Film

Career

Name: Career
Genre: Drama
Released: 1959
Cast: Dean Martin, Anthony Franciosa, Shirley MacLaine, Carolyn Jones, Joan Blackman

Workplace drama

A cynical Broadway scramble from 1959 about ambition, betrayal, and the price of chasing stardom. Dean Martin and Anthony Franciosa circle each other as desperate men willing to hurt anyone to get ahead. It's sharp-edged and surprisingly dark for its era—less about triumph than the corroding effect of hunger. For anyone fascinated by Old Hollywood's ruthlessness or the mechanics of ambition itself.

TMDb rating

3.4

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The Bad and the Beautiful1952

A masterclass in showing ambition as a consuming disease. Kirk Douglas plays a producer who destroys everyone around him climbing to the top. Lush, cynical, and deeply satisfying—it understands that hunger and talent don't make someone good.

But It's glossy studio product from the early 1950s, which can feel dated. Some find the melodrama overwrought rather than moving.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

Vicious, precisely written, and hypnotic. Burt Lancaster as a Broadway columnist and Tony Curtis as an operator willing to destroy reputations. The dialogue cuts like broken glass and it shows the entertainment world as genuinely corrupt.

But It's a thriller-noir hybrid that moves fast and doesn't explain everything. The cynicism is unrelenting—there are no good people here.

Raging Bull1980

Scorsese's portrait of Jake LaMotta, a man whose ambition and rage destroy his marriages and relationships. It's about the same corroding hunger, the same inability to connect with anyone. Formally stunning and brutally honest about obsession.

But It's in black and white, violent, and deeply depressing. The sexual and domestic violence on screen is graphic and hard to watch.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Career

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

La Dolce Vita1960

Both are about men clawing upward through layers of corruption and fakery, discovering that arrival means nothing. Both see the machinery of ambition as fundamentally dehumanizing.

Fellini's three-hour fever dream about ambition, parasitism, and the hollowness of Roman high society. A journalist and his circle chase sensation and connection and find neither. It's visually intoxicating and spiritually devastating about the cost of wanting more.

But It's in Italian, nearly dialogue-free in stretches, and deliberately paced. It's a poem rather than a plot, and some find it self-indulgent or boring.

The Fountainhead1949

Gary Cooper as an architect who will compromise nothing for his vision. Another story about a man sacrificing everyone around him. Ayn Rand's philosophy gets a full Hollywood airing, for better or worse—it's audacious and strange.

But The philosophy is didactic and the romance is bizarre by modern standards. It's not subtle about what it believes, and not everyone agrees with what it believes.

A Star Is Born1954

Judy Garland and James Mason in a film about stardom, ambition, and the cost of climbing. Mason plays a declining actor sabotaged by his own drinking; Garland is ascending. It's Technicolor melodrama that actually earns its tears.

But At 154 minutes, it's long and slow-paced by contemporary standards. The restored version is the one to see, but even that can feel indulgent.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

A modern chamber piece about a surgeon (Colin Farrell) whose casual cruelty decades earlier comes due when a boy and his family decide to make him pay. It's about consequence, power, and how we justify our own monstrousness.

But It's methodically paced, abstractly shot, and emotionally cold. Some viewers find it pretentious rather than profound.

Sunset Boulevard1950

Billy Wilder's masterpiece about a failed screenwriter and a delusional silent-film star. The darkest possible view of Hollywood ambition—it suggests the system chews people up and spits out ghosts. Perfect and pitiless.

But It's bleak and cynical about art and entertainment. Some find it too dark or too dismissive of the people it portrays.

The Hustler1961

Paul Newman as a pool player willing to do anything to beat the best. Fast Eddy is charming and ruthless, and the film never asks us to forgive him. It understands that ambition and decency rarely coexist.

But It's shot in stark black and white and moves deliberately. The gambling world is unglamorous, the dialogue can be hard to parse, and there's no redemption arc.

Advise & Consent1962

Otto Preminger's sprawling political thriller about men willing to destroy each other for power. Everyone here is compromised; everyone wants something. It's a master class in showing how ambition corrupts institutions.

But It's three and a half hours, densely plotted, and full of characters. It requires attention and rewards it, but demands a lot from viewers first.

The Apartment1960

Both are about men selling themselves piece by piece, and both turn the knife at the exact moment the protagonist realizes what the cost actually is. Career ends with the army stepping in; The Apartment ends with the character stepping in himself—but the moment of reckoning is the same.

Billy Wilder again, but warmer. Jack Lemmon as a drone willing to lend his apartment to executives having affairs so he can climb the ladder. It's about compromise and complicity, but also about the moment you decide you're worth more. Hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.

But It's bittersweet rather than dark, and some want their moral tales darker. The romance subplot might feel tacked on, and the film's view of infidelity is very much of its era.