This parallel narrative--two perspectives from the same character, one omniscient, the other blissfully ignorant--that converge at the moment of Joe's death, are a major reason the film retains such dramatic and emotional power. is directed toward his associate producer, Henry Wilcoxon, who had starred in his epics Cleopatra (1934), The Crusades (1935) and Unconquered (1947), later moving to a position behind the camera as DeMille's associate, which he held until the older man's death in 1959. Fat Man: "A husky fellow like you?" "[18] Rumors at the time had it that Hepburn wanted a family, but when Holden told her that he had had a vasectomy and having children was impossible, she moved on. The two men never worked together again. Because all three audiences inappropriately found the morgue scene hilarious, the film's release was delayed six months so that a new beginning could be shot. Location scenes at Norma Desmond's mansion were shot not on Sunset Boulevard but on Wilshire Boulevard. But it originally began in the L.A. county morgue, with toe-tagged corpsesincluding Joe'sspeaking to each other (in voiceover) about how they died. The 49-year-old film directors body was found on the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments in Westlake, Los Angeles. The death was just one of many infamous Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, which included the Roscoe Arbuckle bottle rape trial, the death of Olive Thomas, the mysterious death of Thomas H. Ince, and the drug-related deaths of Wallace Reid, Barbara La Marr, and Jeanne Eagels. The stars read the stars. It's the pictures that got small" was #91. So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture. He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight. Director Billy Wilder Writers Charles Brackett Billy Wilder D.M. Brackett thought the sequence was cruel in its emphasis on what age had done to the one-time beauty, but Wilder insisted it was essential to show how driven she was in her pursuit of youth. 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. For a number of years, exhibitors voted Holden among the most popular stars in the country: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It was only natural that he should film several sequences on the studio's backlots. [28] Columbia would not meet Holden's asking price of $750,000 and 10% of the gross for The Guns of Navarone (1961); the amount of money Holden asked exceeded the combined salaries of stars Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn.[29]. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, Holden attended Pasadena Junior College, where he became involved in local radio plays. This indicates that he is smoking filterless cigarettes, which was the norm for that era until filters became the standard after the mid-'50s. When Joe and Norma sit down to watch one of her old movies, Joe pulls out a cigarette and places the bottom end in his mouth. 4.99. She felt that Wilder used her name in a past-tense context, and she was offended. On the basis of this film and largely due to his continuing association with director Billy Wilder, Holden would reach the zenith of his career from 1950-'57. The movie featured the famed director Erich von Stroheim, who made photographs of Gloria Swanson move so beautifully the world was enthralled, as Max Von Mayerling, the director who made, married, and divorced the enthralling Norma Desmondand then gave up his career in film to be her slave in butlers clothing. According to Billy Wilder, it was von Stroheim's idea to use a clip from Queen Kelly (1932) in Sunset Blvd. But it was too difficult to put a camera underwater to get the shot, so Wilder and cinematographer John Seitz came up with an ingenious solution: they put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection from above. But trophies or not, Sunset Boulevard has stayed near the top of the list of great movies about moviemaking. Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. There were three young directors who showed promise in those early days of silent film, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. It's the *pictures* that got small. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett almost came to blows over the montage depicting Norma's preparations for her comeback. Some, including Holden himself and one of his close confidants, could foresee the death (per The Huntsville Item). Getting the role was a lucky break for Holden, as Montgomery Clift was initially cast but backed out of his contract. Rudy's shoeshine stand at the parking lot where Gillis hides his car from the creditors was inspired by Oscar Smith's shoeshine stand located just inside the Bronson Gate at the old Paramount Studios, which was a popular hangout for gossip and socializing while Billy Wilder was building his career there. 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. They stayed that way even if the pictures got small. If anything, its observations on the greedy machinations of Tinseltown are truer now than they were in 1950. H.B. Fat Man: "You were murdered?" There once was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world. Mae West rejected the role of Norma Desmond because she felt she was too young to play a silent-film star. