[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. The car William Holden drives is a P15 Plymouth Special DeLuxe convertible, a model that was produced from 1945-49. 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). In addition to starring in "Queen Kelly", Swanson also produced it, and fired von Stroheim when he had already gone over the budget by more than double, and with no end to filming in sight. 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 role of Norma Desmond was initially offered to Mae West (who rejected the part), Mary Pickford (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett realized when talking to her that her image as "America's Sweetheart" made her unsuitable for the part), and Pola Negri (Billy Wilder rejected her as her thick accent would cause too many problems) before being accepted by Gloria Swanson. He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). 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. Charles Brackett and Wilder were just as adamant that nothing in their scripts should be changed, and nothing new added. She looks like a mannequin of a . Or shall I call my servant? Universal bought it on her death in 1920 and it was used in several movies, most notably in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). He called it "that goddamned butler role" for the remaining seven years of his life. In subsequent years, two lawsuits have been filed against Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, claiming that Sunset Blvd. Betty and Joe fall in love after they sneak off to the studio backlot by moonlight to collaborate on a screenplay. There are several references to Gloria Swanson's actual career in the film. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. Norma's "gondola bed" was originally white, and was featured in Twentieth Century (1934) with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore. The name Norma Desmond was a combination of early Hollywoods comedy star Mabel Normand and her lover, silent film director William Desmond Taylor. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. When Norma Desmond visits her old friend at Paramount, she affectionately calls him "Mr. DeMille" (not Cecil or C.B. A week later she heard the news of Holden's death on her car radio. 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. and was "a loner," according to Edwards, who wasn't surprised that Holden's body went so long without being discovered. Gloria Swanson almost considered rejecting the role of Norma Desmond after Billy Wilder requested she do a screen test for the role. Ready? Warner took the part. Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. The ocean?' William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. 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. Co-writer D.M. Holdens last movie, Blake Edwardss S.O.B., was another masterpiece of Hollywood cynicism. Norma's butler, Max, who used to be one of her directors is played by Erich von Stroheim, who directed Swanson in the movie Queen Kelly (1932), clips from which are used in the scene where Norma and Joe watch one of her old films. (1940) followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of Our Town (1940), done for Sol Lesser at United Artists.[8]. She produced and starred in Sadie Thompson and The Love of Sunya. Holman was reportedly worried the film would parody their relationship and told Clift she would commit suicide if he played the role. There were actually three mansions used during filming. Billy Wilder originally approached William Haines to play one of Norma's bridge partners. The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." (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). Im not giving anything away here. Other actresses considered for Norma Desmond were Mae West (who wanted to rewrite the dialogue), Mae Murray, and Mary Pickford. Wilder almost hired Broadway star Marlon Brando, who would make his screen debut in The Men in 1950. Talk! Strange? 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. Cinematographer John Seitz put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection. 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. Minters mother Charlotte Shelby was a manipulative stage mother who owned a rare .38 caliber pistol that fired unusual bullets very similar to ones found inside Taylor. It was Erich von Stroheim who suggested the revelation that Max was writing all of Norma's fan mail. To help promote the film, Gloria Swanson did a three-month tour of 36 cities in America and Canada. Billy Wilder was frustrated with people assuming that the ending was meant to be ambiguous and asking him what happens to Norma after the final dissolve. [35] Holden starred in The Earthling,[36] as a loner dying of cancer at the Australian outback and accompanying an orphan boy (Ricky Schroder). The restoration was performed at Lowry Digital by Barry Allen and Steve Elkin. Set non-holiday all-time house record of $166,000 at New York's Radio City Music Hall when it opened. Billy Wilder also used Sheldrake as the last name of Fred MacMurray's character in "The Apartment". Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also appeared in Airport 1975. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. She said it was a blackmail scheme gone wrong. was voted #6 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by "Premiere" magazine in 2007. If you don't, I will personally shoot you." It was only natural that he should film several sequences on the studio's backlots. [47], President Ronald Reagan released a statement: "I have a great feeling of grief. Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. In his place, Wilder hired Buster Keaton. Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. The film was the favorite of Sci-Fi author J.G. Marion Davies owned a famous ocean-front mansion in Santa Monica. Studs and cufflinks were inserted into the shirt holes to secure the garment. [30] Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, Wild Rovers (1971). 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. From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. (1950) was plagiarized from other scripts. Norma Desmond: Get out! But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. Seitz had used a similar technique on Double Indemnity (1944). In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked this as the #16 Greatest Movie of All Time. She hates all of Joes writing except for about six pages. 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 movie opens with a shot of a dead guy floating face down in a pool, and the dead man himself tells us that its Joe Gillis getting bloated in the chlorine. Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Sunset Boulevard mixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking. The film originally opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. We were close friends for many years. The statuette on the telephone table at Artie Green's new years party is a model of the Philistine god, Dagon. So she lands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips. Technically the address was 641 S Irving Blvd but the estate lay at the corner of Irving and Wilshire Blvd. The mansion belonged to the second Mrs. Jean Paul Getty, who rented it on condition that if she did not like the swimming pool the studio would have to add for the film, it would cover it over and restore the original landscaping. Perhaps one of the reasons Swanson got the job was because director George Cukor mentioned that the actress once lived in a mansion on Sunset Boulevard. It would not be turned into a motion picture until: The Naked and the Dead (1958). So Wilder gave up, and DeMille (who was already being compensated) gave Norma his own chair.. [48] He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival Special Award for Ensemble Acting, Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, "When Alcoholics drink themselves to death", "William Holden Dead at 63; Won Oscar for 'Stalag 17', "Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Award: 1982 Oscars", "The Screen Strand Shows 'Invisible Stripes', "30 Days, 30 Classics Day 17: Sabrina (1954) starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart", "Screen: Crosby Acts in 'Country Girl'; Film Based on Odets Drama Makes Bow", "The Screen in Review; 'Bridges at Toko-ri' Is Fine Film of War", "Han Suyin dies at 95; wrote 'Many-Splendored Thing', "13 Fascinating Facts About 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "The Towering Inferno Movie Review (1974)", "Network Movie Review & Film Summary (1976)", "William Holden Gave His All Even "When Time Ran Out", "William Holden's Unscripted Fall From Grace", The William Holden Wildlife Education Center, "West Holden: More than just the son of William Holden", Image of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1951, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Holden&oldid=1142631715, Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners, United Service Organizations entertainers, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple partners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, episode: "William Holden/Frances Bergen Show", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:28. Next image (0) (0) She burst into tears upon completion of the scene. When Norma visits Cecil B. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry. The character of Norma Desmond is modeled on the fate of several leading actresses of the silent era. She declined the offer. Norma Desmond says that she paid $28,000 for the Isotta-Fraschini car in 1929. Norma, the aging silent-movie star who ensnares down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), is the vamp become vampire (look at those clawlike hands! Swanson herself reportedly asked him to do it. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). Billy Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. New York-born novelist and screenwriter Brackett was head of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1930s, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955. And what faces. (1950) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Directed by Billy Wilder Writing Credits Cast (in credits order) verified as complete Produced by Charles Brackett . 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. Location scenes at Norma Desmond's mansion were shot not on Sunset Boulevard but on Wilshire Boulevard. Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. They reportedly began a two-year affair, which is alleged to have ended due to Holden's alcoholism.
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