Page 86 - Delicious - UK (February 2020)
P. 86
FRIDAY NIGHT
movie + meal + wine
What’s even better than a cosy night in? A cosy night in immersed in the world of 1950s uptown
New York City nightlife. Add a classic steak dish and a special bottle and you got it made, son
SWEET SMELL OF There’s cocktail drinking and dining
SUCCESS (1957) in high-end Manhattan restaurants and
clubs to enjoy vicariously and,
WHAT’S IT in this dog-eat-dog world, the
THE MOVIE ABOUT? script is jam-packed with food
Burt and eating metaphors.
Lancaster plays monstrous
newspaper columnist TRIVIA NIBBLES
JJ Hunsecker (a thinly veiled l Scottish director Alexander
portrait of powerful real-life Mackendrick, who’d previously
pressman Walter Winchell) worked on Ealing comedies
alongside Tony Curtis as such as Whisky Galore!, smeared
Sidney Falco, a scheming Vaseline on Burt Lancaster’s
press agent described by glasses, preventing him from
Hunsecker as “fully up to all focusing properly and giving
the tricks of his very slimy him a more sinister appearance.
trade”. In return for l Both Orson Welles and Frank
newspaper exposure for his Sinatra were originally
clients, Sidney does JJ’s dirty considered to play Hunsecker.
work. But as the movie opens, Sidney has WHY THIS MOVIE? l Playwright Clifford Odets was rewriting
been frozen out. (“You’re dead, son,” says There are barnstorming performances the script as shooting began, and would
Hunsecker. “Get yourself buried.”) This is from Tony Curtis (whom Burt Lancaster stay up all night typing before handing
because he has failed to stop a blossoming believed should have won an Oscar) new scenes to Mackendrick each morning.
relationship between JJ’s sister, Susan, and Lancaster himself. The shadowy
with whom the columnist has an cinematography by the legendary James THE QUOTE TO QUOTE
unhealthy obsession, and jazz musician Wong Howe is like Caravaggio in black STEVE: Mr Hunsecker, you’ve got more
Steve Dallas. To get himself unburied, and white, and the dialogue fizzes with twists than a barrel of pretzels!
Sidney must redouble his dastardly efforts a cynical energy, helped by an edgy Elmer WORDS: LES DUNN
to break up the romance. But just how Bernstein jazz soundtrack and location Rent/buy it on Amazon. Turn the page
far is he willing to go to keep JJ happy? shooting on the streets of Manhattan. for our meal and wine suggestions →
84 deliciousmagazine.co.uk
