Director Cecil B. DeMille, a pioneer of silent Hollywood who was still a top director when "Sunset Boulevard" was shot in 1949, also famously played himself. 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. 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. He was Judy Hollidays tutor in Born Yesterday (1950) and played a war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). DeMille." Sunset Boulevard DVD (2007) William Holden, Wilder (DIR) cert PG Amazing Value. Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. ", 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. But it wasn't a mistake. 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. The same musical quote from "Salome" is used again as she descends the stairs, where Waxman segues into his own original musical statement of "The Dance of the Seven Veils". They reportedly began a two-year affair, which is alleged to have ended due to Holden's alcoholism. Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. You used to be big. It also alludes to the fact that Pomona was one of three towns in California's Inland Empire region (Riverside and San Bernardino were the others) that were frequently used during Hollywood's Golden Age for testing preview audiences' reactions to unreleased films. Sunset Boulevard is also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly. in 1911 when the Nestor Film Company moved from New. Holden's films after that time had not impressed Wilder (in the 1940s Holden's movies were decidedly mediocre). director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . ", The scene of Max playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" at the organ might well have been an inspiration for Lurch at the harpsichord in the TV series "The Addams Family.". Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson. During the shopping excursion, Norma remarks that if Joe is not careful, he'll need a cutaway. But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. [30] Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, Wild Rovers (1971). According to a statement director King Vidor made in 1968, the Los Angeles police detective who was assigned to the case was told to lay off about a week into the investigation. Norma's bed originally belonged to French actress/singer Gaby Deslys. 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. Was the inspiration for Metallica's 1997 song "The Memory Remains". He was perfection on- and off-screen. . Someone who said they were a doctor said Taylor died of a stomach hemorrhage and then disappeared. Technically the address was 641 S Irving Blvd but the estate lay at the corner of Irving and Wilshire Blvd. About 28:00 in, when Max is playing the organ, it is the same chords that Captain Nemo (James Mason) plays on his organ aboard the Nautilus in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea." However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. 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. She looks like a mannequin of a . Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. "I know how it's going to be," Holden said (per The Huntsville Item). This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. All of the silent film stars mentioned by Norma, Joe, Betty and Max were either dead or no longer active in films by 1950. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. But also much funnier. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. 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. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." 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. In an interview Wilder gave in 1996 he claimed that the film which eventually became SUNSET BOULEVARD began as a comedy for Mae West and Marlon Brando. "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 17, 1951, with Gloria Swanson and William Holden reprising their film roles. "I am big. He was just a movie writer with a couple of B-pictures to his credit. 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. Both Mary Astor and Miriam Hopkins starred in TV versions of the film in 1955 and 1956, respectively. ), a woman who trades on charms that have . In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". (The book is about a failed screenwriter who works for a cemetery and lives with a forgotten silent-film star.) [26], He made another war film for a British director, The Key (1958) with Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren for director Carol Reed. The car William Holden drives is a P15 Plymouth Special DeLuxe convertible, a model that was produced from 1945-49. No one wants to get caught by surprise anymore. But as commentator Steve Sailer points out, more than one contemporary source mentions it as an inspiration. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers: von Stroheim was replaced as director midway through after complaints from Swanson about the racy material and arguments with the producer (JFK's father!) Ballard, who used to impersonate Norma descending the stairs. The [46] Rumors existed that he was suffering from lung cancer, which Holden had denied at a 1980 press conference. Winston was one of those who discovered the Golden Boy newcomer and who renamed himin honor of his former spouse!"[3]. And, of course, a pool. (1954). The undertaker, who appears for a few seconds early on with the white casket for Norma's deceased pet chimp, was veteran actor Franklyn Farnum, who played extras in over 1,000 films during his lengthy but unsung career. 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. In 1989 the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress selected this as one of 25 landmark films of all time. