He was nominated for 21 Academy Awards, 6 of which he won (along with the prestigious Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988), and one of those Oscars was for the screenplay of Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard is considered by many to be his finest work, and one of the great, great films of Hollywood. It is also the classic example of Film Noir, a style of film that was popular in the late 40's and early 50's, known for its edginess, among other things. Because it examines the underbelly of Hollywood at the time, it is a film buff's delight.

It is the story of a failing young Hollywood screenwriter named Joe Gillis, who inadvertently finds himself at the dilapidated house of a washed-up silent movie star, Norma Desmond. She talks him into becoming the editor of her "comeback" script; but he gets so comfortable with the lush lifestyle she offers, that he agrees to much more than that. It turns into a weird, one-sided, Spring-Autumn romance - codependency gone wild. Joe is trapped and sees no easy way out because he doesn't want to go back to the penniless existence he had before. Then, a young female writer comes along that needs his help. In their secret working relationship, and in her fresh innocence, he rediscovers what he has lost. But has he got the courage to leave Norma?

William Holden is his best-looking, and perfect as Joe Gillis, whose cynical humor pervades the film, and who also acts as its narrator. But Holden was not Wilder's first choice. The director wanted Montgomery Clift, who would have given the film a whole different flavor. But, luckily, Clift turned it down. The actor playing Joe Gillis needed to be an all-American type that seemingly has been corrupted by the Hollywood system, and no one could have filled that role better than Holden. At the time, the athletic actor's career was somewhat on the wane. But his performance in this film, along with subsequent Billy Wilder films - Stalag 17 (1953) and Sabrina (1954) - established him as a top performer and star, who would go on to make Executive Suite (1954), The Country Girl (1954), Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing (1955), Picnic (1955), The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969) and Network (1976), among others. He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for Sunset Boulevard and Network, and won for Stalag 17.

Gloria Swanson, who was a big star in the Silent days, but hadn't had a role to speak of since then, was also not a first choice for Wilder - but what would Sunset Boulevard be without her. She was perfect as the threateningly creepy, self-obsessed and self-deluded Norma Desmond. Amazingly, Swanson's own career mirrored that of the tarnished star's. It ended, partly as a result of her association with one of the other actors in Sunset Boulevard - Eric von Stroheim, who plays her butler, Max. Von Stroheim - who, like Max, had once been a director - is best known for directing one of the longest films ever made. At four hours long, Greed (1924) was, unsurprisingly, a box-office disaster. After that, he directed Swanson in the film that became for both of them something of a swan song - Queen Kelly (1929). Interestingly, the film appears in Sunset Boulevard as the movie that Norma and Joe are watching when she stands up, backlit by the projector, and vows to make a comeback, which she calls a "return."

Rounding out the cast is Nancy Olson as young writer Betty Schaefer, who also becomes the love-interest for Gillis. Her fresh, innocent, upbeat character is perhaps the only one that doesn't show Hollywood in a bad light. The only other character that could possibly be said of is Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself. Having done many previous films together, Norma is hoping he will direct her "return." Their meeting on the Paramount lot is a poignant, bitter-sweet reunion, and an indication of just how deluded Norma has become, and how cruel Hollywood can be to the stars they have cast aside. There are other famous people who play themselves: gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, along with silent stars Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson and HB Warner. All three of these silent stars went on to very lucrative careers in sound pictures - hardly the has-beens they play in Sunset Boulevard.

The opening of Sunset Boulevard is probably the most famous in film history: a body floating face down in a pool, shot from below, acts as the narrator the story. This was an extremely difficult shot, as the necessary underwater cameras had not yet been invented, requiring that it be shot using a mirror instead. It is powerful. All the camerawork in this film is outstanding. But what is most remarkable is the script, by Billy Wilder. This is one of the few films ever shot that does not depart from the script, with one exception: the opening scene. It originally takes place in a morgue, with the dead bodies mentally discussing Gillis' death. While it worked in the script, it didn't work on film. And once it was shown to a test audience - with inappropriately hilarious response - it was changed. Other than that, the script is perfect.

Sunset Boulevard is full of juicy lines, but probably the most famous is, "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille." Norma utters this at the end of the film, having just descended her staircase - filled with reporters, photographers and newsreel cameramen - as she is being taken off to jail for shooting Gillis. Another famous line is Norma's response to Joe when he first meets her and says, "You're Norma Desmond - you used to be big." She quips, "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

Sunset Boulevard has held up remarkably well through the years. It is still just as powerful as it was when it opened in 1950 to respectable but not overly enthusiastic audiences. (Perhaps it was a bit too cynical for 1950. Louis B. Meyer, on the other hand, is said to have gone berserk because of its negative but honest portrayal of Hollywood.) Since then, it has become one of the great classics, near the top of every critic's and historian's Best Film list, and a popular favorite of film buffs.

Waitsel Smith, February 24, 2008

Text © 2008 Waitsel Smith. Photos © 1950 Paramount. All Rights Reserved.