Sweet Smell of Success
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Directed by: Alexander Mackendrick
Written by: Clifford Odets
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Jeff Donnell, and Sam Levene
Release Date: July 4, 1957

They live by night. It is odd to see Sydney Falco or J.J. Hunsecker out during broad daylight. They do the bulk of their work when the moon comes up. It would be an apt comparison placing their names in the same sentence as Dracula. They prowl the city streets confidently, with an abundance of swag and an overwhelming sense of determination guiding them towards their blood – the one thing that keeps them alive: gossip, which evidently leads to crushed souls all around.

One of the great performers Hollywood has had the great pleasure of seeing, Tony Curtis passed away yesterday at the age of 85. Curtis’s cause of death was cardiac arrest, suffered in his home near Las Vegas.

Born as Bernard Schwartz in 1925 to Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, Curtis led the life of a poor family, living in a confined space behind the tailor shop that they owned before his parents — unable to take care of their children — placed he and his brother in state care. After high school, Curtis served in the Navy during World War II, and watched through a pair of binoculars during Japan’s formal surrender.