This was a film that is on the list of films to watch from the film section of the handout I got for my MFA. It's a really good film that gets into the power journalists have over the public. In the end though it becomes about scheming and how people get hurt. Tony Curtis stars as a press agent who is endlessly scheming to get his clients into the press. The film is dated. I guess nowadays it would center around the internet and what gets posted and goes viral. But in the context of the film we see Burt Lancaster having the power to influence politics and expose scandal or anything that someone in power wouldn't want revealed.
The film has some great cinematography of old New York. Great shots of Times Square and the streets crowded with taxis and people. So romantic. The film is anything but romantic. The sequence where Tony Curtis forces his girlfriend to befriend a rival journalist of Lancaster shows what a slime bag his character was. There are several incidents where Curtis shows his disgusting nature and how it is played off as just business as usual.
The character of Lancaster reminded me of Bill O'Reilly the now disgraced Fox news anchor whose cable show was must see TV and books charted the New York Times bestseller list. The film shows how the JJ Hunsiker character is devious and out to ruin whoever gets in his way. He is also obsessed with his sister. He tries hard to control her, but the tighter he tries to grip her the further she slips through his fingers.
An interesting film. A film I probably wouldn't have watched if it hadn't been on the list of films to watch.
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