Every Classic Hollywood Movie Edited into ‘Sugar’

April 13, 20242 Mins Read

[Editor’s note: The following includes spoilers for “Sugar.”]

“Sugar” is a neo-noir television series set in modern-day Los Angeles, featuring private investigator John Sugar (Colin Farrell) who, in addition to being very good at his job, is also a huge movie buff. Sugar’s latest case, to find the missing granddaughter of legendary movie producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell), only sends him even further down the path of Hollywood lore.

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Throughout the eight episodes of Season 1, Sugar’s journey to find Olivia reminds him of scenes from some of his favorite classic films, which are intercut into the series as if we are seeing little flashes of what is racing through Sugar’s mind.

“It was all done after the fact, so I had no idea until I saw it how many [and] which clips [they used],” Farrell told IndieWire, adding he was pleasantly surprised to see himself juxtaposed with some of his all-time favorite films, like “Sunset Boulevard” and “The Maltese Falcon.” “It’s a really fun alignment for me, as a lover of film and a lover of this story.”

Intercutting scenes from classic films was the brainchild of director Fernando Meirelles and editor Fernando Stutz, and you can read more about their bold use of archival footage here, but below is a full breakdown of every film that appears in “Sugar,” including a description of how and where those scenes are used in the series. Some are don’t-blink-or-you-will-miss-it flashes of classic films; some make direct connections between Sugar’s story and that of classic characters played by Humphrey Bogart, Glenn Ford, and Burt Lancaster.

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