Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. Minters mother Charlotte Shelby was a manipulative stage mother who owned a rare .38 caliber pistol that fired unusual bullets very similar to ones found inside Taylor. 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. It's probably just as well, since the darker, more nuanced story that eventually emerged was quite different from West's wheelhouse anyway. It's the *pictures* that got small. 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. It's the pictures that got small" was #91. The "fee" for renting the Jean Paul Getty mansion was for Paramount to build the swimming pool, which features so memorably. 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. Was the inspiration for Metallica's 1997 song "The Memory Remains". Holden paid it forward, becoming Hepburns guardian angel.. [7], Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in Those Were the Days! Read and download theDen of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazineright here! This makes her the youngest of the cast members, excluding any extras. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard took the tinsel out of Tinseltown, the gild off the golden boy, and the cover off a forgotten murder. April 17, 2019 6:00AM. 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. Its second owner was Jean Paul Getty, who purchased it for his second wife. In a scene described by director Billy Wilder as one of the best he'd ever shot, the body of Joe Gillis is rolled into the morgue to join three dozen other corpses, some of whom--in voice-over--tell Gillis how they died. Film News. In fact, such was the buzz about the film during production that the viewing of the dailies became one of the hottest tickets on the lot. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." Normands career never recovered after word of her addiction leaked out and she died of tuberculosis on Feb. 23, 1930. was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. 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. To publicize the film, Paramount sent Gloria Swanson on a cross-country tour, paying her $1,000 a week for her services. Billy Wilder was a friend of the danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen, and based the Norma Desmond caracter on her. Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to sit in for a cameo, but she wanted $25,000. Editorial Reviews. Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. She felt that Wilder used her name in a past-tense context, and she was offended. The plot element of Norma Desmond's obsession with writing a screenplay based on Salome as a vehicle for her comeback was obviously influenced by eccentric, aging actress Valeska Suratt, who had a brief film career (1915-1917) playing mostly vamp roles. Norma, the aging silent-movie star who ensnares down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), is the vamp become vampire (look at those clawlike hands! Seitz had used a similar technique on Double Indemnity (1944). Warner, who appears as one of "The Waxworks", had been Gloria Swanson's leading man in Zaza (1923). Not everyone felt the same way, however. But Hollywood press has always had clout. The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. 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. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film Apartment for Peggy (1948). He starred in the 1953 . What is the correct title - "Blvd." "Sometimes he'd just get in his car and drive," the director told the AP. There were actually three mansions used during filming. Mrs. Getty divorced her millionaire husband and received custody of the house; it was she who rented it to Paramount for the filming. The four films were released between August 1950 and November 1951. The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden Grunge 2.14M subscribers Subscribe 486 18K views 3 weeks ago #Actor #Hollywood #SunsetBoulevard While Actor William Holden. It was meant to be slightly humorous in a morbid way, but the audience at the first test screening found it flat-out hysterical, setting the wrong mood for the rest of the picture. Fat Man: "You were murdered?" At Paramount, he did another Western, Streets of Laredo (1949). The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. His deal was considered one of the best ever for an actor at the time, with him receiving 10% of the gross, which earned him over $2.5 million, however, Holden stipulated that he should only receive a maximum of $50,000 per year from the film. It would not be turned into a motion picture until: The Naked and the Dead (1958). William Holden says his birthday is December 21st. Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. On the night of November 12, 1981, Holden consumed somewhere between eight and 10 drinks in a short amount of time, according to "William Holden: A Biography." (1966), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Network (1976), Coming Home (1978), Reds (1981), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013). Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. At one point Norma mentions working with Mabel Normand and Marie Prevost. [46] Rumors existed that he was suffering from lung cancer, which Holden had denied at a 1980 press conference. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. 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. His height was 1.8 m tall and weighed 89 kg. She declined the offer. The home was built in 1923 for businessman William O. Jenkins. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). 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. Swanson and von Stroheim are playing themselves in that scene. 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. Saltar al contenido principal.com.mx. Strange? [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. Marshman Jr. Stars William Holden Gloria Swanson Erich von Stroheim See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 701 User reviews 196 Critic reviews Sunset Blvd. Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. She offered Peavey 10 dollars to identify Taylors grave in the Hollywood Park Cemetery and had someone wait there in a white sheet to scare it out of him. Some, including Holden himself and one of his close confidants, could foresee the death (per The Huntsville Item). Well, not everybody! Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. Holden had another hit with The World of Suzie Wong (1960) with Nancy Kwan, which was shot in Hong Kong. (1954). Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. 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. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. [41], Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. The interiors of Norma's decaying mansion were actually a set at Paramount Studios. "No, don't let it be true. 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. Mary Pickford, Pola Negri, and Greta Garbo turned down the role. Blu-ray features and commentary Previous image. Holman was reportedly worried the film would parody their relationship and told Clift she would commit suicide if he played the role. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Neither did Toward the Unknown (1957), the one film Holden produced himself. At Cecil B. DeMille's first appearance, his on-set cry of "Wilcoxon!" And gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (who appears in the movie as herself) wrote that "Billy Wilder was crazy about Evelyn Waugh's book The Loved One, and the studio wanted to buy it.". An iconic sequence in that earlier film sees the character of Diane ascending a long staircase to a seventh-story apartment (hence the film's title). Gloria Swanson's career was not revitalized by this film. That should make the young blond Paramount actress-turned-script reader Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson) the virgin in the virgin/whore dynamic that film noir so often (and happily) deals in. You probably know about the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of Sunset Boulevard that premiered in London in 1993 and headed to Broadway in 1994 with Glenn Close in the lead role. words "Sunset Blvd." The only extant film elements were 35mm inter-positives struck in 1952, which had undergone a great deal of decay. Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also appeared in Airport 1975. 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. A classic film review of Sunset Boulevard (1950) starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson and Eric Von StroheimDirected by acclaimed film maker Billy Wilder (. This film was originally released in the United States as The Christmas Tree and on home video as When Wolves Cry. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as the writer but dropped out two weeks before the shoot. Well, they kissed, and kissed, and kept kissing, and the crew began to snicker, and finally Marshall's voice rang out: "Cut, dammit!" 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. Billy Wilder quickly offered the role to Fred MacMurray, who turned it down because he didn't want to play a gigolo. The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball has acknowledged that another Billy Wilder film, The Apartment (1960), influenced that screenplay. Gordon Cole was a real person in the art department for DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) and later in The Ten Commandments (1956). The movie opens with a shot of a dead guy floating face down in a pool, and the dead man himself tells us that its Joe Gillis getting bloated in the chlorine. It was widely known as a top Hollywood hangout for many actors, directors, writers and producers. [16] Holden recalls their romance:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Before I even met her, I had a crush on her, and after I met her, just a day later, I felt as if we were old friends, and I was rather fiercely protective of her, though not in a possessive way. But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . She puts on a show playing a Max Sennett bathing girl and Charlie Chaplins Tramp character, though Maxs bad timing is a little too on the nose. Normas waxworks card sharps were Swedish-born Anna Q. Nilsson, H. B. Warner and Buster Keaton. 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. This one had it in spades. ", 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. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. She turns out to be a multimillionaire silent screen icon played by the legendary Gloria Swanson and she leaves him all her money, which shes already spent, and face down in a pool. Paramount reunited Bracken and him in Young and Willing (1943). In accordance with his wishes, no funeral or memorial services were conducted. (1950) was plagiarized from other scripts. The Paramount logo appears as a transparency over the opening shot. Billy Wilder was one of the ultimate Hollywood insiders and he grew with film. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. 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. Oh, and while were at it, Wilder didnt submerge any cameras to get that underwater shot. Some speculated it was because he was dating an older woman at the time (actress Libby Holman, 16 years his senior) and didn't want people to think the movie was a parody of that relationship. 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. [17], Their relationship did not last much beyond the completion of the film. [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. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. She looks like a mannequin of a . "[13]:174 The interactions between Bogart, Hepburn and Holden made shooting less than pleasant, as Bogart had wanted his wife, Lauren Bacall, to play Sabrina. A neglected house gets an unhappy look. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. 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. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry. On the advice of Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift, who had signed to play the part of Joe Gillis, broke his contract just two weeks prior to the start of shooting. He stayed true to his word. He was just a movie writer with a couple of B-pictures to his credit. Westmore and director Billy Wilder agreed with this so William Holden was made up to look younger than he was. 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. 