Filming Locations for The Sweet Smell of Success

“Mr Hunsecker, you've got more twists than a barrel of pretzels.”

“I love this dirty town.” beams control-freak showbiz columnist JJ Hunsecker, ‘The Eyes of Broadway’ (Burt Lancaster), surveying the gleaming nightscapes of Manhattan in this brilliantly cynical melodrama from one-time Ealing director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers, The Man In The White Suit).

Hunsecker’s apartment is in the art deco Brill Building, 1619 Broadway between 49th and 50th Streets. The Brill was the original heart of Tin Pan Alley. During the 60s, when it housed 165 music biz companies, its roster of songwriting teams included legendary songwriting teams Goffin-King, Greenwich-Barry, Mann-Weil and Leiber-Stoller. For Allison Anders' 1997 film about the music biz, Grace of My Heart, the Brill was played by the Pacific Electric Building on South Main Street in downtown LA.

Devious press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) tries to plant a smear in a rival column at the now-gone celeb hangout of the 40s and 50s, Toots Shor Restaurant and Lounge, which stood at 51 West 51st Street (it closed in 1971). He meets up with JJ at the 21 Club, 21 West 52nd Street near Fifth Avenue (tel: 212.582.7200).

This classy restaurant is also featured in Joseph L Mankiewicz's All About Eve, Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery, Oliver Stone's Wall Street and Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind.

The office of ‘The New York Globe’, where Falco manages a sneak peek at Hunsecker’s upcoming column, is 200 Fifth Avenue, at 23rd Street, alongside the Flatiron Building.