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". The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. She felt that Wilder used her name in a past-tense context, and she was offended. are shown stenciled on the curb of that street. Her friend George Cukor, who initially recommended her for the part, told her, "If they want you to do ten screen tests, do ten screen tests. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett met with Greta Garbo and tried to convince her to make a comeback in the role of Norma Desmond. Billy Wilder also used Sheldrake as the last name of Fred MacMurray's character in "The Apartment". The film originally opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. What is the streaming release date of Sunset Blvd. Holden's films after that time had not impressed Wilder (in the 1940s Holden's movies were decidedly mediocre). This film was originally released in the United States as The Christmas Tree and on home video as When Wolves Cry. Gillis: "No, swimming pool." 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. Nothing else! [39] On a trip to Africa, he fell in love with the wildlife and became increasingly concerned with the animal species that were beginning to decrease in population. Gloria Swanson became so identified with the demanding, irascible Norma that later generations of fans were startled to discover her serene, easy-going, naturalist personality in real life. Holden's first film back from the services was Blaze of Noon (1947), an aviator picture at Paramount directed by John Farrow. [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. 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. William Holden says his birthday is December 21st. He said it was because she was braver than any man. There were actually three mansions used during filming. Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. She looks like a mannequin of a . The actor-turned-director bitched about that goddamned butler role for the rest his life. The only extant film elements were 35mm inter-positives struck in 1952, which had undergone a great deal of decay. . The apartments, and the "Alto Nido" sign out front that is glimpsed briefly in the film, are still there. She declined the offer. "Lonely, alone, without dignity.". Billy Wilder's terrifying valentine to Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard (1950), features one of the most indelible of all screen performances: Gloria Swanson as 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. 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. The pool was used in its empty condition in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for the role.[11]. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." but at 641 S. Irving Blvd. In accordance with his wishes, no funeral or memorial services were conducted. 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. In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked this as the #16 Greatest Movie of All Time. 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. Billy Wilder quickly offered the role to Fred MacMurray, who turned it down because he didn't want to play a gigolo. "I'm not surprised that this could have happened.". was voted #6 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by "Premiere" magazine in 2007. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). But it wasn't a bullet from the gun of an aging movie queen that tragically ended his life, but rather, a rug, per The New York Times. Holden made a fourth and final film for Wilder with Fedora (1978). And if you find it a little odd to hear dead men telling their own tales via narration, it is less strange than hearing it from a bunch of corpses with toe-tags talking it over in the LA county morgue, which was the way the movie was originally shot. American Film Institute On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, by Ed Sikov, 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. 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. Even though it wasn't the last scene filmed, Billy Wilder threw a party for her as soon as the shot was finished. Wilder and his co-writers reversed several elements, and there was no official connection between the movie and Waugh's book. Holden, who was at this point dependent on alcohol, said, "I really was in love with Audrey, but she wouldn't marry me. If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. Brackett thought the sequence was cruel in its emphasis on what age had done to the one-time beauty, but Wilder insisted it was essential to show how driven she was in her pursuit of youth. Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious. Normand was the last person known to have seen Taylor alive and she was grilled by the Los Angeles Police Department as a result. Costume designer Edith Head found working on the film to be one of her greatest challenges. (1950), Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the film, directed H.B. "Twin Peaks" also features characters named Chester Desmond and Norma Jennings, in reference to Norma Desmond. 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. When Powers returned to California, she went to his penthouse apartment in Santa Monica but couldn't get in. They stayed that way even if the pictures got small. De Mille at Paramount, the director is shooting the film Samson and Delilah, which he was actually shooting at the time. In later interviews, Davis admitted that she thought Swanson's work in the film was absolutely outstanding. Director Cecil B. DeMille, silent film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson played waxy versions of themselves. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[1]. When Norma is telling Joe about how rich she is, she mentions a beach house and downtown real estate. over the spiraling budget. Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. You used to be big. Although a registered Republican, he never involved himself in politics. Features the only Oscar-nominated performances of Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. As the band plays 'Diane', we also see Desmond ascending her staircase. 10 films that began filming without a finished script, Donald Trumps Bad Romance with Hollywood Began Before Parasite, Shazam! Schwab's was torn down in 1988 to make way for a movie theater and a shopping center. Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. He was perfection on and off-screen. Holden was a bit of an anti-hero, or at least a very flawed hero. According to Billy Wilder, it was von Stroheim's idea to use a clip from Queen Kelly (1932) in Sunset Blvd. You see, this is my life, she promised. