From Wiki­Collectables, Buy • Sell • Collect • Wiki

View the top articles!

Theatrical Poster

Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American film noir classic. Directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, it was named after the famous boulevard of the same name that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.

It stars William Holden as down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded movie star and femme fatale who entraps the unsuspecting Gillis into her fantasy world in which she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough and Jack Webb play supporting roles. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by leading silent film figures Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson.

Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited as one of the most noteworthy films of American cinema. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998 it was ranked number twelve on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century, dropping to number 16 on the 10th Anniversary edition published in 2007.

[edit] Sunset Boulevard - 1950 - Final Scene

[edit] Plot

The opening scene reveals that a man has been killed and his corpse is seen floating face down in a swimming pool. A narrator explains that the dead man was an unsuccessful screenwriter. The film fades into flashback as the narrator, now identified as Joe Gillis, describes his attempts to raise some fast cash to save his automobile from being confiscated by two repossession agents.

Desperate, Gillis makes various calls to Hollywood friends and contacts, and manages to secure a meeting with a producer at Paramount Studios, where he pitches a baseball script he has written, titled "Bases Loaded." The producer, Sheldrake, seems interested in the property until a young woman from the Reader Department, Betty Schaefer, is summoned and she arrives with an outline of the script, but dismisses it as a mediocre work. Angered at the rejection, Gillis leaves and then manages to locate his agent, who's playing golf in Bel-Air and does nothing to help Gillis with his financial situation.

Returning to Hollywood along Sunset Boulevard, Gillis is spotted by the auto repossession men and a chase ensues. When a tire blows on Gillis' car during the pursuit, he swerves into a residential driveway in order to escape the repo men and discovers that he has entered the grounds of what he assumes is a deserted mansion. Hiding his car in the dilapidated garage, he is startled when a woman's voice from an upstairs veranda of the mansion summons him to come into the house.

At the front door, he meets a stoic German butler and, once upstairs, the source of the voice -- an eccentric older woman who has mistaken him for an undertaker. She has been waiting to make arrangements for the funeral for her recently deceased pet chimpanzee. Gillis recognizes her as Norma Desmond, formerly one of the great stars of the silent screen. When she learns that Gillis is a writer, she offers him a job reading the script she has been writing for her planned comeback and, seizing a rare chance to make some money, Gillis agrees.

Gillis, working out of Desmond's house, is soon completely financially dependent upon Norma, who lavishes attention on him and buys him expensive clothing. While he occasionally shows discomfort, he makes no effort to change his situation. He is horrified when Norma reveals on New Year's Eve that she is in love with him. Rejecting her attempt at seduction, he hitches a ride to a friend's house where a party is underway. Upon his arrival, he is reintroduced to Betty Schaefer, who tells him that, despite the incident in Sheldrake's office regarding "Bases Loaded," she has read some of Gillis' other submissions and one, in particular, shows promise.

Inspired to continue his writing, Gillis phones the Desmond house to say he will be moving out, but is told that Norma has attempted suicide. He rushes back to the mansion, where he comforts her and stays.

The two seem relatively content as Norma continues preparing for her "comeback" in films. When she considers her script to be complete, she sends it to Paramount. She receives telephone calls from Cecil B. DeMille's office at the studio and assumes he is interested in filming the project. She travels to the studio and meets with him; Gillis and the butler learn the studio only wants to hire Norma's vintage Isotta-Fraschini car for use in a film and has no interest in her script. The two of them keep this from her.

Meanwhile, Joe has secretly begun meeting with Betty to work on a screenplay together, and they fall in love. When Norma discovers this, she phones Betty and insinuates what sort of man Joe really is. Joe returns to the house in time to hear what Norma has said and takes the phone from her. He tells Betty to come to the house, where he explains his side of the situation before turning Betty away. Misunderstanding his actions, Norma is grateful to Joe, but he brushes her aside and begins packing to leave. Norma threatens to shoot herself but he does not take her seriously. As he walks away, she follows and shoots him three times before he falls dead into the pool.

Having explained the corpse in the pool, the film returns to the present, where Norma Desmond appears to be lost in fantasy. News cameras arrive to film her and she thinks she is on the set of her new film. Norma slowly descends her grand staircase and, after making a speech declaring her happiness at making a new film (culminating in the film's most famous line: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up".), she reaches for the camera, the screen fades to white and the narrator concludes that Norma's dream of performing for the cameras has in an unexpected way come true for her.^[1]

[edit] Background

The street after which the film is named has been associated with Hollywood film production since 1911 when the town's first film studio opened on Sunset Boulevard. The film workers lived modestly in the growing neighborhood, but during the 1920s profits and salaries rose to unprecedented levels. With the advent of the star system, luxurious homes noted for their often incongruous grandeur were built in the area. The stars were the subject of public fascination throughout the world as magazines and newspapers reported the excesses of their lives.

As a young man Billy Wilder was interested in American culture, with much of his interest fueled by the country's films. In the late 1940s many of the grand Hollywood houses remained, and Wilder, now a Los Angeles resident, found they were part of his everyday world. Many former stars from the silent era still lived in them, although most were no longer involved in the film business. Wilder wondered how they spent their time now that "the parade had passed them by" and began imagining the story of a star who had lost her celebrity and box-office appeal.^[2]

[edit] Casting

From left to right, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Nancy Olson and Erich von Stroheim

[edit] Principal cast

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Review of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard
• Movie Review Query Engine - Links to period and contemporary reviews for Sunset Boulevard
• Senses of Cinema - Billy Wilder biography
• Gloria Swanson tribute site
• Reel Classics - William Holden biography
• Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) National Film Registry Site
• Synopsis by Tim Dirks on Greatest Films
• Literature