When Wilder was a young man writing movie scripts in Berlin in the 1920s he (like so many around the world) was fascinated with American culture, fueled by what he saw in Hollywood movies.
Now In the late 1940s, Wilder lived in Hollywood and would see these grand movie star mansions, some looked run down, Did the former stars from the silent era still live in them? He wondered how they spent their time now that they no longer acted and their celebrity status had gone. He began imagining the story of a star living in one of these big houses years after her Box Office appeal had faded. He drew influence from several real-life silent-film stars such as Mary Pickford who had famously become a recluse and Mae Murray and Clara Bow who had both developed serious mental disorders to create the character of Norma Desmond who lived in a big house on…
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Directed by Billy Wilder, Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder & D. M. Marshman Jr.
Produced by Charles Brackett, Music by Franz Waxman, Cinematography John F. Seitz, Edited by Doane Harrison & Arthur Schmidt, Costume, Edith Head, Starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough & Jack Webb. (Run Time 110m)
An actress from Hollywood's silent era refuses to accept that her career is over so she hires a young screenwriter to create a script for her big “return” to the silver screen (don’t call it a comeback). The screenwriter believes he can manipulate the ageing star but he soon finds out he is mistaken. The screenwriter's ambivalence about their relationship and her unwillingness to let go leads to madness, violence & death.
Sunset Boulevard is simply a stunning film. Named after a major street that runs through the heart of Hollywood, the film itself explores the dark heart of Hollywood's toxic celebrity machine and obsession with youth and the psychological toll the trappings of fame can take on a person, the pursuit of success and the lengths people will go to to achieve it. It also explores Hollywood's treatment of and attitude to writers it also explores established gender roles.
This film does seem to transcend genre; it's a black comedy/film noir/psychological thriller/romance… so yeah! I’ll stick with “transcend genre”.
Director Billy Wilder in a promotional shot for the movie.
The film has an almost meta air to it, Norma Desmond, the ageing actress who was a big silent movie star, Is played by Gloria Swanson an actress who was a massive silent movie star back in the day although Swanson in real life did successfully transition to the sound era she had not starred in a movie for about a decade before Sunset Boulevard.
Miss Desmond’s butler Max is played by Austrian-American director, writer & actor
Erich von Stoheim who directed two legendary silent films “Foolish Wives” (1922) & “Greed” (1924).
Norma’s bridge-playing Hollywood friends are Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson who play themselves.
The iconic film director Cecil B. DeMille and Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper also play themselves, this gives real authenticity to the “Old Hollywood” part of the plot. The other part concerns Willam Holden who puts in arguably a career-best performance as downtrodden screenwriter Joe Gillis who accidentally gets drawn into the curated world of an ageing starlett but then becomes trapped when he strikes up a friendship with Betty the keen as mustard studio script reader and aspiring screenwriter, played by the charming Nancy Olson.
Gloria Swanson is just magnificent giving a truly unhinged “Grande Dame Guignol” performance.
Even though she was Oscar-nominated for playing Norma Desmond and won a Golden Globe Award it failed to reignite her acting career.
Sunset Boulevard looks beautiful it’s dark, shadowy, black-and-white cinematography was the work of John F. Seitz. who had beautifully photographed “Double Indemnity” & “ The Lost Weekend” for Wilder and Billy totally trusted his judgment and just let him make his own decisions and this paid off big time. For some interior shots, Seitz sprinkled dust in front of the camera before filming to suggest "mustiness," Billy Wilder did have the option to shoot this in colour but thank goodness they went with Black & White.
I do use the word “Iconic” too much but this movie is truly Iconic.
I’m sure everyone has heard Swanson's famous line
"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille" referenced in pop culture.
The character name "Gordon Cole" who is played by David Lynch himself in the TV show
Twin Peaks is a reference to a character from Sunset Boulevard.
Sunset Boulevard is openly discussed or referenced in the script or paid homage to in the films “Soapdish” (1991), “The Player” (1992), “Gods and Monsters” (1998),
“Mulholland Drive” (2001), “Inland Empire” (2006) & “Be Cool” (2005).
Praised by critics on release, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including nominations in all four acting categories and won three statues on the night tragically none of the actors won.
It took $5m at the box office against a production budget of $1.75m.
But more importantly, It is often ranked among the greatest movies ever made.
It was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989.
But It most definitely is the best movie ever made about a guy who accidentally gatecrashes a chimpanzee's funeral!
Billy was Back!
Inspired by two real-life events that ended in tragedy, The first was in 1925 when a man named W. Floyd Collins became trapped inside Sand Cave, a cave in Kentucky, following a landslide. A Louisville newspaper, the Courier-Journal, jumped on the story by dispatching reporter William Burke Miller to the scene. Miller's enterprising coverage turned the tragic episode into a national event and earned the writer a Pulitzer Prize. The second event took place in April 1949. Three-year-old Kathy Fiscus of San Marino, California, fell into an abandoned well and, during a rescue operation that lasted several days, thousands of people arrived to watch the action unfold. In both cases, the victims died before they were rescued.
Wilder, Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels wrote the script for…
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Directed by Billy Wilder, Written by Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels & Billy Wilder
Produced by Billy Wilder, Music by Hugo Friedhofer, Cinematography by Charles Lang, Edited by Arthur P. Schmidt, Starring Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur & Porter Hall.
With flaws that outweigh his talent, reporter Chuck Tatum has bounced across the country from job to job. Winding up in New Mexico, Tatum gets work from the local newspaper but finds that there's not much in the way of pressing news. However, when Tatum catches wind of a treasure hunter trapped in a mineshaft, he turns the story into a media sensation. Soon Tatum is using unscrupulous tactics to draw out the situation, an approach that comes back to haunt him.
On release, it received a cool reception from critics who generally admired the film's production quality but believe it or not the newspaper journalists criticised the plot calling it a
“distortion of journalistic practice”
The Hollywood Reporter called it "ruthless and cynical ... a distorted study of corruption and mob psychology that ... is nothing more than a brazen, uncalled-for slap in the face of two respected and frequently effective American institutions – democratic government and the free press."
Variety was more positive, noting "The performances are fine. Douglas enacts the heel reporter ably, giving it colour to balance its unsympathetic character. Jan Sterling also is good in a role that has no softening touches, and Benedict's victim portrayal is first-rate. Billy Wilder's direction captures the feel of morbid expectancy that always comes out in the curious that flock to scenes of tragedy."
Ace in the Hole was the first film Wilder had assumed the roles of Writer, Director and Producer on a projected , The film was made for $1,821,052 which was Wilders $250'000 payday for making the movie (which is just shy of $3m in today's money).
unfortunately only took $1.3m at the box office.
This film is not the first and will not be the last that Billy crafted and suffered from solely being too ahead of its time.
As with all great cinema, it was wasted on its contemporary audience and has since been reappraised and is now hailed as the classic it is. It has gone on to appear on numerous best film lists and has also been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress and added to the U.S. National Film Registry.
End of Part 3