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). We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . At one point, Norma decides the time is right to send Gillis script to DeMille because is a Leo. When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. But as commentator Steve Sailer points out, more than one contemporary source mentions it as an inspiration. So she lands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips. His characters were always angling for something, whether it was silk stockings in a POW Camp in Stalag 17 from 1953, which won him a Best Actor Oscar, or to clear impersonation charges in in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with Alec Guinness. Every time I go to L.A., which isn't too often, I look at these palm-bemused, once smart stucco facades, and wonder if a Norma Desmond from a later era might be hiding from the world inside them, buttressed by cable TV (AMC or TCM, no doubt), a poodle named FiFi or Sir Francis, walk-in closets full of leopard-print Capri pants that haven't fit in decades, and a world class liquor cabinet that has seen heads of state under the table on a good night. Darryl F. Zanuck, Olivia de Havilland, Tyrone Power and Samuel Goldwyn all refused to allow their names to be used in the film, but Billy Wilder decided to use Zanuck's and Power's names anyway. Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. "I'm not surprised that this could have happened.". The general consensus was that the two titans had canceled each other out, leaving the field clear for Holliday. In 1998 the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. The pool was used in its empty condition in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Ballard, who used to impersonate Norma descending the stairs. He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork Western The Wild Bunch. . Mary Pickford lived in seclusion, away from the public eye, while both Mae Murray and Clara Bow had well documented struggles with mental illness. In his place, Wilder hired Buster Keaton. Holden was best man at the wedding of his friend Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis in 1952. Someone who said they were a doctor said Taylor died of a stomach hemorrhage and then disappeared. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. This promised to go the limit. William Haines turned down an offer to appear in the film but attended the Hollywood premiere with Joan Crawford. Prior to joining the Houston Chronicle, Gonzales worked as a night cops reporter at The. He was a genuine star. In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". Ultimately she retired completely from films, making only sporadic appearances, notably in Airport 1975 (1974). When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. "I know how it's going to be," Holden said (per The Huntsville Item). Director Billy Wilder Writers Charles Brackett Billy Wilder D.M. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. The name was then changed to Millman and finally to Sheldrake and was played by Fred Clark. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Everyone had a good laugh, though the record doesn't reflect whether Marshall joined in. 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. 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. You see, this is my life, she promised. 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. When Max picks up the discarded headpiece during the tango scene, his expression hints at concern for the mental issues Norma suffers from. The exteriors of Norma Desmond's home on Sunset Boulevard were filmed at 641 South Irving Boulevard. Erich von Stroheim dismissed his participation in this film, referring to it as "that butler role.". LAS COSAS DEL QUERER", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunset_Boulevard_(film)&oldid=1142173541, Best Overall New Extra Features Library Release. 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. If you don't, I will personally shoot you." Like most old things in L.A., the house has since been replaced by an office building. Paramount was more than happy to be the subject of the film, and didn't ask for the studio to be disguised. 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. [32] Also in 1974, Holden starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the critically acclaimed disaster film The Towering Inferno,[33] which became a box-office smash and one of the highest-grossing films of Holden's career. While talking with Betty and Artie in Schwab's, Artie points out the studs in Joe's tuxedo. When Joe and Betty stroll around the studio back lot they pass through the Washington Square set that was used in The Heiress (1949). The Academy Award-winning actor William Holden, born William Beedle Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, began his career with 1939s "Golden Boy," per Britannica. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. +10 More . Ironically, the last films that Gloria Swanson made for Paramount were not at this famous facility. 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. 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. There are several references to Gloria Swanson's actual career in the film. Billy Wilder was actually friendlier with the other leading gossip columnist of the day, Louella Parsons. This dynamic served them well for years, each man's extreme tendencies being balanced by the other's, but during Sunset Boulevard it finally became unworkable. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 22:44. 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. He was Judy Hollidays tutor in Born Yesterday (1950) and played a war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). 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. Cecil B. DeMille appears in the film on a studio set. Sunset Boulevard DVD (2007) William Holden, Wilder (DIR) cert PG Amazing Value. 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. Born William Beedle Jr. on April 17, 1918, he was 21 when he got his first starring role as the classical fiddle playing boxer in Golden Boy in 1939. Holden had another good break when he was cast as Judy Holliday's love interest in the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway hit Born Yesterday (1950). That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. That's the end.". Highly unusual at the time, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder had Joe Gillis narrate, from beyond the grave, the sad tale of the final months of his life, while the film simultaneously depicts the still living Gillis experiencing those events unaware of the fate his dead self already knows. 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.
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