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. Throughout Hollywood history many film stars, and/or single films, were responsible for saving ailing studios. They are singing a parody of their song "Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface (1948), for which they won an Oscar in 1949, the year this film was made. Joe insists hes not a Hollywood whore, but he accepts Normas gifts, gold cigarette cases, a platinum watch, suits, shirts, and shoes that would impress Rudy. The moment he discovers that life could be beautiful, Norma slits her wrist with Joes razor. "No, don't let it be true. That's the end.". But it could just as well have been Joes headquarters, Schwabs Drug Store, a kind of combination office, coffee clutch, and waiting room where actors and writers wait for the gravy train. The car William Holden drives is a P15 Plymouth Special DeLuxe convertible, a model that was produced from 1945-49. She lives in a crumbling old mansion with her butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). [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". Billy Wilder originally approached William Haines to play one of Norma's bridge partners. If Gillis is accurate in stating that his meeting with Norma occurred some six months prior, the action of the film takes place between mid-November 1948 and mid- May 1949. (as Arthur Schmidt) Marshman was a journalist but both Wilder and Brackett had been impressed by the critique he had given of their earlier film, The Emperor Waltz (1948). The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list. For this Lamarr wanted $25,000 (which would be about $250,000 in 2015 dollars). [5][6], Next he starred with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the Warner Bros. gangster epic Invisible Stripes (1939), billed below Raft and above Bogart. cynical Hollywood survivor played by William Holden. He would slay, "I have no idea! Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. She can be seen talking and giggling on the phone during the party. It has to be an opera. 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. In Billy Wilder's film, Erich von Stroheim plays the butler of Gloria Swanson's forgotten silent-film star. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first American audiences had seen of it. Editorial Reviews. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. 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. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. It was built in 1924 by William Jenkins, at a cost of $250,000. Its second owner was Jean Paul Getty, who purchased it for his second wife. Less popular was Satan Never Sleeps (1961), the last film of Clifton Webb and Leo McCarey; The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), his third film with Seaton; or The Lion (1962), with Trevor Howard and Capucine. Clift's biographers say it was because he had a strong following among older women, who wrote him letters describing how they'd like to mother him, and he didn't want to encourage such behavior. Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! He rejects her. . Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. Gloria Swanson almost considered rejecting the role of Norma Desmond after Billy Wilder requested she do a screen test for the role. And what faces. William Holden returns to find that Gloria Swanson has tried to slash her wrists in 'Sunset Boulevard', directed by Billy Wilder. Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". 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. They had faces. There are several references to Gloria Swanson's actual career in the film. (he'd already gotten the shot he needed on the first take). 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. ", 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. Thirty-one years later, the actor who played Gillis, William Holden, met his end. [46] Rumors existed that he was suffering from lung cancer, which Holden had denied at a 1980 press conference. Cinematographer John Seitz put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection. The actor got up and tried to staunch the blood pouring from his forehead but never called 911, which might have saved his life, per the biography. 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. London Boulevard (2010) was based on the Ken Bruen novel that was inspired by Sunset Boulevard and features the same trope of an aging actress as the stranger caught in her web. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Whether he was the washed up screenwriter of Sunset Boulevard or the reluctant hero of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Holden kept audiences engrossed. In 1998 the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. Joe Gillis' typewriter is a portable manual Remington Rand Noiseless Model 7. read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter. 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. Since he had classic good looks, an expressive voice, and was an excelle Location scenes at Norma Desmond's mansion were shot not on Sunset Boulevard but on Wilshire Boulevard. 10060 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA. Buscar Amazon.com.mx. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. Sunset Boulevard (DVD, 2017) UK Region 2 release with extras. Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. Gloria Swanson, meanwhile, was born on March 27, 1899. There were three young directors who showed promise in those early days of silent film, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry. The statuette on the telephone table at Artie Green's new years party is a model of the Philistine god, Dagon. She was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. The address of Norma Desmond's house is given as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. She is ever the star. 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. He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (19541958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema. This wasn't the original opening and was filmed long after completion of filming. Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. 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. A true Hollywood horror story. The name was then changed to Millman and finally to Sheldrake and was played by Fred Clark. 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. 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. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. When she received her Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony, Holden had died in an accident just a few months prior. Swanson made the transition to talkies with The Trespasser in 1929. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. Erich von Stroheims Max von Mayerling is equally awestruck, still caught in the wake of Normas star dust. