"Sometimes he'd just get in his car and drive," the director told the AP. "[13]:174 The interactions between Bogart, Hepburn and Holden made shooting less than pleasant, as Bogart had wanted his wife, Lauren Bacall, to play Sabrina. The part was only Nancy Olson's third film appearance. Holden's films after that time had not impressed Wilder (in the 1940s Holden's movies were decidedly mediocre). It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, the center of the American film industry . "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 the movie when a cop tries to call in to the coroners office, he cant get an open line because Hedda Hopper is on the phone in Normas room, talking to the Times City Desk and that is more important. Sunset Boulevard is also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly. Getting the role was a lucky break for Holden, as Montgomery Clift was initially cast but backed out of his contract. An out of work writer in Hollywood (Holden) randomly pulls into the driveway of a silent film star (Swanson) who can use the assistance of his writing talent. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee of the year to be also nominated for Original Screenplay. Those offices later became the home of the "Star Trek" art department. He rose to prominence with his role in the movie "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), which landed him his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. Erich von Stroheim dismissed his participation in this film, referring to it as "that butler role.". [38], Holden maintained a home in Switzerland and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner in an animal preserve in Africa. So she lands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips. 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. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. At one point, Norma decides the time is right to send Gillis script to DeMille because is a Leo. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. The mansion was torn down in 1957, and a large office building for Getty Oil built on the site still stands on the spot. William Holden had a similar trajectory as a young artist in Hollywood. 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". She changed her professional name to Patricia Palmer and was working with Famous Players-Lasky, Taylors studio at the time of his death. Haines, whose career had ended because of his homosexual off-screen life, was too happy in his new profession as an interior decorator to want to call attention to his past as an actor. taste bar and kitchen missouri city. When Joe Gillis says, "They'll love it in Pomona," most people assume (correctly) that Pomona is intended to be representative of just about any average American town. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[1]. After a private screening for Hollywood dignitaries, Barbara Stanwyck knelt in front of Gloria Swanson and kissed the hem of her skirt. Universal bought it on her death in 1920 and it was used in several movies, most notably in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). The two stars had never expressed any hostility towards each other over the failure of Cecil B. DeMille and Stroheim made many recommendations to Wilder during the making of the film, including having his character write all of Norma Desmond's fan mail, and, more importantly, to use footage from "Queen Kelly" as an excerpt from one of Desmond's great silent films. Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. a mean old woman who looks and acts a little like Ma Bates if she'd been dead for several years but was somehow still just as talkative and feisty. "We didn't need dialogue. "Twin Peaks" also features characters named Chester Desmond and Norma Jennings, in reference to Norma Desmond. 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. The other line, "I am big! The body was found by Henry Peavey, who took over for convicted embezzler Edward F. Sands as Taylors valet. Norma's buying Joe a fine woolen topcoat would be mostly an affectation in sunny Los Angeles. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. The actor's second major breakthrough occurred when Wilder cast him in the lead of the. The much sought after but highly finicky leading man accepted the role, then backed out. 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. The general consensus was that the two titans had canceled each other out, leaving the field clear for Holliday. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. Holden continued to work steadily for the next decade, but Hollywood often had no idea what to do with him. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. Sunset Boulevard told an old familiar story. 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. 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. Well, not everybody! 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. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. The latter was shot in Africa and sparked Holden's fascination with the continent that was to last for the rest of his life. Wilder almost hired Broadway star Marlon Brando, who would make his screen debut in The Men in 1950. To shoot Joe and Norma dancing together at her New Year's Eve party, cameraman John F. Seitz used a dance dolly---a wheeled platform attached to the camera. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. The film and actors was excellent and lived up to our expectations. 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. The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. 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. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), costarring Barbara Stanwyck, in which he played a violinist-turned-boxer. Kodak would discontinue to manufacture it altogether in 1953. This is a nod to retired silent-movie star Clara Bow, whose husband Rex Bell, a former star of "B" westerns, was the president of the Nevada Chamber of Commerce, and later Lieutenant Governor of Nevada. Buscar Amazon.com.mx. The writer was almost all washed up, one step ahead of the finance company, parking his car in a lot behind the shoeshine parlor run by Rudy, a guy who never asked any questions about finances because he could just look at the peoplesr heels and know the score. At Paramount, he was in a comedy with Ginger Rogers that was not particularly popular, Forever Female (1953). Buster Keaton appears only in the bridge party scene and utters the word "Pass" twice. After all, it's about a dethroned queen." But who could play the silent film diva? "No, don't let it be true. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. 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. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television miniseries The Blue Knight (1973). The silent comedian had a reputation as one of Hollywoods best bridge players. (Gloria Swanson's TV star - she has one for TV and one for film - is very near by at 6301 Hollywood Blvd). They swore each other off over the montage where Norma struggles to lose weight for her comeback. 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. In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. Test audiences at the time couldnt let go of the joke, which was why it was re-edited this way. Swanson herself reportedly asked him to do it. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. During the shopping excursion, Norma remarks that if Joe is not careful, he'll need a cutaway. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. A new 4K high-definition scan was done in 2008 for the film's release on Blu-ray disc. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol. [15] Holden and Hepburn became romantically involved during the filming, unbeknownst to Wilder: "People on the set told me later that Bill and Audrey were having an affair, and everybody knew. 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). (1950) in Australia? After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. It was built in 1924 by William Jenkins, at a cost of $250,000. 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. [2] His brother Robert ("Bobbie") became a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and was killed in action in World War II, over New Ireland, a Japanese-occupied island in the South Pacific. 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. 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. They had to have the ears of the old place, too. 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. Or shall I call my servant? The movie featured the famed director Erich von Stroheim, who made photographs of Gloria Swanson move so beautifully the world was enthralled, as Max Von Mayerling, the director who made, married, and divorced the enthralling Norma Desmondand then gave up his career in film to be her slave in butlers clothing. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. 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. on the corner of Crenshaw and Irving. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling. "[18] Rumors at the time had it that Hepburn wanted a family, but when Holden told her that he had had a vasectomy and having children was impossible, she moved on. The pool was used in its empty condition in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). 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. Still, whatever hard feelings there may have been between Swanson and von Stroheim, they were gone by the time Sunset Boulevard came along. Norma Desmond returns to the Paramount lot and is overcome with nostalgia. Youre killing yourself for an empty house. You murdered me. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. "[13] And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as Joe Gillis but quit the production two weeks before filming began because he had already played the kept man of a wealthy older woman in The Heiress (1949). Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. Norma is perceived as the evil force, even if she uses a white phone while Betty is relegated to a poor black phone. It opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theater on November 17, 1994, ran for 977 performances and won the 1995 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Book and Score. Ready? Gene Kelly was then approached, but MGM refused to loan him out. He became bitter about the throwaway roles Hollywood kept giving him. This can be deduced from the fact that when he pulls one out of the pack he turns the bottom end up to his mouth. Swanson and von Stroheim are playing themselves in that scene. The great big white elephant of a mansion on Sunset Boulevard was actually on Wilshire Boulevard and would be used again as the abandoned mansion in the film Rebel Without a Cause. 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. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). 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. Despite that, von Stroheim "still managed to hit the gates, he had no co-ordination", said Billy Wilder in an interview for the book "Sunset Boulevard: From Movie to Musical". He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. He loves Norma so much, he even forges thousands of pages of fan mail, just to feed her delusion. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. On the night of November 12, 1981, Holden consumed somewhere between eight and 10 drinks in a short amount of time, according to "William Holden: A Biography." Free Postage. Hollywood was known for its excesses long before Michael Jackson hit town. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. But when Sondheim pitched the idea to Billy Wilder at a party, Wilder said, "You can't write a musical about Sunset Boulevard. 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. words "Sunset Blvd." She offered Peavey 10 dollars to identify Taylors grave in the Hollywood Park Cemetery and had someone wait there in a white sheet to scare it out of him. 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. See production, box office & company info. Holden appeared uncredited in Prison Farm (1939) and Million Dollar Legs (1939) at Paramount. 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. Holden paid it forward, becoming Hepburns guardian angel.. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . Both suits were dismissed. 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. His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. (She liked it.). [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. The car William Holden drives is a P15 Plymouth Special DeLuxe convertible, a model that was produced from 1945-49. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. producer Music by Franz Waxman Cinematography by John F. Seitz . The death was just one of many infamous Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, which included the Roscoe Arbuckle bottle rape trial, the death of Olive Thomas, the mysterious death of Thomas H. Ince, and the drug-related deaths of Wallace Reid, Barbara La Marr, and Jeanne Eagels. 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. 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. 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. In Billy Wilder's film, Erich von Stroheim plays the butler of Gloria Swanson's forgotten silent-film star. After living in the home for a year he moved, and the house sat vacant for a little over a decade, earning the moniker "The Phantom House" in the process. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett.
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