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. Well, in the end, he got himself a poolonly the price turned out to be a little high, so Paramount paid to have one installed on the condition that if Mrs. Getty didnt like it, theyd remove it after filming was over. We had faces" was #13. His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. It's the pictures that got small," was voted #24, out of 100. Jay Livingston, Ray Evans: The Paramount songwriting duo is seen at the piano at Artie Green's New Year's Eve party. Free Postage. A few years later, Stephen Sondheim became interested in writing a musical version of his own, working with writer Burt Shevelove (with whom he ended up writing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). [39][46] He dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. It gives them an opportunity to write really good acceptances speeches. When Norma Desmond visits her old friend at Paramount, she affectionately calls him "Mr. DeMille" (not Cecil or C.B. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. Paramount reunited Bracken and him in Young and Willing (1943). He loves Norma so much, he even forges thousands of pages of fan mail, just to feed her delusion. but Holden's wife, Ardis (Brenda Marshall), who happened to be on set that day. Neither did Toward the Unknown (1957), the one film Holden produced himself. He worked on dramas like The Key (1958), Westerns like John Fords The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, and comedies like The Moon is Blue which so famously challenged the Production Code in 1953 that Hawkeye and BJ insisted it get shown at M*A*S*H 4077 to break the monotony of the Korean War. Besides Tyrone Power, other stars mentioned when Joe Gillis is pitching his "baseball" picture to the producer are Alan Ladd, William Demarest and Betty Hutton. Columbia put Holden in a Western with Jean Arthur, Arizona (1940), then at Paramount he was in a hugely popular war film, I Wanted Wings (1941) with Ray Milland and Veronica Lake. Holden, who was at this point dependent on alcohol, said, "I really was in love with Audrey, but she wouldn't marry me. He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). When Norma visits Cecil B. The undertaker, who appears for a few seconds early on with the white casket for Norma's deceased pet chimp, was veteran actor Franklyn Farnum, who played extras in over 1,000 films during his lengthy but unsung career. 1851 Ivar Street was the address of the Alto Nido Apartments, where he lived, sometimes worked and, ultimately died in 1941. There were no shortage of suspects. The California license plate on Gillis' Plymouth, 4D R 116, appears to be a legal and current registration for 1949. (1949), and "Father Is a Bachelor" (1950). Sunset Boulevard, one of Hollywood's most cruelly accurate depictions of itself, is now 65 years oldolder, even, than its main character, who's washed up at 50. The writers feared that Hollywood would react unfavorably to such a damning portrait of the film industry, so the film was code-named "A Can of Beans" while in production. White, pink, or maybe bright flaming red. Was Oscar-nominated in all the major categories--Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay--but only won in the last category. When Norma visits DeMille at Paramount, he's in the midst of shooting Samson and Delilah, which really is what he was up to at the time. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee of the year to be also nominated for Original Screenplay. Included among the 25 films on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also co-starred in Airport 1975 together. Cecil B. DeMille agreed to do his cameo for a $10,000 fee and a brand-new Cadillac. Since her part required her to gaze at the newsreel cameramen and "fans" (the waiting police) gathered in the foyer below, she couldn't watch where she placed her feet. In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked this as the #16 Greatest Movie of All Time. Joes voice even starts to take on more and more of her theatrical flourish after too much exposure. Holden himself claimed that he, too, could picture his end. As this film opens, William Holden's character Joe Gillis describes himself as a Hollywood screenwriter "living in an apartment house above Ivar Street." Both Mary Astor and Miriam Hopkins starred in TV versions of the film in 1955 and 1956, respectively. Mrs. Getty's home had to be completely re-decorated to give it the oversized grandeur needed for the film. Around this time he also appeared in 21 Hours at Munich (1976). "I knew he was off the wagon," she recalled in her memoir "One from the Hart." was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. Billy Wilder originally approached William Haines to play one of Norma's bridge partners. Only 950 were made from 1924 to 1931. Billy Wilder was a friend of the danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen, and based the Norma Desmond caracter on her. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." Co-writer D.M. Holdens last movie, Blake Edwardss S.O.B., was another masterpiece of Hollywood cynicism. While talking with Betty and Artie in Schwab's, Artie points out the studs in Joe's tuxedo. The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden. Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard took the tinsel out of Tinseltown, the gild off the golden boy, and the cover off a forgotten murder. The one on the Paramount studio soundstage; the one whose driveway William Holden ducks into at 10060 Sunset Blvd; and the one used for the exteriors, which is the one shown here. +10 More . It was largely from his association with Wilder that Holden would enjoy the greatest acting successes of his career in the 1950s. When crew members asked Billy Wilder how he was going to shoot the burial of Norma's monkey, one of the film's most bizarre scenes, he just said, "You know, the usual monkey-funeral sequence.". This car has been on display at the National Automobile Museum in Turin, Italy since 1972. In 1986 Nancy Olson became the last surviving member of the cast. Strange? and Crescent Heights Blvd. After Salome, she planned to make another picture and another picture. In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. 