The Swimmer

Year:  1968

Director:  Frank Perry

Screenplay:   Eleanor Perry, based on the short story by "The Swimmer" by John Cheever

Starring:  Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard, Janice Rule

Running Time:  95 minutes

Genre:  Drama 

Middle-aged businessman Ned Merrill (Lancaster) is visiting with some friends when he gets the idea to swim home, using the outdoor swimming pools of his neighbours as a makeshift "river".  As his journey progresses his interactions with his neighbours, become increasingly strained and confrontational, as it appears that they know troubling things about himself and his family that Ned either can't, or won't, remember.

Based on an acclaimed short story by John Cheever, which was first published in The New Yorker in 1964, this surreal film, did not do well on it's original release, and yet it's reputation has grown, and it has come to be seen as something of a cult film.  The film starts on a bright, sunny summer afternoon, with Ned Merrill, a fit, middle-aged man emerging from the forest, wearing only a set of swimming trunks.  Merrill comes across a pool party hosted by friends, all of whom are nursing hangovers, but still knocking back the gin and martinis.  They seem surprised, but happy to see Merrill, who has apparently been away somewhere (although it is not revealed where he has been or for how long).  Looking out over the valley that houses the wealthy, suburban neighbourhood, Merrill works out that all the various swimming pools make a kind of river, that he can use to go home.  Right from the start it becomes apparent that there is some secret which his friends know, but that Merrill is seemingly oblivious to.  The journey becomes increasingly uncomfortable, as it appears from his interactions with others that Merrill is in severe personal and financial difficulties, although the nature of it is never made clear.  It also becomes apparent that Merrill's family life is not as idyllic as he claims.  As the film progresses the weather seems to change as well, becoming increasingly colder and more autumnal.  If you want to plunge in the deep end, you could read the film as being about American masculinity, the middle-class, suburban life, middle-aged disillusionment, or anything.  While the film may be too strange for some tastes, it has a strange, nightmarish power, with scenes such as Merrill's frantic dash across a busy motorway, a busy public pool becoming a wet and wild inferno, and the powerful final image packing a punch that lingers for a long time.  Burt Lancaster, who spends the entire film barefoot and clad only in swimming trunks, gives a powerful performance as a man who falls apart before our eyes, and what starts as a seeming jape becoming a grim odyssey into a suburban heart of darkness.  Lancaster subsequently rated The Swimmer as his best film.  The film boasts an impressive score by Marvin Hamlisch, and features the acting debut of comedian Joan Rivers.  

Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer
   

Sweet Smell of Success

Year: 1957
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Screenplay: Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, based on a novelette by Ernest Lehman
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner and Sam Levene
Running Time: 96 minutes
Genre: Drama, show business, film noir

Summary: New York City in the late 1950s, and public life is dominated by the influential gossip column penned by J.J. Hunsecker (Lancaster). Press agent Sidney Falco (Curtis) feeds Hunsecker gossip in return for Hunsecker mentioning his clients in his column. However, Falco has not been able to get any of his clients mentioned in Hunsecker's column due to his failure to break up the romance between Hunsecker's sister, Susan (Harrison) and jazz guitarist Steve Dallas (Milner). With his business suffering, Falco finds himself willing to go to any lengths to obey Hunsecker's will.

Opinions: The title of this film is ironic in that the smell of success is far from sweet, it's rancid and bitter, corrupt to the core. It features career best performances from both Burt Lancaster as the monsterous columnist J.J. Hunsecker who cheerfully destroys lives and careers with a single phone call and Tony Curtis as the hustling press agent Sidney Falco who is willing to do anything to get what he wants. It has an intelligent and sharp script which is full of memorable lines and crisp black and white photography from James Wong Howe. It also benefits from stylish direction from director Alexander Mackendrick, who at the time was best known as a director of Ealing comedies in Britain.
The movie was shot under difficult conditions on location in New York City, with Mackendrick apparently scared the entire time due to the production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster (part owned by Burt Lancaster), and their reputation for firing directors for little or no reason at all. To add to their problems they were shooting in one of the busiest sections of New York City without a completed script. Tony Curtis had to fight for his part, because the studio with which he was under contract, Universal, were scared that the film would ruin his career. However, Curtis was tired of the pretty-boy roles which he had been playing up to that point and was desperate to prove that he could actually act. Orson Welles was originally considered for the role of Hunsecker, but Mackendrick wanted to cast Hume Cronyn who, he felt, looked a lot like Walter Winchell, the real life gossip columnist, on who Lehman based J.J. Hunsecker in his original story. However the studio insisted on Burt Lancaster due to his box office appeal. The film was not a box office success, with a lot of audiences very unhappy at seeing movie heroes Curtis and Lancaster cast against type.
The movie is now an acknowledged cinema classics and remains one of the few perfect films which, in it's depiction of a cruel and morally bankrupt media, is just as relevant now as it was when it was made, perhaps even more so. There are also a lot of even darker themes running underneath the surface, such as Hunsecker's twisted relationship with his sister. This is 1950s film-making at it's finest with very element in the film note perfect from direction to performance, featuring some of the best dialogue ever penned.

"I love this dirty town"
- J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster)



"Match me, Sidney": Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success