), Faces in Darkness (often suggesting hidden intentions and toxic influence), and EXT. NEW YORK CITY - NIGHT (in which Wong Howe's mastery of location and night shooting astonishes). "Sweet Smell of Success" began as a short story by Ernest Lehman, best known for writing Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." Lehman wrote the first script, but after the director Alexander Mackendrick was hired, playwright Clifford Odets rewrote much of it, and the film's famous acidic dialogue seems overtly Odetsian.
Music
"Muita Calma" by Martin Landstrom
Licensed through Epidemic Sound www.epidemicsound.com/

[@MrCinecine]

the best.

[@marechal1937]

Ambiguous, but I’ll take it.

[@uslines]

Fantastic film. Lancaster and Curtis outstanding. And, James Wong Howe cinematography impressive, as usual.

[@marechal1937]

And, I might add, Clifford Odets' arsenic-laced-cookie dialogue and Alexander Mackendrick's imaginative staging and nuanced work with actors. Plus the underrated contribution of Barbara Nichols. Without her performance, Curtis' performance would not have the full weight of Falco's monstrousness.

[@uslines]

@@marechal1937 Quite right. Congrats all 'round.