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. In real life, when Swanson and DeMille had worked together, that was what they always called each other. Holden did a sports film at Columbia, Boots Malone (1952), then returned to Paramount for The Turning Point (1952). 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. 3.48. In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. 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? 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. Or shall I call my servant? 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.. He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. LAS COSAS DEL QUERER", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunset_Boulevard_(film)&oldid=1142173541, Best Overall New Extra Features Library Release. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. At Columbia, he starred in film noirs, The Dark Past (1948), The Man from Colorado (1949) and Father Is a Bachelor (1950). After Salome, she planned to make another picture and another picture. Read and download theDen of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazineright here! The others were Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951), and Submarine Command (1951). "[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. 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. 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. 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. It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, the center of the American film industry . 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). The young actor also got to work with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the gangsters on parole movie,Invisible Stripes. As DeMille was directing Lamarr at the time in Samson and Delilah (1949), this would have been no problem. 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. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. . Gordon Cole was a real person in the art department for DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) and later in The Ten Commandments (1956). So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture. Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to sit in for a cameo, but she wanted $25,000. 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 one on the Paramount studio soundstage; the one whose driveway William Holden ducks into at 10060 Sunset Blvd; and the one used for the exteriors, which is the one shown here. words "Sunset Blvd." I instantly fell in love - both with the movie itself and with its handsome 32-year old male lead, William Holden. "Sometimes he'd just get in his car and drive," the director told the AP. or "Boulevard"? [16] Holden recalls their romance:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Before I even met her, I had a crush on her, and after I met her, just a day later, I felt as if we were old friends, and I was rather fiercely protective of her, though not in a possessive way. Who didnt then? (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." 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. Both Keaton and Hopper died the same day, on February 1, 1966, at the ages of 70 and 80 respectively, both in Los Angeles. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett almost came to blows over the montage depicting Norma's preparations for her comeback. Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary. What do you say about a longtime friend a sense of personal loss, a fine man. Originally Billy Wilder wanted both of Hollywood's top gossip columnists--Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons--reporting from Norma's mansion at the end and fighting over the phone. The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden Grunge 2.14M subscribers Subscribe 486 18K views 3 weeks ago #Actor #Hollywood #SunsetBoulevard While Actor William Holden. The forensics team rolled him over and saw he had been shot at least once in the back with a small-caliber pistol. 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. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as the writer but dropped out two weeks before the shoot. He starred in the 1953 . H.B. Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. 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. Fred MacMurray and Gene Kelly both turned down the role of Joe Gillis. Swanson and von Stroheim are playing themselves in that scene. "[4], For his contribution to the film industry, Holden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1651 Vine Street. Film News. X. William Holden had a similar trajectory as a young artist in Hollywood. When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. Now I had two favorite movies - aside from "Gone With The Wind" of course - both from 1950, "Sunset Boulevard" and "All . It made him a true front ranked star after years of being an actor slogging through a series of largely forgottable films (and performances). 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. Dont bother with a rewrite, man, take it direct! So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Taylor had a British accent and the imposter sounded like he came out of Chicagos south side. "I am big. A version of how he obtained his stage name "Holden" is based on a statement by George Ross of Billboard: "William Holden, the lad just signed for the coveted lead in Golden Boy, used to be Bill Beadle [sic]. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. William Haines, along with fellow silent screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, was approached to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners. 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. The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue. He loves Norma so much, he even forges thousands of pages of fan mail, just to feed her delusion. Carol Burnett spoofed the film several times on her TV variety show. Sunset Boulevard is a noir film and like many of the post-World War II dark classics, it is covered with a thick sheen of cynicism. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. Holden served as a second and then a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II, where he acted in training films for the First Motion Picture Unit, including Reconnaissance Pilot (1943). Gene Kelly was then approached, but MGM refused to loan him out. [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. When crew members asked Billy Wilder how he was going to shoot the burial of Norma's monkey, one of the film's most bizarre scenes, he just said, "You know, the usual monkey-funeral sequence.".
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