This movie apparently had only moderate success when it was released 50 years ago - presumably due to its film noir character, with the iconic Lancaster and the rising young matinée idol, Curtis, both very unctuous, and one seeming smarmier than the other at every turn. Lancaster is so selfish, ego-maniacal and unfeeling - except for his obsession with his sister (and even that unhealthy and self-serving, having turned her into a basket case). Curtis is just as bad in terms of his character; he just doesn't have the power or influence of Lancaster's "J. J.," but is trying hard to acquire it.
Viewed now, this film is not only superb drama with two of the greatest stars in Hollywood history. It is also a relic in the sense of conveying the influence of gossip columnists in that period and the preceding decades - Winchell, Earl Wilson, Ed Sullivan, Sheila Graham, Hopper and Parsons in Hollwood, and usually a comparable columnist for more local tidbits in almost every American newspaper. These have for many years been supplanted by the plethora of "gossip" programs on the wide spectrum of cable/satellite channels today.
There are some details in this film which can be criticized, but these only make its "10 stars" just a little dimmer. Even with his hand-to-mouth status in the film, Curtis' Sidney would at least have a better sign on his "office" door, and something a tad more office-like. Martin Milner looks as though he's consumed about a triple dosage of tranquilizers, and for most of the picture, so does Susan Harrison; if J. J. were to have a legitimate beef about Marty's attentions to his sister, it should have been his apparent furnishing her with "downers." If you have seen "The Caine Mutiny," released three years prior, you'll recall the young lovers in that film, Robert Francis and May Wynn. It would be a a dead-heat tie with the pair in this film for the title of the most insipid young couple in filmdom history.
However, this fact works in this film, to point even more emphasis towards Lancaster/J. J. and Curtis/Sidney. Likewise for the rather one-dimensional character to all the supporting parts and cast. The fore-mentioned "noir" quality and the rather over-the-top acting of the two leads is a nostalgic look at the acting styles from "The Jazz Singer" through the '50's {nobody - but nobody - was more "over-the-top" in style (or greater) than the pioneering Al Jolson}.
This movie, like so many classics of its period, is great to view, in its own right - but doubly so as an historic, nostalgic view of a time past.
Viewed now, this film is not only superb drama with two of the greatest stars in Hollywood history. It is also a relic in the sense of conveying the influence of gossip columnists in that period and the preceding decades - Winchell, Earl Wilson, Ed Sullivan, Sheila Graham, Hopper and Parsons in Hollwood, and usually a comparable columnist for more local tidbits in almost every American newspaper. These have for many years been supplanted by the plethora of "gossip" programs on the wide spectrum of cable/satellite channels today.
There are some details in this film which can be criticized, but these only make its "10 stars" just a little dimmer. Even with his hand-to-mouth status in the film, Curtis' Sidney would at least have a better sign on his "office" door, and something a tad more office-like. Martin Milner looks as though he's consumed about a triple dosage of tranquilizers, and for most of the picture, so does Susan Harrison; if J. J. were to have a legitimate beef about Marty's attentions to his sister, it should have been his apparent furnishing her with "downers." If you have seen "The Caine Mutiny," released three years prior, you'll recall the young lovers in that film, Robert Francis and May Wynn. It would be a a dead-heat tie with the pair in this film for the title of the most insipid young couple in filmdom history.
However, this fact works in this film, to point even more emphasis towards Lancaster/J. J. and Curtis/Sidney. Likewise for the rather one-dimensional character to all the supporting parts and cast. The fore-mentioned "noir" quality and the rather over-the-top acting of the two leads is a nostalgic look at the acting styles from "The Jazz Singer" through the '50's {nobody - but nobody - was more "over-the-top" in style (or greater) than the pioneering Al Jolson}.
This movie, like so many classics of its period, is great to view, in its own right - but doubly so as an historic, nostalgic view of a time past.