SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957), a Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis steamroller about the ruthless rules of professional survival and success in the Big Apple.

This film is shot only 8 years after Criss Cross (1949) in which Lancaster again plays the lead role but Tony Curtis shows up for a few seconds, perhaps in his first appearance ever on screen, as the samba partner of an anonymous woman at the club scene. (IMBD claims he is not credited but I remember a tiny little "Anthony Curtis" mentioned somewhere on the credits list.) So SWEET SMELL is a testimony to the way Curtis's career has catapulted within those 8 years.

The movie is replete with fantastic exchanges and sharp lines revealing character and intricate plot, and why are we surprised?

It was penned by the legendary Ernest Lehman (whom we have unfortunately lost in July 2005) who also wrote classics like Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, North by Northwest, Sabrina, West Side Story, Sound of Music and many others. Lehman is the only screenwriter that Academy honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Burt Lancaster is J.J. Hunsecker, a power-maniac national rumor columnist with 60 million readers who can bend grown men out of shape with a few choice lines in his daily column.

Tony Curtis is the sleazy but dangerous bottom-feeder press agent Sidney Falcon who will do anything to be the top dog in a "dog eat dog world."

When JJ asks Falco to stop guitarist Steve Dallas from carrying on a love affair with his sister, Falco unleashes a web of deceit that ultimately fires back.

But too many lives are bruised in a no-holds-barred power game where blackmail is common currency and all is fair.

An uncompromising courageous look at the gritty underbelly of New York's media and publicity empire.

An unconditional 9 out of 10.