Tony Curtis died yesterday at the age of 85 at his Las Vegas area home.  Among his greatest roles on the big screen was as the sleazy press agent opposite Burt Lancaster’s J.J. Hunsecker in the “Sweet Smell of Success” (1957).  Flackery, hackery, influence peddling, beat-downs and shake-downs–this movie is an absolute classic and probably the darkest movie to come out of the 1950s.

If you haven’t seen the Sweet Smell of Success, run to your video store or fire up your Netflix queue immediately, and ponder what Choire Sicha told us when asked about the film during my rambling “Gawker on PR” series a few years ago: “Enemies are for destruction. People *enjoy* being evil. Try it! It feels great!”