Sunset Boulevard

Reel Classics today takes a look at Sunset Boulevard, a film released in 1950 that brings to light the sto­ry of a silent film actress who was no longer want­ed by the stu­dios after that era end­ed with the arrival of “talkies.” 

Gloria Swanson plays the role of Norma Desmond, a for­mer star of the silent movies who con­tin­ues to hold on to the dream (or delu­sion) that she will again be a film star.  She lives in a man­sion on Sunset Boulevard near the famous Hollywood stu­dios, accom­pa­nied only by her but­ler Max Von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim). Max was once her hus­band and also her film direc­tor, and now, still lov­ing her, pro­tects her from the world. 

Norma’s world changes one day when a stranger shows up at her door.  The stranger is Joe Gillis (William Holden), who is an aspir­ing but unsuc­cess­ful screen­play writer.  Pursued by cred­i­tors want­i­ng to repos­sess his car, he has a flat tire and seeks to hide his car in the garage of Norma Desmond’s man­sion. Norma, find­ing Joe out­side her door, at first insists he leave.  However, Joe con­vinces her that he can assist her in writ­ing a screen­play that will return her to the sil­ver screen.  She asks him to stay and pro­ceeds to fall in love with him.  However, Joe falls in love with the young, aspir­ing writer Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), and that does not sit well with Norma.

The nar­ra­tive of the film is told in flash­back by the deceased Joe Gillis.  No, this is not a spoil­er, as the movie opens with the scene of Joe float­ing face-down in a swim­ming pool.  Joe’s open­ing lines are:  “Yes, this is Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, California. It’s about 5 o’clock in the morn­ing.  That’s the homi­cide squad, com­plete with detec­tives and news­pa­per men.” 

The char­ac­ter Norma Desmond was actu­al­ly mod­eled after sev­er­al silent movie stars who were unable to tran­si­tion from the silent film era and lat­er lived in seclu­sion or strug­gled with men­tal ill­ness (includ­ing Mary Pickford and Clara Bow).  Gloria Swanson had been a huge star of the silent screen as well but had accept­ed that Hollywood had no real inter­est in her after that era end­ed.  She had moved to New York and worked on radio, stage, and lat­er tele­vi­sion.  When offered the role of Norma Desmond, she was very inter­est­ed.  She had almost turned the part down when she learned that the direc­tor, Billy Wilder, insist­ed on a screen test. George Cukor, anoth­er well-respect­ed direc­tor (Little Women, The Philadelphia Story, Born Yesterday, to name a few) and friend of Swanson had rec­om­mend­ed her for the part and advised her, “If they want you to do ten screen tests, do ten screen tests. If you don’t, I will per­son­al­ly shoot you.”  She got the point, did the screen test, and got the role.

Billy Wilder was a well-known and respect­ed direc­tor involved in many pop­u­lar movies (includ­ing Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Witness For The Prosecution, and Some Like It Hot). 

The man­sion used in the film was built in 1924 and had been owned by J. Paul Getty, one of the rich­est men in the world.  After Getty divorced his wife, she received the house in the set­tle­ment and rent­ed it to Paramount Studios for film­ing. The pool was used again in the movie Rebel Without A Cause in 1955. It was torn down in 1957, and an office build­ing now occu­pies that site. 

Sunset Boulevard also fea­tures oth­er well-known Hollywood per­son­al­i­ties por­tray­ing them­selves.  Famous Hollywood pro­duc­er Cecil B. DeMille appears on a set at the stu­dio when Norma Desmond makes a vis­it. (A side note here — DeMille agreed to do the cameo for $10,000 and a new Cadillac.) Also, for­mer silent era stars appear as part of Norma’s bridge par­ty.  Joe Gillis refers to them as the “Waxworks.” Included in that group is the famous Buster Keaton. Hedda Hopper, a for­mer actress and Hollywood gos­sip colum­nist appears as her­self.  Other famil­iar faces include Fred Clark (char­ac­ter actor in numer­ous films and TV shows) and Jack Webb (best known as Sgt. Friday in Dragnet). 

The many pic­tures of the young Norma Desmond seen through­out her house (and in the back­ground of the includ­ed pho­to) were actu­al pub­lic­i­ty pho­tos of Gloria Swanson from her silent film days.

Montgomery Clift was con­sid­ered for the role of Joe Gillis but declined the role as he was at that time report­ed­ly in an affair with an old­er, wealthy for­mer actress and was afraid the press would get hold of that tid­bit. Fred MacMurray was also offered the role but turned it down as he did not want to play the part of a gigo­lo. Gene Kelly was sought out, but his stu­dio (MGM) refused to “loan” him to Paramount.  Billy Wilder was hes­i­tant to offer the role to William Holden as his career had not gone well after 1939 due in part to strug­gles with alco­hol and a series of so-called mediocre films.  However, Wilder gave in, and Sunset Boulevard helped Holden’s career take off in the 1950s (Stalag 17, Sabrina, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and oth­ers).

Actresses con­sid­ered for the role of Norma Desmond includ­ed Mary Pickford (for­mer silent era star) and Mae West.  Pickford was alleged­ly dis­traught over the sto­ry­line and West turned down the role as she felt she was too young to play the role of the aging silent film star.

Though the film was well-received (it earned a total of eleven Oscar nom­i­na­tions and won three), it did not res­ur­rect Gloria Swanson’s film career as she had hoped.  She stat­ed that the parts she was offered after Sunset Boulevard were just takes on the Norma Desmond char­ac­ter. She appeared in the occa­sion­al film after Sunset Boulevard, includ­ing Airport 1975. Swanson was nom­i­nat­ed for the Best Actress Oscar along with Bette Davis (All About Eve) and Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday).  Both Swanson and Davis were sur­prised when the Oscar went to Judy Holliday.

In 1951 “Lux Radio Theater” broad­cast an adap­ta­tion of the film with both Gloria Swanson and William Holden.  Another for­mer silent era star, Mary Astor, starred in a tele­vi­sion ver­sion in 1955. Carol Burnett played the char­ac­ter of Desmond a num­ber of times in spoof­ing the movie on her tele­vi­sion show.  The seg­ment was enti­tled “Sunnyset Boulevard” and Harvey Korman played the role of Max.

Sunset Boulevard was select­ed by the National Film Registry in 1989 as one of 25 land­mark films of all time.  In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked it as the #16 Greatest Movie Of All Time.  A review in the mag­a­zine “Time” said the sto­ry was “Hollywood at its worst told by Hollywood at its best.”  Roger Ebert, the famous movie crit­ic, stat­ed that the film “remains the best dra­ma ever made about the movies because it sees through the illu­sions.”  He includ­ed it in his list of Greatest Movies. 

The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) rates the film at 8.4 out of 10.  Rotten Tomatoes lists a crit­ics rat­ing of 98% and an audi­ence rat­ing of 95%. 

I searched for stream­ing sites that offered Sunset Boulevard for free and found it on Movieland TV, Pluto, and Hoopla (avail­able with your Clark County library card). It is also avail­able on DVD at the Clark County Public Library. 

I want to give cred­it to the fol­low­ing sources of infor­ma­tion uti­lized for this and all the films I write about:  Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB), Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies, and Wikipedia. 

Below you will find the trail­er for Sunset Boulevard.  Until the next edi­tion of Reel Classics, I will leave you with this famous quote from Norma Desmond:  “You see, this is my life! It always will be!  Nothing else!  Just us and the cam­eras, and those won­der­ful peo­ple out there in the dark! All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”