For his 1950 movie, "Sunset Boulevard," on an aging, former silent movie actress who harbors delusions on returning to the silver screen, director Billy Wilder was able to get actress Gloria Swanson to appear in the unglamorous role of Norma Desmond. The plot has her thinking director Cecil B. DeMille wants her for a big role in his next movie, only to find out the studio just wanted to rent out her classic automobile.
The sequence is a rare look at the behind-the-scenes of these two legends who initially linked up in January 1919's "Don't Change Your Husband," the first of six movies DeMille directed Swanson. DeMille was in pre-production of his third of eventually six "comedy of marriage" series when the director, through the suggestion of his studio Famous Players-Lasky, was offered her acting services. He remembered the now 20-year-old actress' roles in her earlier Keystone comedies and felt she would be perfect for the part of a disenchanted wife to a rich husband who is wooed away by an admirer, only to find out her new hubby is much worse than her first one.
The movie public embraced Swanson's acting so much that "Don't Change Your Husband" became her first megahit and placed her in the rarified air of Hollywood's top actresses during the next few years.
Swanson was the lead in five of the next six DeMille directed films, which makes the pair's appearance in 1950's "Sunset Boulevard" all the more poignant. The actress, whose performance in the Wilder movie earned her a Best Actress nomination for the Academy Awards, shows the director unexcited about Norma Desmond's thinking she is wanted by him for his next production, which he isn't. The script fails to reflect the warmth the two had in their working relationship in the yearly 1920's that was seamless and amicable.
DeMille, who's seen directing on set his real movie, 1949's "Samson and Delilah" for the Wilder movie, is known for his large, cast of thousands spectacles. In "Don't Change Your Husband," at the 25 minute mark, DeMille introduces his trademark big-budget set when he films Swanson's fantasies of what her admirer describes what life will be like when she leaves her husband for him. The sequence is the highlight of the movie, a morality film whose aim is to inform its audiences that maybe the grass is not always greener when an unhappy wife (or husband) seeks more fertile pastures.
The sequence is a rare look at the behind-the-scenes of these two legends who initially linked up in January 1919's "Don't Change Your Husband," the first of six movies DeMille directed Swanson. DeMille was in pre-production of his third of eventually six "comedy of marriage" series when the director, through the suggestion of his studio Famous Players-Lasky, was offered her acting services. He remembered the now 20-year-old actress' roles in her earlier Keystone comedies and felt she would be perfect for the part of a disenchanted wife to a rich husband who is wooed away by an admirer, only to find out her new hubby is much worse than her first one.
The movie public embraced Swanson's acting so much that "Don't Change Your Husband" became her first megahit and placed her in the rarified air of Hollywood's top actresses during the next few years.
Swanson was the lead in five of the next six DeMille directed films, which makes the pair's appearance in 1950's "Sunset Boulevard" all the more poignant. The actress, whose performance in the Wilder movie earned her a Best Actress nomination for the Academy Awards, shows the director unexcited about Norma Desmond's thinking she is wanted by him for his next production, which he isn't. The script fails to reflect the warmth the two had in their working relationship in the yearly 1920's that was seamless and amicable.
DeMille, who's seen directing on set his real movie, 1949's "Samson and Delilah" for the Wilder movie, is known for his large, cast of thousands spectacles. In "Don't Change Your Husband," at the 25 minute mark, DeMille introduces his trademark big-budget set when he films Swanson's fantasies of what her admirer describes what life will be like when she leaves her husband for him. The sequence is the highlight of the movie, a morality film whose aim is to inform its audiences that maybe the grass is not always greener when an unhappy wife (or husband) seeks more fertile pastures.