Where to watch
Each link opens a search on that service. Checked 13 October 2026.
Streaming data from JustWatch
Sweet Smell of Success
MEANRANK
83/100
Where it ranks
- Mean Score #255
- IMDb #385
- Rotten Tomatoes #142
- Metacritic #99
- Letterboxd #181
- Rotten Tomatoes Critics #119
+6 more
- Rotten Tomatoes Audience #479
- Metacritic Audience #1088
- Criticker #60
- Kinopoisk #1476
- AlloCiné #1372
- Trakt #935
Every rating
Mostly agreed
Lowest is Kinopoisk on 74, highest is Metacritic critics on 100. Critics average 99, everyone else 79.
See the films the platforms disagree about most →A powerful and vicious Broadway newspaper columnist manipulates events to break up his sister's relationship with a jazz musician he deems unworthy. He enlists a slimy, unscrupulous press agent to do his dirty work, leading to a web of corruption, blackmail, and betrayal in the dark corners of New York City.
Details
- Director
- Alexander Mackendrick
- Writers
- Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman
- Based on
- a work by Ernest Lehman
- Released
- 4 July 1957
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English, Italian, Spanish
- Runtime
- 96 min
- Budget
- $3.4M
- Box office
- $2.5M
This title elsewhere
Cast
Full cast (69) →
Awards
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award3 wins & 3 nominations total
More like this
Featured in
All lists →
16 September 2026
Fourteen acclaimed films to discover beyond the usual watchlist
Comedies, thrillers and stranger pleasures, arranged from an easy first watch to films that reward a different kind of attention.
30 October 2026
Why Meryl Streep is the greatest actress of all time
The case rests on comedy, emotional precision, versatility and sustained achievement, tested against the strongest rival claims.
30 October 2026
Denzel Washington is more than an actor: a global Black cultural icon
How global visibility, artistic freedom and a commanding public presence gave his career a meaning that reaches beyond the films.
29 October 2026
MCU canon explained: the main timeline, other universes and the TV shows
Daredevil counts. Alternate universes are not automatically non-canon. A practical guide to Marvel continuity without treating every cameo as a blanket answer.
29 October 2026
Why Batman works without superpowers—and when the films forget why
Fear, money, detective work and moral limits: four Batman films test what makes Bruce Wayne worth watching.
29 October 2026
Five great directorial debuts, ranked for what is already on screen
Citizen Kane, The 400 Blows, Get Out, Reservoir Dogs and Following: first features judged without borrowing greatness from the careers that followed.
