Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) is a Walter Winchell-like columnist who abuses his power as though he were, well, Walter Winchell. Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is a sycophantic press agent who is more than willing to do Hunsecker’s bidding, even if it means ruining a reputation or two. The real Winchell was outraged and tried to sabotage screenwriter Ernest Lehman’s career. It didn’t work. Alfred Hitchcock loved the movie and hired Lehman to write North by Northwest. The nocturnal street scenes around Times Square, filmed by the great James Wong Howe, are without equal.