Alexander Mackendrick directs Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Susan Harrison in this New York drama where an oily publicist will do anything to curry the favour of a powerful newspaper columnist who lords it over the lifeblood of his trade.

Psychological violence. Perhaps the nastiest film ever made where no blood is let, no wound causes harm, no shots are fired. It is a movie of people constantly being reminded of their place on the rung, and if they ever feels morally superior to that rung then the rung becomes slippery real quick. The dialogue is like the poetry of pain. “Son, I don’t relish shooting a mosquito with an elephant gun, so why don’t you just shuffle along?” “Stop tinkering pal, that horseradish won’t jump a fence.” “I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.” Every line is third rail electrified. Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker: ever see an entire film get pulled towards one performance, gasping for air like a drowning horse whenever he is absent. Not that Curtis is any slouch, he is near omni present, desperately hustling and wiggling to keep his little foothold in the power games. He isn’t my favourite movie star of this era but he is perfectly cast here. And there are rare comforts amid all the trauma and desolation. Susan Harrison is undeniably pretty to look at. Monochrome Mad Men-era Broadway at night dazzles as a location. The jazz bar hopping plot lends this a glorious sparkly contemporary score by Elmer Bernstein. Not the most famous film of its decade but one that stands tall among the biggest fish of its day. Now you can’t help to share it with everyone like a dirty little secret. Watch the men pretend to have souls when they lost them a thousand sins ago.

10

Perfect Double Bill: Houdini (1953)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/