Sands disappeared after the murder. At Paramount, he did another Western, Streets of Laredo (1949). Swanson and von Stroheim are playing themselves in that scene. Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. 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. +10 More . In the film Gloria is seen playing cards with three silent film stars: Buster Keaton, H.B. Marshman Jr. Sunset Boulevard was the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film. Im not giving anything away here. But even to show a chair with her name on it, Lamarr wanted $10,000. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. Gillis: "Well, I had a few extra holes in me, two in the chest and one in the stomach." . 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. The film and actors was excellent and lived up to our expectations. That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. [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. Just us and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! Norma Desmond didnt need dialogue, she can say whatever she wants with her eyes. 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. 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. Billy Wilder originally approached William Haines to play one of Norma's bridge partners. The exteriors of Norma Desmond's home on Sunset Boulevard were filmed at 641 South Irving Boulevard. Holden had a supporting role in Ashanti (1979) and was third-billed in another disaster film, When Time Ran Out (1980), which was a flop. They swore each other off over the montage where Norma struggles to lose weight for her comeback. Still, whatever hard feelings there may have been between Swanson and von Stroheim, they were gone by the time Sunset Boulevard came along. 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. Wilder told the actors to kibbutz and let him shuffle. Holden did a sports film at Columbia, Boots Malone (1952), then returned to Paramount for The Turning Point (1952). Norma is at the edge of insanity through the whole movie, but that doesnt mean shes not fun. Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider. In the penultimate scene, as Max tells Norma that "the cameras have arrived," the high strings in composer Franz Waxman's Oscar-winning score quote a chord from Richard Strauss's "The Dance of the Seven Veils" from his opera "Salome". When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. She burst into tears upon completion of the scene. Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. The film was the favorite of Sci-Fi author J.G. So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture. This film was originally released in the United States as The Christmas Tree and on home video as When Wolves Cry. in 1911 when the Nestor Film Company moved from New. She is ever the star. The movie premiered in the days of restricted language, not so long after Rhett Butler controversially told Scarlett OHara he didnt give a damn what happened to her in Gone With the Wind, a classic Paramount passed on because who wanted to see Civil War picture? But the old guard thought Wilder and his co-writer Charles Brackett fashioned a rope that could strangle this business of show by writing words, words, and more words. This inter-positive was scanned at 2,000 lines of resolution and electronically restored for the 2002 DVD reissue. But Hollywood press has always had clout. Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. 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". was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. Paramount was more than happy to be the subject of the film, and didn't ask for the studio to be disguised. Hollywood was known for its excesses long before Michael Jackson hit town. Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. Included among the 25 films on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! 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. Even though it wasn't the last scene filmed, Billy Wilder threw a party for her as soon as the shot was finished. White, pink, or maybe bright flaming red. Sunset Boulevard's cinematographer, John Seitz, said Wilder "had wanted to do The Loved One, but couldn't obtain the rights." 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). In his place, Wilder hired Buster Keaton. When Joe and Norma sit down to watch one of her old movies, Joe pulls out a cigarette and places the bottom end in his mouth. Or shall I call my servant? Unlike the character she played, Gloria Swanson had accepted the fact that the movies didn't want her anymore and had moved to New York, where she worked on radio and, later, television. is directed toward his associate producer, Henry Wilcoxon, who had starred in his epics Cleopatra (1934), The Crusades (1935) and Unconquered (1947), later moving to a position behind the camera as DeMille's associate, which he held until the older man's death in 1959. At one point Norma mistakes Joe for a funeral director and asks for her coffin to be white, as well as specially lined with satin. In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of Life. Joe Gillis is seen reading the book "The Young Lions" by Irwin Shaw, a best-selling World War Two novel of the time, Montgomery Clift, who was originally offered the part of Joe Gillis, later played one of the leads in the film adaptation of that book The Young Lions (1958), though it was not directed by Billy Wilder. Normas waxworks card sharps were Swedish-born Anna Q. Nilsson, H. B. Warner and Buster Keaton. During Norma Desmond's New Years' Eve party, the band begin to play the song 'Diane', the theme of the 1927 film 7th Heaven (1927). In accordance with his wishes, no funeral or memorial services were conducted. (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). 