Sunset Boulevardtold an old familiar story.
William Holdens Joe Gillis helps a timid soul named Norma Desmond cross a crowded street on Paramounts back lot.
Im not giving anything away here.
Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.
But also much funnier.
So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture.
Oh, and while were at it, Wilder didnt submerge any cameras to get that underwater shot.
Cinematographer John Seitz put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection.
Ad content continues below
Sunset Boulevardis also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly.
Wilder, who had been feeding himself for quite some time, told Meyer to go fuck himself.
Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues.
The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue.
There once was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world.
But that wasnt good enough for Hollywood.
They had to have the ears of the old place, too.
So they opened their big mouths and out came talk.
These actors were bigger than life.
They stayed that way even if the pictures got small.
White, pink, or maybe bright flaming red.
Sometimes its interesting to see just how bad, bad writing can be.
This promised to go the limit.
Marshman Jr.Sunset Boulevardwas the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film.
They had paired up in pictures since 1938.
Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies includingThe Lost Weekend.
They swore each other off over the montage where Norma struggles to lose weight for her comeback.
Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary.
Every character is jaded, except the oldest players.
Gloria Swanson brings sunshine into every room as silent screen idol Norma Desmond.
She is ever the star.
She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies.
Erich von Stroheims Max von Mayerling is equally awestruck, still caught in the wake of Normas star dust.
De Mille, and Max von Mayerling.
Without Norma Desmond, there wouldnt be any Paramount Pictures.
He was just a movie writer with a couple of B-pictures to his credit.
An inventory of his prospects added up to exactly zero.
He just didnt have what it takes.
The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time.
Norma Desmond was the greatest of them all.
In one week, she received 17,000 fan letters.
Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair.
There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings.
Later he strangled himself with it.
West wanted to rewrite her dialogue.
Wilder was no fan of improvisation and was very protective of his words.
Mary Pickford, Pola Negri, and Greta Garbo turned down the role.
Gloria Swanson, meanwhile, was born on March 27, 1899.
She was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category.
She produced and starred inSadie ThompsonandThe Love of Sunya.
Swanson made the transition to talkies withThe Trespasserin 1929.
Montgomery Clift was originally cast as the writer but dropped out two weeks before the shoot.
She reportedly told Clift shed kill herself if he made the movie.
Fred MacMurray and Gene Kelly both turned down the role of Joe Gillis.
Wilder almost hired Broadway star Marlon Brando, who would make his screen debut inThe Menin 1950.
William Holden had a similar trajectory as a young artist in Hollywood.
He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight.
He played Bogarts kid brother inSabrina, Holdens third film with director Billy Wilder, in 1954.
Sad as this may sound, to the day he died, Holden insisted Bogart was a bastard.
Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall.
Holden paid it forward, becoming Hepburns guardian angel.
He was perfection on and off-screen.
Holden was a bit of an anti-hero, or at least a very flawed hero.
Holden never lost his stride as cinema changed.
He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork WesternThe Wild Bunch.
Holdens last movie, Blake EdwardssS.O.B., was another masterpiece of Hollywood cynicism.
Art Imitates an Imitation of Life
Sunset Boulevardmixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking.
Wilder used real names like Darryl Zanuck, Tyrone Power, and Alan Ladd.
When Norma visits Cecil B.
It would go on to be one of his most successful movies.
Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to sit in for a cameo, but she wanted $25,000.
Wilder asked how much shed charge just to shoot the chair and Lamarr said $10,000.
Norma wound up sitting in Mr. DeMilles chair.
Normas waxworks card sharps were Swedish-born Anna Q. Nilsson, H. B. Warner and Buster Keaton.
The silent comedian had a reputation as one of Hollywoods best bridge players.
Wilder told the actors to kibbutz and let him shuffle.
read more: Can The Biblical Epic be Resurrected?
The clips inSunset Boulevardwere the first time American audiences saw it.
Swanson and von Stroheim are playing themselves in that scene.
The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate.
The actor-turned-director bitched about that goddamned butler role for the rest his life.
The stars read the stars.
This is absolutely true, Nancy Reagan continued consulting her astrologer long after she stopped parking at studio lots.
This still goes on today.
It gives them an opportunity to write really good acceptances speeches.
No one wants to get caught by surprise anymore.
It said so on the chart from her astrologer, who read DeMilles horoscope.
She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script.
But she fits it like a round peg in a square hole.
A modern-girl Jiminy Cricket, Betty asks, Dont you sometimes hate yourself?
and Joe corrects her, Constantly.
She hates all of Joes writing except for about six pages.
See, Bettys a message gal, not a virgin, and there are no whores in Hollywood.
Words are as good as sex to two writers.
But Joe wouldnt have fallen so hard if he werent so shackled.
The moment he discovers that life could be beautiful, Norma slits her wrist with Joes razor.
Oh, wake up, Norma.
Youre killing yourself for an empty house.
The audience left 20 years ago.
Norma is at the edge of insanity through the whole movie, but that doesnt mean shes not fun.
Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious.
Joes voice even starts to take on more and more of her theatrical flourish after too much exposure.
It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s.
A neglected house gets an unhappy look.
This one had it in spades.
The house was owned by the J. Paul Getty family.
And, of course, a pool.
Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope.
Hollywood was known for its excesses long before Michael Jackson hit town.
According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers.
Someone who said they were a doctor said Taylor died of a stomach hemorrhage and then disappeared.
Sands disappeared after the murder.
When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor.
Confess, Peavey, he laughed in the ghosts face.
Taylor had a British accent and the imposter sounded like he came out of Chicagos south side.
Peavey died in a San Francisco asylum, where he was being treated for syphilis-related dementia, in 1931.
There were no shortage of suspects.
Newspapers printed love letters between 19-year-old former child star and screen idol Mary Miles Minter and Taylor.
She said it was a blackmail scheme gone wrong.
The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry.
But Hollywood press has always had clout.
Dont bother with a rewrite, man, take it direct!
As day breaks…
An Eternal Close-Up
Salomewas a wonderful part for Norma Desmonds celluloid comeback.
The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils.
So she lands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips.
Norma Desmond promised she would never desert her audience again.
She is still waving proudly to a parade which had long since passed her by.
AfterSalome, she planned to make another picture and another picture.
You see, this is my life, she promised.
It always will be!
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.
Read and download theDen of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazineright here!
