"Waxwork" Buster Keaton was in reality an excellent bridge player, always in demand at Hollywood bridge parties. 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. william holden arlene holden - bdcgtoronto.ca Norma's bed originally belonged to French actress/singer Gaby Deslys. 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." Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. For the first industry screening, Paramount executives invited several silent-film stars. 4.99. 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. Norma Shearer turned down the role of Norma Desmond as she didn't want to come out of retirement and also found the part to be highly distasteful. Fat Man: "A husky fellow like you?" The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. But like so many of the female actors of the era, Holden soon realized it was his physical attributes and not his acting ability that the studio cared about. The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils. Holden himself claimed that he, too, could picture his end. Joe Gillis mentions that the painting of wild horses that covers the projection screen in Norma Desmond's mansion was given to her by "some Nevada Chamber of Commerce." Around this time he also appeared in 21 Hours at Munich (1976). Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary. Before he became a kept man for Norma Desmond, he was thinking of wrapping up the whole Hollywood deal and trying to get his old job back as a newspaperman in Dayton, Ohio. The script (which was to be a vehicle for her comeback) was submitted to Cecil B. DeMille who sent it back. Billy Wilder was one of the ultimate Hollywood insiders and he grew with film. Cecil B. DeMille appears in the film on a studio set. It was this astonishing footage that rekindled interest in the film. Ultimately she retired completely from films, making only sporadic appearances, notably in Airport 1975 (1974). He was perfection on- and off-screen. Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter. But trophies or not, Sunset Boulevard has stayed near the top of the list of great movies about moviemaking. (1950), Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the film, directed H.B. "I knew he was off the wagon," she recalled in her memoir "One from the Hart." The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden. 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. I know your face. Wilder asked how much shed charge just to shoot the chair and Lamarr said $10,000. When Joe and Betty stroll around the studio back lot they pass through the Washington Square set that was used in The Heiress (1949). Marshman Jr. Sunset Boulevard was the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film. The general consensus was that the two titans had canceled each other out, leaving the field clear for Holliday. She is ever the star. . Billy Wilder had worked on a script for a Swanson picture years earlier called "Music in the Air (1934)" and had forgotten about it. But it wasn't a mistake. That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, son of Mary Blanche Beedle (ne Ball), a schoolteacher, and her husband William Franklin Beedle, an industrial chemist. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, Holden attended Pasadena Junior College, where he became involved in local radio plays. When Max picks up the discarded headpiece during the tango scene, his expression hints at concern for the mental issues Norma suffers from. When producer Sheldrake offers to turn Gillis' script into a Betty Hutton story, the desperately poor writer inexplicably turns him down. Suratt believed that DeMille's epic, "The King of Kings" (released in 1927) was based on her screenplay and filed a $1,000,000 plagiarism suit which was settled out of court in 1930. 3.48. 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. (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). 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. Paramount reunited Bracken and him in Young and Willing (1943). Culture Editor Tony Sokol is a writer, playwright and musician. It's the *pictures* that got small. Sunset Boulevard, the 1950 film noir classic directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, did a lot to change that and other myths of old Hollywoodlike the real-life murder at the heart of the story. [45], According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden bled to death in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, on November 12, 1981, after lacerating his forehead from slipping on a rug while intoxicated and hitting a bedside table. If anything, its observations on the greedy machinations of Tinseltown are truer now than they were in 1950. It always will be! No one wants to get caught by surprise anymore. Billy Wilder was actually friendlier with the other leading gossip columnist of the day, Louella Parsons. Wilder used real names like Darryl Zanuck, Tyrone Power, and Alan Ladd. Von Stroheim didnt know how to drive, and the scene where hes driving the exotic leopard-upholstered Isotta-Fraschini was shot as the car was being towed. The other line, "I am big! When he appeared in the innovative Hollywood director Rouben Mamoulian's Golden Boy (1939), he was hailed as exactly that, but had seen his stock fall, largely through his problems with alcohol and a string of unmemorable films in the 1940s. 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). We were close friends for many years. A modern-girl Jiminy Cricket, Betty asks, Dont you sometimes hate yourself? and Joe corrects her, Constantly.. The murder made it to the late editions, radio, and television because one of the biggest old-time stars was involved. For the record, the other 12 films to achieve a similar feat are Mrs. Miniver (1942), Johnny Belinda (1948), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Salome was a wonderful part for Norma Desmonds celluloid comeback. "[13] And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. Well, they kissed, and kissed, and kept kissing, and the crew began to snicker, and finally Marshall's voice rang out: "Cut, dammit!" That's a reference to the traditional grey morning suit worn by the groom at a formal wedding. William Holden 15 greatest films ranked: 'Sunset Boulevard' and more [7], Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in Those Were the Days! In the scene where Norma is showing Joe her silent movies, one of them is Queen Kelly (1932), which was filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, NY. The audience left 20 years ago. Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. Holden was best man at the wedding of his friend Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis in 1952. 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). 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. Getting the role was a lucky break for Holden, as Montgomery Clift was initially cast but backed out of his contract. 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. "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). The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. In fact, a pivotal plot point in the Showtime limited series of Twin Peaks (2017) includes a scene from "Sunset Boulevard" in which the character's name is mentioned. 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. 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! 