Sweet Smell of Success 1957

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Mackendrick's nighthawk landscape is compellingly, poetically bleak. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Its pleasures are almost obscenely abundant. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A lean, mean amorality tale that still goes down like a cookie laced with arsenic. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The main incentive to see this movie is its witty, pungent and idiomatic dialogue, such as you never hear on the screen anymore in this age of special-effects illiteracy. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: One of those rare films where you remember the names of the characters because you remember them -- as people, as types, as benchmarks. Read more

TIME Magazine: Sweet Smell, which could have been offal, is raised to considerable dramatic heights by intense acting, taut direction (by Alexander Mackendrick), [and] superb camera work (by James Wong Howe). Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Chris Auty, Time Out: The screen was rarely so dark or cruel. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: James Hill's production, locationed in Manhattan, captures the feel of Broadway and environs after dark. Read more