Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard (sometimes known as SUNSET BLVD.) is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett. It was named after the thoroughfare with the same name that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, California.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Filmmakers turning the camera on themselves throughout the history of the medium is nothing new. But while most of those previous movies where comedies; affectionate stories with occasional sarcasm (i.e. Show People and Boy Meets Girl), Paramount would notably take a more hard-edged approach with its unofficial trilogy of The Last Command, Sullivan's Travels, and Sunset Blvd., as these films would offer some of the darkest accounts of the industry on film. In this case, the film gives the viewers a dark but realistic look at what fame and power can do someone if they let it get to their head, and pulls no punches in showing how Hollywood isn't as glamorous as one would expect.
 * 2) Considering that director Billy Wilder had a background as a gigolo and a screenwriter, it makes sense that he would be able to write such a compelling script about a Midwest screenwriter becoming a sort of paid escort to the star. The film's still a semi-comedy, although it became something dark and sordid, with elements of horror and film noir mixed in.
 * 3) There's just enough truth to the story and characters in the film to keep viewers unsettled. This includes incorporating the Paramount lot, where Cecil B. DeMille was filming Samson and Delilah, or featuring real stars of the silent film era as the "waxworks" bridge players. In fact, Wilder's usage of reality in the film was ahead of its time, as the industry wasn't even prepared for it.
 * 4) All the central characters give phenomenal performances in their roles including William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, and Nancy Olson.
 * 5) * Special mention goes to real-life silent film star Gloria Swanson who played Norma Desmond incredibly well and get us to feel for her. Plus, Swanson herself was of the many silent film stars unable to properly transition to sound films, due to her age and her overly expressing acting than to her voice. These elements would be translated to her character Norma Desmond. Swanson would accept the project wholeheartedly, offering some photographs and mementos from her films, and even allowing Wilder to use a clip from 1929's Queen Kelly.
 * 6) Well-written and complex characters all around. More than the accuracy of the sets and props, Wilder achieved psychological honesty about his characters that was as ghastly as it was transfixing:
 * 7) * Norma Desmond is a very sympathetic antagonist who rarely has any contact with outsiders and loses her love and respect as her career ends, and a dramatized reflection of Gloria Swanson who went through similar experiences.
 * 8) * Joe Gillis is a broken down screenwriter who sticks with Norma because he thinks that she can help her out, then feels like he's being used and tries getting away from her.
 * 9) * Max von Mayerling is Norma's first husband, and a former director who became her butler hoping he can keep Norma from losing herself.
 * 10) * Betty Schaefer is one of the nicest characters in the film, as she's a Hollywood script-reader who dreams of being an official Hollywood writer and is also a great foil to both of the film's central characters, Joe and Norma.
 * 11) The story manages to blend in Norma's substory and how Joe had died at the beginning of the film very well without throwing in any plot-holes or unnecessary details.
 * 12) Countless memorable quotes that are parodied constantly in other media, most of which are from Norma.
 * 13) Real life silent film stars and directors made appearances within the film. These include Cecil B. DeMille, H.B. Warner, Anna Q. Nilsson, and Buster Keaton.
 * 14) Erich von Stroheim even played Norma's butler/former silent film director, which was pretty smart since he was a director in real life AND worked with Gloria Swanson. Talk about showing your work.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) Some of the film's characters can be hard to relate to for today's standards. Though this is partially justified since they're showing us the dark side of Hollywood.

Trivia

 * The original script for the film was titled “A Can of Beans” to give the impression of a comedy because the writers were afraid the studio wouldn’t support a script that was critical of the film industry.
 * Co-writer Charles Brackett initially conceived of the idea as a Hollywood comedy in which an aging silent movie star overcomes adversity and makes a successful comeback. The idea would develop into a much more jaded appraisal of the film industry and the Hollywood Dream Machine as it evolved.
 * The film originally began with a scene in the LA County morgue in which Joe Gillis talks with the other corpses around him, before narrating his own story. However, after audiences laughed at the sequence during preview screenings, the morgue scene was cut in favor of the iconic swimming pool opening.
 * While William Holden would play the down-on-his-luck Hollywood writer Joe Gillis in the final film, initially Montgomery Clift was cast in the part. Mae West was considered for the character of Norma Desmond, but Gloria Swanson would ultimately land the role of the reclusive silent film star.
 * Gloria Swanson was 51 when she shot Sunset Blvd. She worked in silent cinema in the 1920s, frequently collaborating with director Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. More than 100 early photographs of Swanson at the height of her career are seen throughout the film.
 * The name “Norma Desmond” is generally thought to be a combination of the names of silent film star Norma Talmadge and silent movie director William Desmond Taylor, whose still-unsolved murder is one of the great scandals of Hollywood history.
 * In real life, Norma’s mansion was actually on Wilshire Boulevard, not Sunset Blvd. It had belonged to J. Paul Getty’s family and it would be featured a few years later in Rebel Without a Cause.
 * Sunset Boulevard is the first film in which Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim (Max Von Mayerling) worked together since Queen Kelly– an extravagant production that was never released in the U.S. in which producer/star Swanson actually fired von Stroheim. Footage of Queen Kelly can be seen in Sunset Blvd. and it led to a belated release of Swanson’s version in 1957.
 * Director Billy Wilder cast silent film stars in bit roles – including Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, Anna Q. Nilsson, Gertrude Astor, Eva Novak and Franklyn Farnum.
 * When Gillis and Norma Desmond visit Cecil B. De Mille at Paramount, the director was actually filming Samson and Delilah in real life, which would become the top-grossing picture of the year. Billy Wilder wanted star Hedy Lamarr to have a cameo in Sunset Blvd. but her rate was too steep.
 * Several movie executives were irate when they saw how Hollywood was depicted in the film. At the premiere, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer denounced Billy Wilder, saying, “You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!”
 * This film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won three Oscars, including Best Writing, Best Art Direction and Best Music.
 * Sunset Blvd. was the last film Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett collaborated on after working together for 14 years on projects, including Ninotchka and The Lost Weekend.