1. Writing (Clifford Odets rewriting Ernest Lehman's screenplay of his novel), both in the crafty story of morally bankrupt world of almost everyone in it (Martin Milner's guitarist and secretary Jeff Donnell (also In a Lonely Place) being exceptions), and in the glorious dialogue:
"The cat's in the bag, and the bag's in the river".
"He's got a face like ice cream."
2. Night feel, James Wong Howe's great, dark on location New York camerawork - did this influence the New Wave?
3. Cast: Burt Lancaster (ruthless and leaning towards incestuous), Tony Curtis (weasely and grasping), Susan Harrison (pathetic), Barbra Nichols (naive but been round the block too), Sam Levene (ineffectual agent), Emile Meyer (sarcastic corrupt cop).
4. Music. Elmer Bernstein - swaggeringly, powerfully jazzy; melodic and classy.
5. Direction (Curtis's staggeringly unreliable autobiography reports the shoot ran way over because of his attention to detail, though I think it much more likely this was down to the extensive rewrites), all careful blocking and artful camera moves.
Comparisons of screen shots on DVDBeaver show that the new 1.85:1 Blu-Ray has both more width image and height, suggesting that this is the original shape and not 1.66:1 as routinely stated (for example on IMDB).
And that is The Apartment's David White (Eichelberger) as the sleazy PR agent who winds up with Nichols. And John Fiedler behind a hot dog counter.
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