Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Charles Brackett (written by) &
Billy Wilder (written by) ...

Release Date:

25 August 1950 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

A Hollywood Story

Plot:

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Plot Keywords:

Writer | Mansion | Hollywood | Director | Comeback

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	Joseph C. 'Joe' Gillis
Gloria Swanson	...	Norma Desmond
Erich von Stroheim	...	Max Von Mayerling
Nancy Olson	...	Betty Schaefer
Fred Clark	...	Sheldrake
Lloyd Gough	...	Morino
Jack Webb	...	Artie Green
Franklyn Farnum	...	Undertaker - Chimp's Funeral
Larry J. Blake	...	First Finance Man (as Larry Blake)
Charles Dayton	...	Second Finance Man
Cecil B. DeMille	...	Himself
Hedda Hopper	...	Herself
Buster Keaton	...	Himself - Bridge Player
Anna Q. Nilsson	...	Herself - Bridge Player
H.B. Warner	...	Himself - Bridge Player

Also Known As:

Sunset Boulevard (UK) (USA) (alternative spelling)
A Can of Beans (USA) (fake working title)

Runtime:

110 min | Argentina:115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Portugal:M/12 (DVD rating) | Hungary:14 | Brazil:Livre | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:11 (re-rating) (1982) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #13955) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Alto-Nido Apartments -1851 N. Ivar Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

When filming began, William Holden was 30 and Gloria Swanson was 49; each celebrated a birthday during production.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Norma Desmond drives through the Paramount gate, Jonesy, the guard who let her in, dials his phone and speaks into the phone, asking for "stage 18" before the phone's dial has even returned to zero.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Joe Gillis: Yes, this is Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, California. It's about 5 0'clock in the morning. That's the homicide squad, complete with detectives and newspaper men.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Enterprise: Dear Doctor (#1.13)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Auld Lang Syne

A Bitter and Tragic Masterpiece

In Hollywood of the 50's, the obscure screenplay writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) is not able to sell his work to the studios, is full of debts and is thinking in returning to his hometown to work in an office. While trying to escape from his creditors, he has a flat tire and parks his car in a decadent mansion in Sunset Boulevard. He meets the owner and former silent-movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), who lives alone wit her butler and driver Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim). Norma is demented and believes she will return to the cinema industry, and is protected and isolated from the world by Max, who was his director and husband in the past and still loves her. Norma proposes Joe to move to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay for her comeback to the cinema, and the small-time writer becomes her lover and gigolo. When Joe falls in love for the young aspirant writer Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), Norma becomes jealous and completely insane and her madness leads to a tragic end.

"Sunset Boulevard" is a bitter and tragic masterpiece of the genius Billy Wilder that exposes how Hollywood uses people and forgets them when they get old and are considered decadent by the industry. Further, it also shows the consequences of the lack of adaptation of a former star to the end of a successful career, being forgotten by fans and the industry, and the price that some persons accept to pay to join this business. The last time I saw this film was on 22 September 2002 and even having watched "Sunset Boulevard" for maybe five or six times, I still get excited with most of the scenes and I dare to say that it is in my Top 10 movies ever. The DVD has an interesting documentary called "Sunset Blvd.: A Look Back" (a.k.a. "The Making of Sunset Boulevard" with the presence of a still impressively beautiful Nancy Olson telling peculiarities about this awesome feature. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Crepúsculo dos Deuses" ("Dusk of the Gods")