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. 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 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. Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. 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. She was disappointed to see that all the parts she was offered subsequently were watered-down versions of Norma Desmond. Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. . One of the few showy bits of camerawork in the film is near the beginning, when the corpse floating in Norma Desmond's pool is seen from underneath. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. 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. Gloria Swanson brings sunshine into every room as silent screen idol Norma Desmond. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee of the year to be also nominated for Original Screenplay. "[4], For his contribution to the film industry, Holden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1651 Vine Street. The apartments, and the "Alto Nido" sign out front that is glimpsed briefly in the film, are still there. Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. According to Billy Wilder, it was von Stroheim's idea to use a clip from Queen Kelly (1932) in Sunset Blvd. Hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) accidentally falls in with faded screen legend Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). After the. For some scenes, cinematographer John F. Seitz would sprinkle dust into the air so it could be caught by the lights and create a moody effect. Saltar al contenido principal.com.mx. (1954). Newspapers printed love letters between 19-year-old former child star and screen idol Mary Miles Minter and Taylor. While talking with Betty and Artie in Schwab's, Artie points out the studs in Joe's tuxedo. Norma Desmond: Get out! David Lynch is an avid fan of the movie, having referenced it in films such as Inland Empire (2006), Mulholland Drive (2001)--which has a similar title and theme about the misfortunes of aspiring artists in Hollywood--and the television show Twin Peaks (1990), where Lynch himself played an FBI Bureau Chief named Gordon Cole. To everyone's surprise, Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar in 1951 for Born Yesterday (1950), beating Gloria Swanson in this film, and Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950). It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. 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. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is one of his three or four masterpieces, a seminal Hollywood black comedy-satire, which unlike most films keeps improving with the passage of time.. Benfiting from a glorious and iconic cast, the film concerns a faded silent film star, played by Gloria Swanson (in a variation of her own onscreen persona), who lives in the past with her butler (and former . At one point, Norma decides the time is right to send Gillis script to DeMille because is a Leo. The "Desmond mansion" was located not on Sunset Blvd. 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.". It gives them an opportunity to write really good acceptances speeches. Sunset Boulevard: The Original Hollywood Expose | Den of Geek Normands career never recovered after word of her addiction leaked out and she died of tuberculosis on Feb. 23, 1930. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . 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. Who didnt then? "[13] Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). Marion Davies owned a famous ocean-front mansion in Santa Monica. In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch,[4] winning much acclaim. Erich von Stroheim dismissed his participation in this film, referring to it as "that butler role.". The car with the massive chrome grill that the repo men drive is a 1948 DeSoto Custom Club Coupe. True to character, Von Stroheim refused to leave Paris to attend the Academy Awards ceremony, and declared that his nomination for best supporting actor should've been for best actor. Free shipping for many products! If it were to come to auction in 2021, it would be valued at well over $1M. To get around the restrictions of the Breen Code, the script was submitted piecemeal, several pages at a time. Gillis: "No, swimming pool." At one point Norma mentions working with Mabel Normand and Marie Prevost. Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider. The mundane accident that took the Hollywood actor's life was made even worse by the fact that nobody found his body for a week afterward, according to the Associated Press. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). The film originally opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. LAS COSAS DEL QUERER", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunset_Boulevard_(film)&oldid=1142173541, Best Overall New Extra Features Library Release. Well, not everybody! William Holden returns to find that Gloria Swanson has tried to slash her wrists in 'Sunset Boulevard', directed by Billy Wilder. Upon telephoning her, however, Wilder found that Negri's Polish accent, which had killed her career, was still too thick for such a dialog-heavy film. Some, including Holden himself and one of his close confidants, could foresee the death (per The Huntsville Item). This parallel narrative--two perspectives from the same character, one omniscient, the other blissfully ignorant--that converge at the moment of Joe's death, are a major reason the film retains such dramatic and emotional power. "I am big. 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. One of only 13 films to be nominated for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director. The ocean?' The 49-year-old film directors body was found on the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments in Westlake, Los Angeles. His body was found four days later. Holden acted in Executive Suite (1954), The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), and Picnic (1955). Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious. In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of Life. Not everyone felt the same way, however. Now that we are getting closer to Awards Season in here in Hollywood, Im getting more and more interest from nominees and prospective nominees who want to know in advance if they are going home with the gold, Marie Bargas, known for years as the Hollywood Witch, told Den of Geek. Holden never lost his stride as cinema changed. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. Billy Wilder was a friend of the danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen, and based the Norma Desmond caracter on her. Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. (1940) followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of Our Town (1940), done for Sol Lesser at United Artists.[8]. But who could play the silent film diva? At the end, they stood and cheered for Gloria Swanson's return. This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. Norma wound up sitting in Mr. DeMilles chair. After a private screening for Hollywood dignitaries, Barbara Stanwyck knelt in front of Gloria Swanson and kissed the hem of her skirt. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. 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.