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. The ocean?' In addition to starring in "Queen Kelly", Swanson also produced it, and fired von Stroheim when he had already gone over the budget by more than double, and with no end to filming in sight. The statuette on the telephone table at Artie Green's new years party is a model of the Philistine god, Dagon. The four films were released between August 1950 and November 1951. Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). To help promote the film, Gloria Swanson did a three-month tour of 36 cities in America and Canada. 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. preppy-3 15 March 2008. According to the DVD commentary by Wilder biographer Ed Sikov, this story was most likely invented/exaggerated by Billy Wilder. Since her part required her to gaze at the newsreel cameramen and "fans" (the waiting police) gathered in the foyer below, she couldn't watch where she placed her feet. Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. Gloria Swanson brings sunshine into every room as silent screen idol Norma Desmond. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Sunset Boulevard DVD Special Collector's Edition William Holden Gloria Swanson at the best online prices at eBay! Blu-ray features and commentary They swore each other off over the montage where Norma struggles to lose weight for her comeback. 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. Even though it wasn't the last scene filmed, Billy Wilder threw a party for her as soon as the shot was finished. The look of pain sustained two fine films 'The Wild Bunch' and 'Network' so that we rubbed our eyes to recall the fresh-faced enthusiast from Golden Boy. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. But it was too difficult to put a camera underwater to get the shot, so Wilder and cinematographer John Seitz came up with an ingenious solution: they put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection from above. The investigation found that in the weeks just prior to his death, Taylor had been making some pretty delusional statements about his place in the world and some of his friends thought he had recently gone insane. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. There were no shortage of suspects. Studs and cufflinks were inserted into the shirt holes to secure the garment. It's the *pictures* that got small. Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (19541958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema. Charles Brackett and Wilder were just as adamant that nothing in their scripts should be changed, and nothing new added. When she received her Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony, Holden had died in an accident just a few months prior. Brackett was a New York-born novelist and screenwriter, head of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1930s, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955 (during which time he won two screenwriting Oscarsgood news for conspiracy theorists). Idealists can screw for fun and for power, because sex is good for business but love is a luxury Hollywood gals cant live without. Thirty-one years later, the actor who played Gillis, William Holden, met his end. She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. The whole place seemed to have been stricken with the kind of creeping paralysis, out of beat with the rest of the world, crumbling apart in slow motion. [17], Their relationship did not last much beyond the completion of the film. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol. Wilder and his co-writers reversed several elements, and there was no official connection between the movie and Waugh's book. In later interviews, Davis admitted that she thought Swanson's work in the film was absolutely outstanding. Swanson supplemented many of the costumes with her own accessories and jewelry. was voted #6 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by "Premiere" magazine in 2007. . The home was built in 1923 for businessman William O. Jenkins. When Joe tells Betty that next time he will write "The Naked and the Dead", he is referring to the best-seller written by Norman Mailer and published in 1948. Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. The directions given by the Paramount guard for Norma and Joe to go meet Cecil B. DeMille on "Stage 18" is accurate: this stage, one of the largest on the Paramount lot, was known for years as "The DeMille Stage" and now is called "The Star Trek Stage", as all the "Trek" movies and some scenes from the TV shows have been shot there (the TV series, from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) onward, had its main sets right across the studio street on Stages 8 and 9, which are right below the second-floor office occupied by Betty Schaefer in this film. The character of Joe Gillis was very much in tune with William Holden's standing at the time. Hola Elige tu direccin Pelculas y Series de TV. In addition to the famous swimming pool, the studio also built sets to exactly duplicate Schwab's Drug Store in Hollywood and the Los Angeles County Morgue. He directed classic films like Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, The Apartment, The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, Sabrina, and Some Like It Hot. Wilder and Brackett told everyone at Paramount and the Production code that the screenplay was based on the story A Can of Beans by Wilder, Brackett, and D.M. She refuses to believe that she's no longer remembered and will never make another movie. Joes voice even starts to take on more and more of her theatrical flourish after too much exposure. Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Her character's age was 22 but she was 21 at the time of filming. Although she had long before ruled out the possibility of a movie comeback, she was nevertheless highly intrigued when she got the offer to play the lead.
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