The name "Norma Desmond" was chosen from a combination 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. Her character's age was 22 but she was 21 at the time of filming. producer Music by Franz Waxman Cinematography by John F. Seitz . Haines, whose career had ended because of his homosexual off-screen life, was too happy in his new profession as an interior decorator to want to call attention to his past as an actor. The character of Joe Gillis was very much in tune with William Holden's standing at the time. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. [39] On a trip to Africa, he fell in love with the wildlife and became increasingly concerned with the animal species that were beginning to decrease in population. But even to show a chair with her name on it, Lamarr wanted $10,000. Buscar Amazon.com.mx. The name was then changed to Millman and finally to Sheldrake and was played by Fred Clark. These include Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Rudolph Valentino, Rod La Rocque, Vilma Bnky, Mabel Normand, Marie Prevost, Pearl White, and Douglas Fairbanks. At the end, they stood and cheered for Gloria Swanson's return. According to a statement director King Vidor made in 1968, the Los Angeles police detective who was assigned to the case was told to lay off about a week into the investigation. At one point, Norma decides the time is right to send Gillis script to DeMille because is a Leo. She burst into tears upon completion of the scene. Mary Pickford, Pola Negri, and Greta Garbo turned down the role. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. Holden's films after that time had not impressed Wilder (in the 1940s Holden's movies were decidedly mediocre). William Haines turned down an offer to appear in the film but attended the Hollywood premiere with Joan Crawford. The first draft of the film was a straightforward comedy about a has-been actress making a comeback, and Wilder saw Mae West in the role. About 10 minutes later, Holden passed out and died from blood loss. The audience left 20 years ago. In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). This film is in the Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films on Letterboxd. Well, in the end, he got himself a poolonly the price turned out to be a little high, so Paramount paid to have one installed on the condition that if Mrs. Getty didnt like it, theyd remove it after filming was over. Schwab's was torn down in 1988 to make way for a movie theater and a shopping center. The two men never worked together again. (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). "[13] Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" is the portrait of a forgotten silent star, living in exile in her grotesque mansion, screening her old films, dreaming of a comeback. It's the *pictures* that got small. Upon telephoning her, however, Wilder found that Negri's Polish accent, which had killed her career, was still too thick for such a dialog-heavy film. Yeah. Unlike the character she played, Gloria Swanson had accepted the fact that the movies didn't want her anymore and had moved to New York, where she worked on radio and, later, television. The address of Norma Desmond's house is given as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. The character of Max Von Mayerling as a washed up silent film director was an homage paid by Wilder to Erich von Stroheim, who was an inspiration to Billy in his glory days as a notorious silent film director himself. You used to be in silent pictures. Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. They reportedly began a two-year affair, which is alleged to have ended due to Holden's alcoholism. 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. [16] Holden recalls their romance:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Before I even met her, I had a crush on her, and after I met her, just a day later, I felt as if we were old friends, and I was rather fiercely protective of her, though not in a possessive way. Swanson made the transition to talkies with The Trespasser in 1929. The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. This parallel narrative--two perspectives from the same character, one omniscient, the other blissfully ignorant--that converge at the moment of Joe's death, are a major reason the film retains such dramatic and emotional power. Holden was best man at the wedding of his friend Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis in 1952. 10060 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. Those offices later became the home of the "Star Trek" art department. Norma is at the edge of insanity through the whole movie, but that doesnt mean shes not fun. Mrs. Getty divorced her millionaire husband and received custody of the house; it was she who rented it to Paramount for the filming. See production, box office & company info. Sands disappeared after the murder. The building manager found the body of the legendary actor who starred in 70 films and was a good friend of President Ronald Reagan nearly a week later, per The Washington Post. The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. (1950), Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the film, directed H.B. She offered Peavey 10 dollars to identify Taylors grave in the Hollywood Park Cemetery and had someone wait there in a white sheet to scare it out of him. Holman was reportedly worried the film would parody their relationship and told Clift she would commit suicide if he played the role. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. [12] Swanson later said, "Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. Because all three audiences inappropriately found the morgue scene hilarious, the film's release was delayed six months so that a new beginning could be shot. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. In the penultimate scene, as Max tells Norma that "the cameras have arrived," the high strings in composer Franz Waxman's Oscar-winning score quote a chord from Richard Strauss's "The Dance of the Seven Veils" from his opera "Salome". He worked on dramas like The Key (1958), Westerns like John Fords The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, and comedies like The Moon is Blue which so famously challenged the Production Code in 1953 that Hawkeye and BJ insisted it get shown at M*A*S*H 4077 to break the monotony of the Korean War. The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. For purposes of authenticity Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson wore their own clothes in the film. Sunset Boulevard, one of Hollywood's most cruelly accurate depictions of itself, is now 65 years oldolder, even, than its main character, who's washed up at 50. In addition to starring in "Queen Kelly", Swanson also produced it, and fired von Stroheim when he had already gone over the budget by more than double, and with no end to filming in sight. Warner (one of the four "Waxworks" at the bridge party) in The King of Kings (1927). GLAMOROUS MEN: WILLIAM HOLDEN: At some point, "Sunset Boulevard" Filtered cigarette packs always open at the filtered end, which meant he would've been lighting the filter otherwise. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. 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). His height was 1.8 m tall and weighed 89 kg. (he'd already gotten the shot he needed on the first take). (Gloria Swanson's TV star - she has one for TV and one for film - is very near by at 6301 Hollywood Blvd). in 1911 when the Nestor Film Company moved from New. A neglected house gets an unhappy look. "No, don't let it be true. Sometimes hetinkles the wheezing gothic ivories like Lurch in the original TV series The Addams Family, playing the recognizable strains of The Phantom of the Opera. Minters mother Charlotte Shelby was a manipulative stage mother who owned a rare .38 caliber pistol that fired unusual bullets very similar to ones found inside Taylor. director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary. She felt that Wilder used her name in a past-tense context, and she was offended. It's probably just as well, since the darker, more nuanced story that eventually emerged was quite different from West's wheelhouse anyway. For the first industry screening, Paramount executives invited several silent-film stars. Joe could have slept with Norma and loved Betty, and owned the pool that would be his final resting place. William Holden Net Worth 2023: Age, Height, Weight, Wife, Kids, Bio Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. 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. He had made Swanson a star by. Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also co-starred in Airport 1975 together. Or shall I call my servant? He just didnt have what it takes. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 17, 1951, with Gloria Swanson and William Holden reprising their film roles. The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden