The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. Norma Desmond was the greatest of them all. One of the few showy bits of camerawork in the film is near the beginning, when the corpse floating in Norma Desmond's pool is seen from underneath. 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. Jay Livingston, Ray Evans: The Paramount songwriting duo is seen at the piano at Artie Green's New Year's Eve party. But it could just as well have been Joes headquarters, Schwabs Drug Store, a kind of combination office, coffee clutch, and waiting room where actors and writers wait for the gravy train. Betty and Joe fall in love after they sneak off to the studio backlot by moonlight to collaborate on a screenplay. 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. Previous image. 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. 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. . 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. The film originally opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. Westmore and director Billy Wilder agreed with this so William Holden was made up to look younger than he was. Despite the 19 year gap in their ages, Holden and Swanson died just 2 years apart from each other- Holden in 1981 at age 63 and Swanson in 1983 at age 84. Reluctantly, Wilder met with William Holden, who hadn't done much after the great Hollywood innovator Rouben Mamoulian's Golden Boy (1939). Fat Man: "You were murdered?" When Norma visits Cecil B. There were three young directors who showed promise in those early days of silent film, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious. 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. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. words "Sunset Blvd." At Paramount, he did another Western, Streets of Laredo (1949). Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. One of his father's grandmothers, Rebecca Westfield, was born in England, while some of his mother's ancestors settled in Virginia's Lancaster County after emigrating from England in the 17th century. 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. 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." Well, not everybody! The role of Norma Desmond was initially offered to Mae West (who rejected the part), Mary Pickford (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett realized when talking to her that her image as "America's Sweetheart" made her unsuitable for the part), and Pola Negri (Billy Wilder rejected her as her thick accent would cause too many problems) before being accepted by Gloria Swanson. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[1]. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers after Joe Kennedy, JFKs dad who produced the film, replaced von Stroheim as director because Swanson complained about the racy material. Norma Desmond says that she paid $28,000 for the Isotta-Fraschini car in 1929. (The book is about a failed screenwriter who works for a cemetery and lives with a forgotten silent-film star.) Dont bother with a rewrite, man, take it direct! The only film to be nominated for Best Actor and Actress Oscars that year. 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". [27] He played an American Civil War military surgeon in John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, which was a box-office disappointment. Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. Some, including Holden himself and one of his close confidants, could foresee the death (per The Huntsville Item). While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. The silent comedian had a reputation as one of Hollywoods best bridge players. Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary. From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. There's a little dig in the scene when Cecil B. DeMille finds out that Paramount has been calling Norma Desmond because it wants to rent her car for "the Crosby picture." Buscar Amazon.com.mx. Idealists can screw for fun and for power, because sex is good for business but love is a luxury Hollywood gals cant live without. However, he knew that her arch-rival Hedda Hopper had trained as an actress and would therefore be more convincing onscreen. Joe Gillis mentions that the painting of wild horses that covers the projection screen in Norma Desmond's mansion was given to her by "some Nevada Chamber of Commerce." This still goes on today. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. They had faces. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. Unlike the character she played, Gloria Swanson had accepted the fact that the movies didn't want her anymore and had moved to New York, where she worked on radio and, later, television. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." Eventually it wasn't Wilder who shouted "Cut!" The film is openly referenced in Soapdish (1991), The Player (1992), Gods and Monsters (1998), Mulholland Drive (2001), Inland Empire (2006) and Be Cool (2005) while the closing scene of Cecil B. Demented (2000) is a direct parody of the final scene of the 1950 classic. Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr. Online Film & Television Association Awards, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." Gloria Swanson, meanwhile, was born on March 27, 1899. In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". And like the title, Holden seemed to have the looks and muscular build Hollywood craved. 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. Paramount was more than happy to be the subject of the film, and didn't ask for the studio to be disguised. Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also appeared in Airport 1975. London Boulevard (2010) was based on the Ken Bruen novel that was inspired by Sunset Boulevard and features the same trope of an aging actress as the stranger caught in her web. 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. The ocean?' We had faces" was #13. 1851 Ivar Street was the address of the Alto Nido Apartments, where he lived, sometimes worked and, ultimately died in 1941. Normas waxworks card sharps were Swedish-born Anna Q. Nilsson, H. B. Warner and Buster Keaton. The first name of the Joe Gillis character was Dan in an early draft of the screenplay, then altered to Dick, and finally to Joe just before filming began. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. DeMille." Before he became a kept man for Norma Desmond, he was thinking of wrapping up the whole Hollywood deal and trying to get his old job back as a newspaperman in Dayton, Ohio. Seleccionar el departamento en el que deseas buscar. When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. But she wanted to rewrite her dialogue (as was her custom)a nonstarter for Wilder, who seldom let his actors change their lines even slightly from what was on the page. At Cecil B. DeMille's first appearance, his on-set cry of "Wilcoxon!" Set designer Hans Dreier had in fact been the interior designer for the homes of former silent stars Bebe Daniels, Norma Shearer and Pola Negri. H.B. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 22:44. Billy Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. After his final film S.O.B., Holden declined to star in Jason Miller's film That Championship Season.[37]. For the record, the other 12 films to achieve a similar feat are Mrs. Miniver (1942), Johnny Belinda (1948), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In subsequent years, two lawsuits have been filed against Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, claiming that Sunset Blvd. and was "a loner," according to Edwards, who wasn't surprised that Holden's body went so long without being discovered. It's the *pictures* that got small. I didn't know. But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list. preppy-3 15 March 2008. She was disappointed to see that all the parts she was offered subsequently were watered-down versions of Norma Desmond. but Holden's wife, Ardis (Brenda Marshall), who happened to be on set that day. Norma Desmond returns to the Paramount lot and is overcome with nostalgia. ), a woman who trades on charms that have . In the opening scene of the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard," the cynical screenwriter turned gigolo Joe Gillis lies floating in a swimming pool, blood seeping from his lifeless body. Even though it wasn't the last scene filmed, Billy Wilder threw a party for her as soon as the shot was finished. [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. This one had it in spades. This inter-positive was scanned at 2,000 lines of resolution and electronically restored for the 2002 DVD reissue. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film Apartment for Peggy (1948). 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. He played Bogarts kid brother in Sabrina, Holdens third film with director Billy Wilder, in 1954. Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). 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. Stanwyck went to bat for Holden when he was going to be replaced in Golden Boy (1939) and Wilder's collaboration with Holden in the 50s starting with Sunset Boulevard revitalized his career (including the Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17 (1953). His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. The great big white elephant of a mansion on Sunset Boulevard was actually on Wilshire Boulevard and would be used again as the abandoned mansion in the film Rebel Without a Cause. He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight. Sunset Boulevard (styled in the main title on-screen as SUNSET BLVD.) [44] After his death, Powers set up the William Holden Wildlife Foundation at Holden's Mount Kenya Game Ranch. This film is in the Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films on Letterboxd. 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. 4.99. Joe insists hes not a Hollywood whore, but he accepts Normas gifts, gold cigarette cases, a platinum watch, suits, shirts, and shoes that would impress Rudy. In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch,[4] winning much acclaim. (1940) followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of Our Town (1940), done for Sol Lesser at United Artists.[8]. Newspapers printed love letters between 19-year-old former child star and screen idol Mary Miles Minter and Taylor. After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. Was the inspiration for Metallica's 1997 song "The Memory Remains". He starred in the 1953 . I know your face. Billy Wilder's terrifying valentine to Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard (1950), features one of the most indelible of all screen performances: Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. The home was built in 1923 for businessman William O. Jenkins. A neglected house gets an unhappy look. Both suits were dismissed. She worked closely with Gloria Swanson on Norma Desmond's wardrobe, as she figured Swanson would have had a better idea of what women of that time would have worn and what they would be wearing now. But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe youd like to hear the facts, the whole truth. The older actor prided himself on needling people and he needled the shit out of Holden on the first movie, and the second movie was worse because Holden started dating Audrey Hepburn during filming. Film debut (uncredited) of Yvette Vickers. To shoot Joe and Norma dancing together at her New Year's Eve party, cameraman John F. Seitz used a dance dolly---a wheeled platform attached to the camera. Swanson made the transition to talkies with The Trespasser in 1929. The actor's second major breakthrough occurred when Wilder cast him in the lead of the. Since he had classic good looks, an expressive voice, and was an excelle He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork Western The Wild Bunch. There were no shortage of suspects. cynical Hollywood survivor played by William Holden. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . He was just a movie writer with a couple of B-pictures to his credit. Yeah. Director Cecil B. DeMille, silent film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson played waxy versions of themselves. With unofficial permission from Paramount, she worked for a few years with writer Dickson Hughes and actor Richard Stapley developing a show called Starring Norma Desmond (later changed to Boulevard). Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." [41], Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. Such extravagances were so commonplace that when Wilder was planning to shoot the funeral of Normas chimpanzee, the director told the crew to just set-up the usual monkey-funeral sequence.. Saltar al contenido principal.com.mx. In the fall of 1981, the television actor Stefanie Powers, who was dating William Holden, was in Hawaii filming the ABC show "Hart to Hart" when Holden stopped answering his phone. After living in the home for a year he moved, and the house sat vacant for a little over a decade, earning the moniker "The Phantom House" in the process. The name Norma Desmond was a combination of early Hollywoods comedy star Mabel Normand and her lover, silent film director William Desmond Taylor. This indicates that he is smoking filterless cigarettes, which was the norm for that era until filters became the standard after the mid-'50s. And that young man who was found floating in the pool of her mansion, with two shots in his back and one in his stomach, was nobody important, really. Hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) accidentally falls in with faded screen legend Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Wilder asked how much shed charge just to shoot the chair and Lamarr said $10,000. To help promote the film, Gloria Swanson did a three-month tour of 36 cities in America and Canada. They thought the actors made it up as they went along. taste bar and kitchen missouri city. Sunset Boulevard told an old familiar story. As day breaks. You used to be in silent pictures. Holden, just 63 when he died, had most recently appeared in the Blake Edwards' film "S.O.B." The mansion was torn down in 1957, and a large office building for Getty Oil built on the site still stands on the spot. Nothing else! Also in 1969, Holden starred in director Terence Young's family film L'Arbre de Nol, co-starring Italian actress Virna Lisi and French actor Bourvil, based on the novel of the same name by Michel Bataille. [42][citation needed]. 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. Those offices later became the home of the "Star Trek" art department. Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival Special Award for Ensemble Acting, Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, "When Alcoholics drink themselves to death", "William Holden Dead at 63; Won Oscar for 'Stalag 17', "Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Award: 1982 Oscars", "The Screen Strand Shows 'Invisible Stripes', "30 Days, 30 Classics Day 17: Sabrina (1954) starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart", "Screen: Crosby Acts in 'Country Girl'; Film Based on Odets Drama Makes Bow", "The Screen in Review; 'Bridges at Toko-ri' Is Fine Film of War", "Han Suyin dies at 95; wrote 'Many-Splendored Thing', "13 Fascinating Facts About 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "The Towering Inferno Movie Review (1974)", "Network Movie Review & Film Summary (1976)", "William Holden Gave His All Even "When Time Ran Out", "William Holden's Unscripted Fall From Grace", The William Holden Wildlife Education Center, "West Holden: More than just the son of William Holden", Image of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1951, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Holden&oldid=1142631715, Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners, United Service Organizations entertainers, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple partners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, episode: "William Holden/Frances Bergen Show", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:28. Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. Make-up designer Wally Westmore found that Gloria Swanson's face belied her age and wanted to make her look older. . It was a big hit, as was The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a Korean War drama with Kelly.[20][21]. The house was owned by the J. Paul Getty family. "I am big. Clift's biographers say it was because he had a strong following among older women, who wrote him letters describing how they'd like to mother him, and he didn't want to encourage such behavior. It's not possible to shoot through water and get a clear image beyond. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. Marshman Jr. Sunset Boulevard was the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film. As the band plays 'Diane', we also see Desmond ascending her staircase. William Haines, along with fellow silent screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, was approached to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners. It always will be! Garbo was once rumored to be engaged to the innovative Hollywood and Broadway director Rouben Mamoulian whose film Golden Boy (1939) made William Holden famous. In 1998 the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. American Film Institute On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, by Ed Sikov, 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. 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. There were actually three mansions used during filming. In 1986 Nancy Olson became the last surviving member of the cast. For the clip of the vintage film that Norma was watching Paramount couldn't find anything suitable so Gloria provided it from her own collection. [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. Universal bought it on her death in 1920 and it was used in several movies, most notably in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Joe Gillis: Wait a minute, haven't I seen you before? The mansion belonged to the second Mrs. Jean Paul Getty, who rented it on condition that if she did not like the swimming pool the studio would have to add for the film, it would cover it over and restore the original landscaping. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. But as commentator Steve Sailer points out, more than one contemporary source mentions it as an inspiration. 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. "[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. Holden was best man at the wedding of his friend Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis in 1952. Less popular was Satan Never Sleeps (1961), the last film of Clifton Webb and Leo McCarey; The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), his third film with Seaton; or The Lion (1962), with Trevor Howard and Capucine. The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils. Sad as this may sound, to the day he died, Holden insisted Bogart was a bastard. Sunset Boulevard DVD (2007) William Holden, Wilder (DIR) cert PG Amazing Value. For the cover photo of the very first issue, in April 1951, of what many consider the most important film magazine of all time, the Paris-based "Cahiers du Cinema, " the editors chose the image of Gloria Swanson and William Holden in her screening room. That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. "[13] And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." The name was then changed to Millman and finally to Sheldrake and was played by Fred Clark. 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.