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. Reluctantly, Wilder met with William Holden, who hadn't done much after the great Hollywood innovator Rouben Mamoulian's Golden Boy (1939). The antique car used as Norma Desmond's limousine is an 1929 Isotta-Fraschini Tipo 8A, a luxury car made in Italy, and once belonged to 1920s socialite Peggy Hopkins Joyce. Culture Editor Tony Sokol is a writer, playwright and musician. He rose to prominence with his role in the movie "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), which landed him his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. Sunset Boulevard turns the tables on film noir by casting Joe in the oldest role on the books. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film Apartment for Peggy (1948). Wilder changed the scene so that DeMille offered Lamarr's chair to Norma without Lamarr being present. They thought the actors made it up as they went along. Florabel Muir, the New York Daily News Hollywood correspondent, thought Peavey was the murderer and tried to ambush him into a confession. The general consensus was that the two titans had canceled each other out, leaving the field clear for Holliday. Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. Wilder asked how much shed charge just to shoot the chair and Lamarr said $10,000. For this Lamarr wanted $25,000 (which would be about $250,000 in 2015 dollars). 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. Only 950 were made from 1924 to 1931. Saltar al contenido principal.com.mx. read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter. The magnifying glass in Normas beauty makeover scene shows the skin of a young ingnue, not an aging crone. At the end of her acceptance speech, she paid him a personal tribute: "I loved him very much, and I miss him. Wilder was no fan of improvisation and was very protective of his words. This one had it in spades. [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. She said it was a blackmail scheme gone wrong. on the corner of Crenshaw and Irving. In subsequent years, two lawsuits have been filed against Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, claiming that Sunset Blvd. The four films were released between August 1950 and November 1951. Winston was one of those who discovered the Golden Boy newcomer and who renamed himin honor of his former spouse!"[3]. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. Sunset Blvd. Norma wound up sitting in Mr. DeMilles chair. 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: Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the Top 100 Greatest American Movies. But when Sondheim pitched the idea to Billy Wilder at a party, Wilder said, "You can't write a musical about Sunset Boulevard. 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. A new 4K high-definition scan was done in 2008 for the film's release on Blu-ray disc. The address of Norma Desmond's house is given as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. They had to have the ears of the old place, too. 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. Cecil B. DeMille: at the studio during Norma's visit. Norma's bed originally belonged to French actress/singer Gaby Deslys. Although Sheldrake's musings on a film about the story of a female baseball player was seen as humorous, the movie "A League of Their Own" would do just that 42 years later. Holden's career took off again in 1950 when Billy Wilder tapped him to play a down-at-heel screenwriter taken in by a faded silent film actress (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard. Norma Desmond: Get out! These actors were bigger than life. In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch,[4] winning much acclaim. Gene Kelly was then approached, but MGM refused to loan him out. The producer in the film was originally called Kaufman and was to be played by Joseph Calleia. You see, this is my life, she promised. The first name of the Joe Gillis character was Dan in an early draft of the screenplay, then altered to Dick, and finally to Joe just before filming began. Ironically, the last films that Gloria Swanson made for Paramount were not at this famous facility. 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. 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. Such extravagances were so commonplace that when Wilder was planning to shoot the funeral of Normas chimpanzee, the director told the crew to just set-up the usual monkey-funeral sequence.. "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. In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first American audiences had seen of it. 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. Charles Brackett and Wilder were just as adamant that nothing in their scripts should be changed, and nothing new added. A true Hollywood horror story. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." 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. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. The Homicide Squad, complete with detectives and newspapermen, are responding to a call about a murder from one of those great big houses in the ten thousand block of Sunset Boulevard, a 22-mile block that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean. The musical version of the movie opened in London on July 12, 1993, and ran 1529 performances. Sunset Boulevard (1950) 1950, 1h 50min - Drama 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, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in "Sunset Boulevard." Billy Wilder was one of the ultimate Hollywood insiders and he grew with film. The forensics team rolled him over and saw he had been shot at least once in the back with a small-caliber pistol. [43] Capucine and Holden remained friends until his death in 1981. 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. and was "a loner," according to Edwards, who wasn't surprised that Holden's body went so long without being discovered. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. Columbia teamed him with Lucille Ball for Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), and the sequel to Dear Ruth, Dear Wife (1949). 25 on AFI's list of all-time great leading men. In fact, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett even went to Pickfair to pitch the story to Pickford, but her horrified reaction as the story progressed made them stop halfway through and apologize to her. (he'd already gotten the shot he needed on the first take). No one wants to get caught by surprise anymore. 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. Their relationship makes the film as much a love story as it is a noir film, because if ever there is a femme fatale, it is Norma Desmond. But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. 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. Film News. 10060 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA. There's a little dig in the scene when Cecil B. DeMille finds out that Paramount has been calling Norma Desmond because it wants to rent her car for "the Crosby picture." Director Cecil B. DeMille, silent film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson played waxy versions of themselves. Paramount reunited Bracken and him in Young and Willing (1943). 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. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling. 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. According to Gloria Swanson's daughter, Michelle Amon, her mother stayed in character throughout the entire shoot, even speaking like Norma Desmond when she arrived home in the evening after filming. His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. Part of the dialogue goes: Fat Man: "Where did you drown? In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked this as the #16 Greatest Movie of All Time. But in 1957, Paramount formally asked Desmond to stop, the studio bosses having decided not to grant permission after all. cynical Hollywood survivor played by William Holden. Cinematographer John Seitz put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection. Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also co-starred in Airport 1975 together. You used to be in silent pictures. Besides Tyrone Power, other stars mentioned when Joe Gillis is pitching his "baseball" picture to the producer are Alan Ladd, William Demarest and Betty Hutton. The character of Max Von Mayerling as a washed up silent film director was an homage paid by Wilder to Erich von Stroheim, who was an inspiration to Billy in his glory days as a notorious silent film director himself. The The actor-turned-director-turned-actor-again, who had indeed been one of the great silent-filmmakers, winced at playing a character so self-referential and demeaning, but he needed the money. 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. . 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. For the opening shot of Joe Gillis floating face-down in the swimming pool, Billy Wilder wanted a shot from below that would show both the body and the police and photographers standing at the pool's edge looking down. They had paired up in pictures since 1938. 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. Make-up designer Wally Westmore found that Gloria Swanson's face belied her age and wanted to make her look older. Gloria Swanson worked closely with Edith Head on Norma's clothes to achieve just the right look: grandly expensive but slightly out of date. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. Betty is engaged to be married to Jack Webbs character, Arthur Artie Green, who is such a good buddy to Joe that he offers to put him up on the couch for a few weeks. [4] He made a sex comedy with David Niven for Otto Preminger, The Moon Is Blue (1953), which was a huge hit, in part due to controversy over its content. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. Holden, who was at this point dependent on alcohol, said, "I really was in love with Audrey, but she wouldn't marry me. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. [30] Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, Wild Rovers (1971). The two men never worked together again. His death certificate makes no mention of cancer. . Bogart was not especially friendly toward Hepburn, who had little Hollywood experience, while Holden's reaction was the opposite, wrote biographer Michelangelo Capua. Oh, and while were at it, Wilder didnt submerge any cameras to get that underwater shot. Sad as this may sound, to the day he died, Holden insisted Bogart was a bastard. She reportedly told Clift shed kill herself if he made the movie. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter. Sunset Boulevard (DVD, 2017) UK Region 2 release with extras. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry.
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