Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also appeared in Airport 1975. Sondheim respectfully stopped work on the project and, on the same grounds, later declined an offer to write the score for a proposed movie remake., Additional Sources: Sunset Boulevard turns the tables on film noir by casting Joe in the oldest role on the books. Wilder was no fan of improvisation and was very protective of his words. This indicates that he is smoking filterless cigarettes, which was the norm for that era until filters became the standard after the mid-'50s. 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". There were actually three mansions used during filming. He just didnt have what it takes. The studio needed an actor who the audience could believe wrote a story about Okies in the Dust Bowl that played on a torpedo boat by the time it hit the screen. It was George Cukor who suggested Gloria Swanson for the role of Norma Desmond. These towns were favored because they were on the way to Palm Springs where, after collecting the audience reaction cards, studio personnel would then go to relax and determine what changes should be made to the previewed films. In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". Since he had classic good looks, an expressive voice, and was an excelle Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. He became bitter about the throwaway roles Hollywood kept giving him. Holden made a fourth and final film for Wilder with Fedora (1978). April 17 marks the 100th birthday of William Holden, who is ranked No. Gillis: "Well, I had a few extra holes in me, two in the chest and one in the stomach." It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. The name Norma Desmond was a combination of early Hollywoods comedy star Mabel Normand and her lover, silent film director William Desmond Taylor. Norma Desmond was the greatest of them all. )[19], He took third billing for The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, directed by George Seaton from a play by Clifford Odets. Billy Wilder was a friend of the danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen, and based the Norma Desmond caracter on her. (as Arthur Schmidt) He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue. 1751 Vine is still a parking lot across the street from the landmark, Capitol Records building and is the address of both Billy's Wilder's and Barbara Stanwyck's "Hollywood Walk of Fame" stars that were dedicated in 1960. He would slay, "I have no idea! After his final film S.O.B., Holden declined to star in Jason Miller's film That Championship Season.[37]. [22] The golden run at the box office continued with Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), from a best-selling novel, with Jennifer Jones, and Picnic (1955), as a drifter, in an adaptation of the William Inge play with Kim Novak. Norma Desmond says that she paid $28,000 for the Isotta-Fraschini car in 1929. Was Oscar-nominated in all the major categories--Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay--but only won in the last category. Nothing else! In reality, Gloria Swanson never worked with Normand and worked only once with Prevost in a 1916 short. [49], His death was noted by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, whose 1987 song "Tom's Diner", about a sequence of events one morning in 1981, included a mention of reading a newspaper article about "an actor who had died while he was drinking". . director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. But as commentator Steve Sailer points out, more than one contemporary source mentions it as an inspiration. Despite the 19 year gap in their ages, Holden and Swanson died just 2 years apart from each other- Holden in 1981 at age 63 and Swanson in 1983 at age 84. Norma Desmond: I *am* big. The writers feared that Hollywood would react unfavorably to such a damning portrait of the film industry, so the film was code-named "A Can of Beans" while in production. "I'm not surprised that this could have happened.". His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. To help promote the film, Gloria Swanson did a three-month tour of 36 cities in America and Canada. cynical Hollywood survivor played by William Holden. Prior to joining the Houston Chronicle, Gonzales worked as a night cops reporter at The. In a case of life mirroring art, she outlived him. He was perfection on and off-screen. Holden was a bit of an anti-hero, or at least a very flawed hero. "I am big. 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. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. Fat Man: "You were murdered?" 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." Eugene Walter was a prolific Hollywood screenwriter of the 1920s and 1930s. 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. Sunset Boulevard English audio Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, an aging silent-film queen, and William Holden, as the struggling young screenwriter who is held in thrall by her madness,. West wanted to rewrite her dialogue. Sunset Boulevard is no. Every character is jaded, except the oldest players. . The Pharmacy was filmed only 500 feet (150 meters) from a scene in Armed and Dangerous (1986) & Falling Down (1993), The parking lot behind Rudy's Shoeshine where Joe Gillis pulls his car out of is 1751 Vine Street - about a half a block North of Hollywood Blvd (you can tell by the scene's POV of the Taft building that sits on the corner of Hollywood and Vine). Sunset Boulevard (DVD, 2017) UK Region 2 release with extras. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers after Joe Kennedy, JFKs dad who produced the film, replaced von Stroheim as director because Swanson complained about the racy material. Wilder's version is the one they went with (he was the director, after all), but the argument marked a turning point for him, and he decided never to work with Brackett again. 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.". Holden paid it forward, becoming Hepburns guardian angel.. He rejects her. Billy Wilder originally approached William Haines to play one of Norma's bridge partners. Art director John Meehan experimented until he came up with the idea to shoot the scene through a mirror at the bottom of the studio water tank. Erich von Stroheim, who made the masterpiece Greed in 1924, directed Swanson in Queen Kelly (1928), the flick Holdens character cuddles up with Norma to watch in the dark screening room of the dark mansion. Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to sit in for a cameo, but she wanted $25,000. She looks like a mannequin of a . It was built in 1924 by William Jenkins, at a cost of $250,000. over the spiraling budget. Film debut (uncredited) of Yvette Vickers. While Hollywood Blvd. Our friendship never waned. - 65th Anniversary (25) Film Noir Through the Years (3) Movies Set in Hollywood (3) Our Favorite Male-Female Duos (1) The History of Golden Globe Winners for Best Actor and Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (1) Our Favorite Stills From "The Movies" (1) Movies About Movies (1) 77 Years of Golden Globes Best Picture Winners (1) Yeah. F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered a heart attack while in Schwab's in 1940 (contrary to legend, Lana Turner was not discovered by a talent agent in Schwab's but, rather in a drugstore across from Hollywood High School, about three miles to the east). But Hollywood press has always had clout. After Salome, she planned to make another picture and another picture. Schwab's was torn down in 1988 to make way for a movie theater and a shopping center. Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious. 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. ", 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. 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. She changed her professional name to Patricia Palmer and was working with Famous Players-Lasky, Taylors studio at the time of his death. Billy Wilder was actually friendlier with the other leading gossip columnist of the day, Louella Parsons. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. Director Cecil B. DeMille, silent film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson played waxy versions of themselves. According to both versions of the morgue prologue script, Gillis' body is admitted on 5/17/49 (as indicated by a toe tag). 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. There once was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world. 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. His height was 1.8 m tall and weighed 89 kg. Gloria Swanson's career was not revitalized by this film. It was a gift from her lover, automobile magnate Walter Chrysler. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. As far as being a forgotten star, past her prime, Norma is only 50 in the movie, Swanson was 53 when she made it and was herself very busy on the then-new medium of television. Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. 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 attempts to turn the movie into a stage musical began almost immediately, spearheaded by none other than Gloria Swanson. Jay Livingston, Ray Evans: The Paramount songwriting duo is seen at the piano at Artie Green's New Year's Eve party. Billy Wilder had worked on a script for a Swanson picture years earlier called "Music in the Air (1934)" and had forgotten about it. Joe Gillis' typewriter is a portable manual Remington Rand Noiseless Model 7. On the last day of shooting, Swanson drove back to the house she, her mother and daughter shared during production, announcing "there were only three of us in it now, meaning that Norma Desmond had taken her leave.". That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. And so tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish". Paramount reunited Bracken and him in Young and Willing (1943). I know your face. She said it was a blackmail scheme gone wrong. Wilder and his co-writers reversed several elements, and there was no official connection between the movie and Waugh's book. The address of Norma Desmond's house is given as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. He said it was because she was braver than any man. This promised to go the limit. H.B. "Variety" ran a front-page review, and this led to a belated release of Swanson's version in 1957 (the year of Stroheim's death). Winston was one of those who discovered the Golden Boy newcomer and who renamed himin honor of his former spouse!"[3]. This was the actual set of Samson and Delilah (1949), which de Mille was making at the time. 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. Boulevard du crpuscule : Amazon.com.mx: Pelculas y Series de TV. American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball has acknowledged that another Billy Wilder film, The Apartment (1960), influenced that screenplay. Glenn Close, who portrayed Norma Desmond on stage, also played a character who dramatically cut her wrists over a man she was in love with in the film "Fatal Attraction. The character of Joe Gillis was very much in tune with William Holden's standing at the time. Watch Sunset Boulevard: Centennial Collection, When Norma Desmond says to the guard at the "Paramount Studio" gates, "Without me there wouldn't be any 'Paramount Studio'" the words could apply to, When Max is telling Joe about directing Madam's first pictures, there is a bad dub of the word "sixteen". 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. He always wished that I would get an Oscar. Wilder, ever the merry prankster, told Holden and Olson to keep kissing until he called "cut": he was going to fade out at the end of the scene, and he needed to make sure the kiss didn't end prematurely. [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. 12 Sep. WILLIAM HOLDEN: At some point, "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) played at The Silver Screen. For Swanson, whose career was already being threatened by the advent of talkies, Queen Kelly was another blow. Kodak would discontinue to manufacture it altogether in 1953. The producer in the film was originally called Kaufman and was to be played by Joseph Calleia. Joe Gillis: Wait a minute, haven't I seen you before? The latter was shot in Africa and sparked Holden's fascination with the continent that was to last for the rest of his life. read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter. Swanson supplemented many of the costumes with her own accessories and jewelry. The forensics team rolled him over and saw he had been shot at least once in the back with a small-caliber pistol. The character of Norma Desmond is modeled on the fate of several leading actresses of the silent era. The "Desmond mansion" was located not on Sunset Blvd. It was Erich von Stroheim who suggested the revelation that Max was writing all of Norma's fan mail. When Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond watch one of Norma's old silent movies, they are watching a scene from Queen Kelly (1932), starring a young Gloria Swanson. A week later she heard the news of Holden's death on her car radio. It's probably just as well, since the darker, more nuanced story that eventually emerged was quite different from West's wheelhouse anyway. After returning from France, she shot her last Paramount films--Stage Struck (1925), The Untamed Lady (1926) and Fine Manners (1926)--at the studio's lot in Astoria, Queens, NY. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. Perry, George & Andrew Lloyd Webber (1993). Vega subsequently confirmed that this was a reference to Holden.[50]. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. 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. Sometimes hetinkles the wheezing gothic ivories like Lurch in the original TV series The Addams Family, playing the recognizable strains of The Phantom of the Opera. Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York CitysVampyr Theatreand the rock operaAssassiNation: We Killed JFK.
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