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. But also much funnier. Norma Desmond: Get out! Wilder changed the scene so that DeMille offered Lamarr's chair to Norma without Lamarr being present. [14], Holden made a third film with Wilder, Sabrina (1954), billed beneath Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Columbia teamed him with Lucille Ball for Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), and the sequel to Dear Ruth, Dear Wife (1949). When producer Sheldrake offers to turn Gillis' script into a Betty Hutton story, the desperately poor writer inexplicably turns him down. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for the role.[11]. (Norma Desmond would be quick to point out that, thanks to computers and iPads, the pictures have gotten even smaller. Newspapers printed love letters between 19-year-old former child star and screen idol Mary Miles Minter and Taylor. Sunset Boulevard (styled in the main title on-screen as SUNSET BLVD.) His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. "[4], For his contribution to the film industry, Holden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1651 Vine Street. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. Please, don't let it be true, it must be some mistake," per her memoir. [10] RKO borrowed him for Rachel and the Stranger (1948) with Robert Mitchum and Loretta Young. (1950) was plagiarized from other scripts. Sometimes its interesting to see just how bad, bad writing can be. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. The name "Norma Desmond" was chosen from a combination of silent-film star Norma Talmadge and silent movie director William Desmond Taylor, whose still-unsolved murder is one of the great scandals of Hollywood history. ", After serving with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, he returned to Hollywood and in 1950 he got his first substantial role in Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard," per Britannica. Also, the house didn't have a pool, so Paramount paid to have one installed on the condition that if Mrs. Getty didn't like it, they'd remove it after filming was over. Suratt was reportedly obsessed with the fact that she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and after her career ended commissioned the leader of the U.S. Reform Bah' Movement to co-write a script on the life of Mary Magdalene. The British author's satirical The Loved One was published in 1948, after Waugh had spent time in Hollywood observing the film industry and, of all things, the funeral industry. . Norma Desmond: I *am* big. (She liked it.). [38], Holden maintained a home in Switzerland and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner in an animal preserve in Africa. And if you find it a little odd to hear dead men telling their own tales via narration, it is less strange than hearing it from a bunch of corpses with toe-tags talking it over in the LA county morgue, which was the way the movie was originally shot. From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. Fury of the Gods Brings Back the "Shazamily": Inside DC's New Superhero Adventure, Scream 6's Brutal NYC Trip: "You Can't Trust Anyone" This Time, Cocaine Bear Is Not Just About a Killer "Coked-Up" Bear, It's Also an "Underdog Story", How Marvel's Wastelanders Podcast Created an Exciting Story with No Visual Safety Net, Sunset Boulevard: The Original Hollywood Expose. Oddly enough, the reclusive Greta Garbo granted permission to use her name, though when she saw the film itself she was sorry she had done so. read more: Can The Biblical Epic be Resurrected? The butler stonewalls Joe from the outside world until hes rolling up twenties tight enough snort through to deal with even the shortest withdrawal from the big empty house. So she lands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips. Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. Throughout Hollywood history many film stars, and/or single films, were responsible for saving ailing studios. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. [45], According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden bled to death in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, on November 12, 1981, after lacerating his forehead from slipping on a rug while intoxicated and hitting a bedside table. For scenes in which he drove, the car was towed by another car. But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. In accordance with his wishes, no funeral or memorial services were conducted. After a private screening for Hollywood dignitaries, Barbara Stanwyck knelt in front of Gloria Swanson and kissed the hem of her skirt. That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. Normas waxworks card sharps were Swedish-born Anna Q. Nilsson, H. B. Warner and Buster Keaton. Filtered cigarette packs always open at the filtered end, which meant he would've been lighting the filter otherwise. Free shipping for many products! 