His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. and was "a loner," according to Edwards, who wasn't surprised that Holden's body went so long without being discovered. Norma Desmond: I *am* big. Betty is an idealist, more closely resembling Normas rose-colored outlook, but with darker shades she wants to bring to light. You used to be big. When she received her Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony, Holden had died in an accident just a few months prior. Wilder and Brackett told everyone at Paramount and the Production code that the screenplay was based on the story A Can of Beans by Wilder, Brackett, and D.M. But it wasn't a bullet from the gun of an aging movie queen that tragically ended his life, but rather, a rug, per The New York Times. Such extravagances were so commonplace that when Wilder was planning to shoot the funeral of Normas chimpanzee, the director told the crew to just set-up the usual monkey-funeral sequence.. As the band plays 'Diane', we also see Desmond ascending her staircase. London Boulevard (2010) was based on the Ken Bruen novel that was inspired by Sunset Boulevard and features the same trope of an aging actress as the stranger caught in her web. I instantly fell in love - both with the movie itself and with its handsome 32-year old male lead, William Holden. So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture. When Norma visits DeMille at Paramount, he's in the midst of shooting Samson and Delilah, which really is what he was up to at the time. In a scene described by director Billy Wilder as one of the best he'd ever shot, the body of Joe Gillis is rolled into the morgue to join three dozen other corpses, some of whom--in voice-over--tell Gillis how they died. or "Boulevard"? Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), costarring Barbara Stanwyck, in which he played a violinist-turned-boxer. Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. Norma Desmond returns to the Paramount lot and is overcome with nostalgia. As day breaks. Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. Gloria Swanson became so identified with the demanding, irascible Norma that later generations of fans were startled to discover her serene, easy-going, naturalist personality in real life. Buscar Amazon.com.mx. Brenda Marshall, Holden's wife since 1941, was visiting the set when Holden and Nancy Olson had their kissing scene. New York-born novelist and screenwriter Brackett was head of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1930s, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. So she lands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips. Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. ", After serving with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, he returned to Hollywood and in 1950 he got his first substantial role in Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard," per Britannica. The moment he discovers that life could be beautiful, Norma slits her wrist with Joes razor. After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. Cecil B. DeMille: at the studio during Norma's visit. [32] Also in 1974, Holden starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the critically acclaimed disaster film The Towering Inferno,[33] which became a box-office smash and one of the highest-grossing films of Holden's career. Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. But she fits it like a round peg in a square hole. In 1986 Nancy Olson became the last surviving member of the cast. Set designer Hans Dreier had in fact been the interior designer for the homes of former silent stars Bebe Daniels, Norma Shearer and Pola Negri. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers: von Stroheim was replaced as director midway through after complaints from Swanson about the racy material and arguments with the producer (JFK's father!) Sunset Boulevard (1950) 1950, 1h 50min - Drama Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, an aging silent-film queen, and William Holden, as the struggling young screenwriter who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in "Sunset Boulevard." The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. 10060 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. On the basis of this film and largely due to his continuing association with director Billy Wilder, Holden would reach the zenith of his career from 1950-'57. Realizing that former actress Hopper would easily dominate the scene, Parsons declined, even though she and Wilder were friends. There were no shortage of suspects. Watch Sunset Boulevard: Centennial Collection, When Norma Desmond says to the guard at the "Paramount Studio" gates, "Without me there wouldn't be any 'Paramount Studio'" the words could apply to, When Max is telling Joe about directing Madam's first pictures, there is a bad dub of the word "sixteen". He was Judy Hollidays tutor in Born Yesterday (1950) and played a war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. You used to be in silent pictures. A few years later, Stephen Sondheim became interested in writing a musical version of his own, working with writer Burt Shevelove (with whom he ended up writing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. [30] Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, Wild Rovers (1971). Sunset Boulevard now begins with police cars racing to Norma Desmond's house, where a dead body is floating in the pool. In fact, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett even went to Pickfair to pitch the story to Pickford, but her horrified reaction as the story progressed made them stop halfway through and apologize to her. Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. After living in the home for a year he moved, and the house sat vacant for a little over a decade, earning the moniker "The Phantom House" in the process. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 22:44. She liked Holden and went out of her way to help him succeed, devoting her personal time to coaching and encouraging him, which made them into lifelong friends. Holden was still an unknown actor when he made Golden Boy, while Stanwyck was already a film star. Although Sheldrake's musings on a film about the story of a female baseball player was seen as humorous, the movie "A League of Their Own" would do just that 42 years later. The restoration was performed at Lowry Digital by Barry Allen and Steve Elkin. When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. I didn't know. A modern-girl Jiminy Cricket, Betty asks, Dont you sometimes hate yourself? and Joe corrects her, Constantly.. Norma wound up sitting in Mr. DeMilles chair. "Sometimes he'd just get in his car and drive," the director told the AP. William Holden, original name William Franklin Beedle, Jr., (born April 17, 1918, O'Fallon, Illinois, U.S.found dead November 16, 1981, Santa Monica, California), American film star who perfected the role of the cynic who acts heroically in spite of his scorn or pessimism. He had made Swanson a star by. To shoot Joe and Norma dancing together at her New Year's Eve party, cameraman John F. Seitz used a dance dolly---a wheeled platform attached to the camera. Kodak would discontinue to manufacture it altogether in 1953. She produced and starred in Sadie Thompson and The Love of Sunya. Columbia put Holden in a Western with Jean Arthur, Arizona (1940), then at Paramount he was in a hugely popular war film, I Wanted Wings (1941) with Ray Milland and Veronica Lake. . It always will be! The two actors never worked together in another film. (he'd already gotten the shot he needed on the first take). Co-writer D.M. Sunset Boulevard told an old familiar story. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling. The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. Brackett thought the sequence was cruel in its emphasis on what age had done to the one-time beauty, but Wilder insisted it was essential to show how driven she was in her pursuit of youth. The two men never worked together again. She turns out to be a multimillionaire silent screen icon played by the legendary Gloria Swanson and she leaves him all her money, which shes already spent, and face down in a pool. Included among the 25 films on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. Im not giving anything away here. The whole place seemed to have been stricken with the kind of creeping paralysis, out of beat with the rest of the world, crumbling apart in slow motion. She reportedly told Clift shed kill herself if he made the movie. This car has been on display at the National Automobile Museum in Turin, Italy since 1972. The actor-turned-director bitched about that goddamned butler role for the rest his life. In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. It made him a true front ranked star after years of being an actor slogging through a series of largely forgottable films (and performances). Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York CitysVampyr Theatreand the rock operaAssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Norma is Scorpio, and Mars had been transiting Jupiter for weeks and that was the day of greatest conjunction. A second film with Seaton did not do as well, The Proud and Profane (1956), where Holden played the role with a moustache. But Hollywood press has always had clout. Winston was one of those who discovered the Golden Boy newcomer and who renamed himin honor of his former spouse!"[3]. Normand made movies with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, and lived like life was one Wild Party. Buster Keaton appears only in the bridge party scene and utters the word "Pass" twice. It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, the center of the American film industry . She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. Initially, writer-director Wilder envisioned the movie as a straightforward comedy, and the famously saucy West seemed like a perfect fit. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as Joe Gillis but quit the production two weeks before filming began because he had already played the kept man of a wealthy older woman in The Heiress (1949). Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. American Film Institute On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, by Ed Sikov, 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. "We didn't need dialogue. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Swanson made the transition to talkies with The Trespasser in 1929. Sondheim respectfully stopped work on the project and, on the same grounds, later declined an offer to write the score for a proposed movie remake., Additional Sources: The I know your face. But Joe wouldnt have fallen so hard if he werent so shackled. Garbo was once rumored to be engaged to the innovative Hollywood and Broadway director Rouben Mamoulian whose film Golden Boy (1939) made William Holden famous. In her private screening room, with butler Max running the projector, Norma cuddles up with Joe to watch one of her own films. They had to have the ears of the old place, too. Normand was the last person known to have seen Taylor alive and she was grilled by the Los Angeles Police Department as a result. Whether he was the washed up screenwriter of Sunset Boulevard or the reluctant hero of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Holden kept audiences engrossed. This wasn't the original opening and was filmed long after completion of filming. The movie opens with a shot of a dead guy floating face down in a pool, and the dead man himself tells us that its Joe Gillis getting bloated in the chlorine. American actress Gloria Swanson in a promotional portrait for 'Sunset Boulevard', directed by Billy Wilder, 1950. Our friendship never waned. But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. The ocean?' [23][24] Picnic was his last film under the contract with Columbia. Mae West rejected the role of Norma Desmond because she felt she was too young to play a silent-film star. At Paramount, he did another Western, Streets of Laredo (1949). "[13] And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. Since he had classic good looks, an expressive voice, and was an excelle Every woman was in love with him. Holden served as a second and then a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II, where he acted in training films for the First Motion Picture Unit, including Reconnaissance Pilot (1943). Their relationship makes the film as much a love story as it is a noir film, because if ever there is a femme fatale, it is Norma Desmond. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol. He did another Western at Columbia, Texas (1941) with Glenn Ford, and a musical comedy at Paramount, The Fleet's In (1942) with Eddie Bracken, Dorothy Lamour, and Betty Hutton.[9]. The role of Norma Desmond was initially offered to Mae West (who rejected the part), Mary Pickford (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett realized when talking to her that her image as "America's Sweetheart" made her unsuitable for the part), and Pola Negri (Billy Wilder rejected her as her thick accent would cause too many problems) before being accepted by Gloria Swanson. After returning from France, she shot her last Paramount films--Stage Struck (1925), The Untamed Lady (1926) and Fine Manners (1926)--at the studio's lot in Astoria, Queens, NY. I think that Sunset Boulevard was the most important film of William Holden's career. He directed classic films like Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, The Apartment, The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, Sabrina, and Some Like It Hot. It was built in 1924 by William Jenkins, at a cost of $250,000. You see, this is my life, she promised. When Gloria Swanson finished Norma's final scene, the mad staircase descent, she burst into tears and the crew applauded. Neither was The Revengers (1972), another Western. X. [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. Sunset Boulevard is also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly. Billy Wilder had worked on a script for a Swanson picture years earlier called "Music in the Air (1934)" and had forgotten about it. Nothing else! With unofficial permission from Paramount, she worked for a few years with writer Dickson Hughes and actor Richard Stapley developing a show called Starring Norma Desmond (later changed to Boulevard). William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 - November 12, 1981) was an American actor and murderer, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. (1966), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Network (1976), Coming Home (1978), Reds (1981), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013). The Homicide Squad, complete with detectives and newspapermen, are responding to a call about a murder from one of those great big houses in the ten thousand block of Sunset Boulevard, a 22-mile block that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean. The exterior shots were of a house located not on Sunset but Irving Boulevard, near the corner of Wilshire, owned by the J. Paul Getty family. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. Perry, George & Andrew Lloyd Webber (1993). Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder retained the term of endearment for the scene in which DeMille greets Norma Desmond at the door of the sound stage. Although they don't have a scene together in this film, Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton had worked together in the 1932 comedy Speak Easily (1932), both were among the many stars appearing in the 1931 two-reeler The Stolen Jools (1931), and they both appeared in a 1958 episode of The Garry Moore Show (1958) that also featured Carol Burnett, who years later would spoof the Norma Desmond character regularly on her own variety show. One of the few showy bits of camerawork in the film is near the beginning, when the corpse floating in Norma Desmond's pool is seen from underneath. Her character's age was 22 but she was 21 at the time of filming. Marshman Jr. Sunset Boulevard was the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film.