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Title: Sunset Blvd. (1950)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| William Holden | ... | 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 | |
| Larry J. Blake | ... | 1st Finance Man (as Larry Blake) | |
 |
Charles Dayton | ... | 2nd Finance Man |
| Cecil B. DeMille | ... | Cecil B. DeMille | |
| Hedda Hopper | ... | Hedda Hopper | |
| Buster Keaton | ... | Buster Keaton | |
| Anna Q. Nilsson | ... | Anna Q. Nilsson | |
| H.B. Warner | ... | H. B. Warner | |
In Hollywood of the 50's, the obscure screenplay writer Joe Gillis 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, who lives alone with her butler and driver Max Von Mayerling. Norma is demented and believes she will return to the cinema industry, and is protected and isolated from the world by Max, who was her 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, Norma becomes jealous and completely insane and her madness leads to a tragic end. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Every time I go to L.A., which isn't too often, I look at these palm-bemused, once smart stucco facades, and wonder if a Norma Desmond from a later era might be hiding from the world inside them, buttressed by cable TV (AMC or TCM, no doubt), a poodle named FiFi or Sir Francis, walk-in closets full of leopard-print Capri pants that haven't fit in decades, and a world class liquor cabinet that has seen heads of state under the table on a good night. It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. It is one of the most indelible films you will ever see.
This film is great for many reasons, not the least of which is because it is Hollywood's first look back at itself. In the milieu of this film, the silent era is only 22 years behind us. The people left behind by the rush to sound can still palpably TASTE the fame, the accolade, that particular past being not so very dim and distant. The sadness of their lives was real, and at that point in history, all around, if hidden. Way more has been made of the supposed "savagery" of this film vis a vis the faded star than I think exists now, or ever did. The often cynical Wilder is deeply in touch with the tragic here, as much as the grotesque.