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. (A few months later, Hepburn met Mel Ferrer, whom she later married and with whom she had a son Sean Hepburn Ferrer. Taylor had $78 in his wallet, a silver cigarette case, a Waltham pocket watch, and a two-carat diamond ring on his finger when his body was found, so cops quickly ruled out robbery as the motive. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. Watch Sunset Boulevard: Centennial Collection, When Norma Desmond says to the guard at the "Paramount Studio" gates, "Without me there wouldn't be any 'Paramount Studio'" the words could apply to, When Max is telling Joe about directing Madam's first pictures, there is a bad dub of the word "sixteen". Originally Billy Wilder wanted both of Hollywood's top gossip columnists--Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons--reporting from Norma's mansion at the end and fighting over the phone. Just us and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! Norma Desmond didnt need dialogue, she can say whatever she wants with her eyes. Sunset Boulevard is also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly. Whether he was the washed up screenwriter of Sunset Boulevard or the reluctant hero of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Holden kept audiences engrossed. The magnifying glass in Normas beauty makeover scene shows the skin of a young ingnue, not an aging crone. The name Norma Desmond was a combination of early Hollywoods comedy star Mabel Normand and her lover, silent film director William Desmond Taylor. Perry, George & Andrew Lloyd Webber (1993). The script (which was to be a vehicle for her comeback) was submitted to Cecil B. DeMille who sent it back. William Holden, original name William Franklin Beedle, Jr., (born April 17, 1918, O'Fallon, Illinois, U.S.found dead November 16, 1981, Santa Monica, California), American film star who perfected the role of the cynic who acts heroically in spite of his scorn or pessimism. One of only 13 films to be nominated for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director. [7], Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in Those Were the Days! The directions given by the Paramount guard for Norma and Joe to go meet Cecil B. DeMille on "Stage 18" is accurate: this stage, one of the largest on the Paramount lot, was known for years as "The DeMille Stage" and now is called "The Star Trek Stage", as all the "Trek" movies and some scenes from the TV shows have been shot there (the TV series, from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) onward, had its main sets right across the studio street on Stages 8 and 9, which are right below the second-floor office occupied by Betty Schaefer in this film. At Columbia, he starred in film noirs, The Dark Past (1948), The Man from Colorado (1949) and Father Is a Bachelor (1950). At one point Norma mistakes Joe for a funeral director and asks for her coffin to be white, as well as specially lined with satin. To get around the restrictions of the Breen Code, the script was submitted piecemeal, several pages at a time. . Two years later, he was praised for his Oscar-nominated leading performance in Sidney Lumet's classic Network (1976),[34] an examination of the media written by Paddy Chayefsky, playing an older version of the character type for which he had become iconic in the 1950s, only now more jaded and aware of his own mortality. She is ever the star. Talk! Eventually it wasn't Wilder who shouted "Cut!" It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. Although it can get chilly by the ocean, a light jacket or sweater would be plenty. Joe Gillis is seen reading the book "The Young Lions" by Irwin Shaw, a best-selling World War Two novel of the time, Montgomery Clift, who was originally offered the part of Joe Gillis, later played one of the leads in the film adaptation of that book The Young Lions (1958), though it was not directed by Billy Wilder. Read and download theDen of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazineright here! Warner took the part. She declined the offer. Although Sheldrake's musings on a film about the story of a female baseball player was seen as humorous, the movie "A League of Their Own" would do just that 42 years later. The footage we see is from Queen Kelly (1929), which starred Gloria Swanson and was directed by Max himself, Erich von Stroheim. See, Bettys a message gal, not a virgin, and there are no whores in Hollywood. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." [4] They had two sons, Peter and Scott. or "Boulevard"? The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first American audiences had seen of it. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett met with Greta Garbo and tried to convince her to make a comeback in the role of Norma Desmond. Features the only Oscar-nominated performances of Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. About 28:00 in, when Max is playing the organ, it is the same chords that Captain Nemo (James Mason) plays on his organ aboard the Nautilus in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea." He earned an Oscar nomination for "Sunset Boulevard" and won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 for his role in "Stalag 17," per IMDb. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. Being born on 17 April 1918, William Holden was 63 years old at the time of his death. But she fits it like a round peg in a square hole. 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 only film to be nominated for Best Actor and Actress Oscars that year. Their relationship makes the film as much a love story as it is a noir film, because if ever there is a femme fatale, it is Norma Desmond.