#1. Sweet Smell of Success

Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison

Sweet Smell of Success (1957): J.J. Hunsecker, a powerful New York newspaper columnist, is dead set against his sister's marrying a jazz musician. Sidney Falco, a sleazy PR man, will do anything to get publicity for his clients, and he sees Hunsecker's situation as an opportunity to win the writer's favor. So, he sets out to break up the affair anyway he can.