Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" is the portrait of a forgotten silent star, living in exile in her grotesque mansion, screening her old films, dreaming of a comeback. The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. "I knew he was off the wagon," she recalled in her memoir "One from the Hart." He directed classic films like Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, The Apartment, The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, Sabrina, and Some Like It Hot. Art director John Meehan experimented until he came up with the idea to shoot the scene through a mirror at the bottom of the studio water tank. According to Gloria Swanson's daughter, Michelle Amon, her mother stayed in character throughout the entire shoot, even speaking like Norma Desmond when she arrived home in the evening after filming. It would not be turned into a motion picture until: The Naked and the Dead (1958). Cinematographer John Seitz put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection. The magnifying glass in Normas beauty makeover scene shows the skin of a young ingnue, not an aging crone. Gloria Swanson worked closely with Edith Head on Norma's clothes to achieve just the right look: grandly expensive but slightly out of date. The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" was voted the #7 movie quote by the American Film Institute. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film Apartment for Peggy (1948). Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. Like most old things in L.A., the house has since been replaced by an office building. ), It came out the same year as another behind-the-scenes showbiz classic, All About Eve, which took most of the Oscars. New York-born novelist and screenwriter Brackett was head of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1930s, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955. Sunset Boulevard is a noir film and like many of the post-World War II dark classics, it is covered with a thick sheen of cynicism. After all, it's about a dethroned queen." In those days there were no buttons on formal shirts. +10 More . The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. Wilder and his co-writers reversed several elements, and there was no official connection between the movie and Waugh's book. If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. The silent comedian had a reputation as one of Hollywoods best bridge players. Wilder changed the scene so that DeMille offered Lamarr's chair to Norma without Lamarr being present. Here's some backstage information to enhance your experience the next time you visit the Paramount lot.. of quiet desperation at the end of a relationship when nothing's really making sense and I sort of had the image of William Holden at the beginning of Sunset Blvd. Features the only Oscar-nominated performances of Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. The film was the favorite of Sci-Fi author J.G. Paramount reunited Bracken and him in Young and Willing (1943). Billy Wilder was frustrated with people assuming that the ending was meant to be ambiguous and asking him what happens to Norma after the final dissolve. When Gloria Swanson finished Norma's final scene, the mad staircase descent, she burst into tears and the crew applauded. In the scene where Norma is showing Joe her silent movies, one of them is Queen Kelly (1932), which was filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, NY. According to both versions of the morgue prologue script, Gillis' body is admitted on 5/17/49 (as indicated by a toe tag). It's the pictures that got small" was #91. In the movie when a cop tries to call in to the coroners office, he cant get an open line because Hedda Hopper is on the phone in Normas room, talking to the Times City Desk and that is more important. Norma wound up sitting in Mr. DeMilles chair. Taylor had a British accent and the imposter sounded like he came out of Chicagos south side. When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. Later in the film Max tells Gillis that he was the silent-movie director who discovered Norma and put her in films. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. - 65th Anniversary (25) Film Noir Through the Years (3) Movies Set in Hollywood (3) Our Favorite Male-Female Duos (1) The History of Golden Globe Winners for Best Actor and Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (1) Our Favorite Stills From "The Movies" (1) Movies About Movies (1) 77 Years of Golden Globes Best Picture Winners (1) X. The two stars had never expressed any hostility towards each other over the failure of Cecil B. DeMille and Stroheim made many recommendations to Wilder during the making of the film, including having his character write all of Norma Desmond's fan mail, and, more importantly, to use footage from "Queen Kelly" as an excerpt from one of Desmond's great silent films. She felt that Wilder used her name in a past-tense context, and she was offended. Wilder was, well, the wilder of the two, often bawdy and crass, while Brackett was genteel. Please, don't let it be true, it must be some mistake," per her memoir. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. Fat Man: "A husky fellow like you?" These towns were favored because they were on the way to Palm Springs where, after collecting the audience reaction cards, studio personnel would then go to relax and determine what changes should be made to the previewed films. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry. William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. The drugstore where Joe Gillis meets up with his old movie industry friends is Schwab's Pharmacy, then a real pharmacy/soda fountain at the intersection of Sunset Blvd. Holden's first film back from the services was Blaze of Noon (1947), an aviator picture at Paramount directed by John Farrow. The name was then changed to Millman and finally to Sheldrake and was played by Fred Clark. In their scene together in Artie's bathroom Gillis mentions to Betty in his dramatic flirtation about having spent "12 years in the Burmese jungle", when coincidentally, just a few years later his character, Shears, finds himself lost there in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai. Mrs. Getty's home had to be completely re-decorated to give it the oversized grandeur needed for the film. These actors were bigger than life. Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder retained the term of endearment for the scene in which DeMille greets Norma Desmond at the door of the sound stage. Westmore and director Billy Wilder agreed with this so William Holden was made up to look younger than he was. The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. Location scenes at Norma Desmond's mansion were shot not on Sunset Boulevard but on Wilshire Boulevard. After returning from France, she shot her last Paramount films--Stage Struck (1925), The Untamed Lady (1926) and Fine Manners (1926)--at the studio's lot in Astoria, Queens, NY. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). Brackett was a New York-born novelist and screenwriter, head of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1930s, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955 (during which time he won two screenwriting Oscarsgood news for conspiracy theorists). She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. According to Cameron Crowe, who shadowed Billy Wilder in his twilight years, a typical day in his office would consist of him answering numerous phone calls from people requesting to remake this film, and he would inform them that he didn't own the rights and promptly hang up. Holden had a supporting role in Ashanti (1979) and was third-billed in another disaster film, When Time Ran Out (1980), which was a flop. So in that scene, William Holden is driving over the future locations of Walk of Fame stars dedicated to the two people arguably most responsible for his success in Hollywood. But it's also a love story, and the love keeps it from becoming simply a waxworks or a freak show. To publicize the film, Paramount sent Gloria Swanson on a cross-country tour, paying her $1,000 a week for her services. Billy Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. Wilder's version is the one they went with (he was the director, after all), but the argument marked a turning point for him, and he decided never to work with Brackett again. Norma Desmond promised she would never desert her audience again. Wilder was no fan of improvisation and was very protective of his words. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. She refuses to believe that she's no longer remembered and will never make another movie. In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of Life. Holden himself claimed that he, too, could picture his end. Billy Wilder was one of the ultimate Hollywood insiders and he grew with film. Costume designer Edith Head found working on the film to be one of her greatest challenges. But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. She is still waving proudly to a parade which had long since passed her by. [5][6], Next he starred with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the Warner Bros. gangster epic Invisible Stripes (1939), billed below Raft and above Bogart. He did another Western at Columbia, Texas (1941) with Glenn Ford, and a musical comedy at Paramount, The Fleet's In (1942) with Eddie Bracken, Dorothy Lamour, and Betty Hutton.[9]. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television miniseries The Blue Knight (1973). See, Bettys a message gal, not a virgin, and there are no whores in Hollywood. It's the pictures that got small," was voted #24, out of 100. She was disappointed to see that all the parts she was offered subsequently were watered-down versions of Norma Desmond. The film's narrative structure bears a marked resemblance to that of American Beauty (1999). He starred in the 1953 . The "fee" for renting the Jean Paul Getty mansion was for Paramount to build the swimming pool, which features so memorably. In reality, Gloria Swanson never worked with Normand and worked only once with Prevost in a 1916 short. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." Sunset Boulevard (1950) 1950, 1h 50min - Drama Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, an aging silent-film queen, and William Holden, as the struggling young screenwriter who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in "Sunset Boulevard." This can be deduced from the fact that when he pulls one out of the pack he turns the bottom end up to his mouth. Well, not a comeback, a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven her for deserting the screen. Holden paid it forward, becoming Hepburns guardian angel.. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. In an interview Wilder gave in 1996 he claimed that the film which eventually became SUNSET BOULEVARD began as a comedy for Mae West and Marlon Brando. Norma's "gondola bed" was originally white, and was featured in Twentieth Century (1934) with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore. read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter.