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GO WITH THE GLOBE, READ J.J. HUNSECKER - The Eyes of Broadway
EXT. BROADWAY - NIGHT
The southeast corner of the intersection of Broadway and
46th Street, CAMERA, fairly high, shoots north towards the
impressive vista of electric signs, silhouetted against the
darkening sky. Very heavy traffic and crowded sidewalks.
CAMERA descends towards the Orange Juice stand on the
corner, passing the booth which sells souvenir hats. It
moves through the congestion of chattering passersby,
steadily approaching a smartly dressed young man, who
stands at the counter of the Orange Juice stand. Oblivious
of the hub-bub around him, SIDNEY FALCO is concerned only
with his private problems.
He turns as a newspaper truck pulls up at the curb behind
him; this is what he has been waiting for...
So begins the Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman screenplay,
Sweet Smell of Success, the 1957 film which is brought
to mind by recent stories about a widely read New York gossip
column Page
Six.
CLOSER ANGLE - NIGHT
The news truck delivery man tosses a bundle out onto the
sidewalk besides a newsstand.
DETAIL
The bundle of newspapers. It hits the sidewalk with a
smack. CAMERA PULLS BACK as Sidney Falco crosses the
sidewalk. The owner of the newsstand, IGGY, comes to pick
up the bundle; he is a grizzled gnome with a philosophical
sense of humor; Sidney snaps his fingers with impatience.
Iggy wears spectacles and is clearly more or less blind, he
has to grope for the cord that binds the papers.
IGGY
Aw Lady, if I looked like you, I'd--
SIDNEY
C'mon...C'mon...
IGGY
(recognizing Sidney's voice)
Keep ya sweatshirt on, Sidney.
Majestically taking his time, Iggy lifts the bundle to
his stand and cuts the cord.
IGGY
Hey, Fresh, the Globe just came in -- Hey, Sidney, want
an item for Hunsecker's column? Two rolls get fresh
with a baker! Hey, hot, hot, hot -- etc.
In Sweet Smell of Success, Burt Lancaster plays J.J.
Hunsecker, a powerful New York columnist roughly based on
Walter
Winchell. Tony Curtis plays the role of Sidney Falco, the
ambitious, pretty boy press agent who will stop at nothing to
find ink for his showbiz clients in JJ's tabloid column
.
Sidney and J.J. at Twenty One Club
Life Imitates Art
In what is playing out like a real life sequel, the attorney
for a former supermarket bagboy self-made billionaire, whose
friends include a President and a movie star's supermodel
ex-girlfriend, goes to the FBI and launches an investigation of
a gossip column stringer for the New York Post's Page Six. The
story
was first broken by the Post's competitor tabloid the New York
Daily News.
George Plimpton, Jared Paul Stern, and Cameron Richardson at
Elaine's on Manhattan's Upper Eastside (Larry Flint photo,
1996)
"Match me, Sidney"
In the movie, a newspaper columnist Leo Bartha, threatened with
blackmail for philandering, tells Sidney what he thinks of him
and J.J.
BARTHA
Your friend Hunsecker - you tell him for me - he's a
disgrace to his profession. Never mind about my, my bilious
private life. I run a decent, responsible column. That's
the way it stays. Your man prints anything. He'll use any
spice to pepper up his daily garbage. You tell him I said
so. Tell him that like yourself, he's got the scruples of a
guinea pig and the morals of a gangster.
SIDNEY
(sneering) What do I do now? Whistle 'Stars and Stripes
Forever'?
The business of gossip
Campbell Robertson writes
about the gossip game that plays upon people in nightclubs,
restaurants and their
big houses.
Might Nikki Finke, Los Angeles journalist and bane of
high profile movie industry executives write her own screenplay
on the unfolding
story?
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