[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. This wasn't the original opening and was filmed long after completion of filming. According to Billy Wilder, it was von Stroheim's idea to use a clip from Queen Kelly (1932) in Sunset Blvd. (1950) was plagiarized from other scripts. Technically the address was 641 S Irving Blvd but the estate lay at the corner of Irving and Wilshire Blvd. The restoration was performed at Lowry Digital by Barry Allen and Steve Elkin. "We didn't need dialogue. In 1972, Holden began a nine-year relationship with actress Stefanie Powers and sparked her interest in animal welfare. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. Sunset Boulevard is a noir film and like many of the post-World War II dark classics, it is covered with a thick sheen of cynicism. over the spiraling budget. Norma Shearer turned down the role of Norma Desmond as she didn't want to come out of retirement and also found the part to be highly distasteful. The ocean?' Norma is perceived as the evil force, even if she uses a white phone while Betty is relegated to a poor black phone. Wilder, ever the merry prankster, told Holden and Olson to keep kissing until he called "cut": he was going to fade out at the end of the scene, and he needed to make sure the kiss didn't end prematurely. or "Boulevard"? The movie premiered in the days of restricted language, not so long after Rhett Butler controversially told Scarlett OHara he didnt give a damn what happened to her in Gone With the Wind, a classic Paramount passed on because who wanted to see Civil War picture? But the old guard thought Wilder and his co-writer Charles Brackett fashioned a rope that could strangle this business of show by writing words, words, and more words. In addition to the famous swimming pool, the studio also built sets to exactly duplicate Schwab's Drug Store in Hollywood and the Los Angeles County Morgue. In 2007 the American Film Institute ranked this as the #16 Greatest Movie of All Time. . He starred in the 1953 . But Hollywood press has always had clout. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. The silent comedian had a reputation as one of Hollywoods best bridge players. Features the only Oscar-nominated performances of Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. Gloria Swanson's career was not revitalized by this film. White, pink, or maybe bright flaming red. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. 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. Being born on 17 April 1918, William Holden was 63 years old at the time of his death. 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 Gloria Swanson herself, as she was the studio's top star for six years running. The other line, "I am big! A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. Set non-holiday all-time house record of $166,000 at New York's Radio City Music Hall when it opened. [42][citation needed]. Although it can get chilly by the ocean, a light jacket or sweater would be plenty. 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.. The first of four films in which William Holden and Nancy Olson appeared. Billy Wilder originally approached William Haines to play one of Norma's bridge partners. The one on the Paramount studio soundstage; the one whose driveway William Holden ducks into at 10060 Sunset Blvd; and the one used for the exteriors, which is the one shown here. Fat Man: "A husky fellow like you?" Later in the film Max tells Gillis that he was the silent-movie director who discovered Norma and put her in films. April 17, 2019 6:00AM. The investigation found that in the weeks just prior to his death, Taylor had been making some pretty delusional statements about his place in the world and some of his friends thought he had recently gone insane. (Norma Desmond would be quick to point out that, thanks to computers and iPads, the pictures have gotten even smaller. When producer Sheldrake offers to turn Gillis' script into a Betty Hutton story, the desperately poor writer inexplicably turns him down. Sunset Boulevard mixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking. 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. In the opening scene of the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard," the cynical screenwriter turned gigolo Joe Gillis lies floating in a swimming pool, blood seeping from his lifeless body. Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. In the film Gloria is seen playing cards with three silent film stars: Buster Keaton, H.B. Its second owner was Jean Paul Getty, who purchased it for his second wife. The script (which was to be a vehicle for her comeback) was submitted to Cecil B. DeMille who sent it back. Billy Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. 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. Stanwyck went to bat for Holden when he was going to be replaced in Golden Boy (1939) and Wilder's collaboration with Holden in the 50s starting with Sunset Boulevard revitalized his career (including the Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17 (1953). When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. Cecil B. DeMille appears in the film on a studio set. Swanson supplemented many of the costumes with her own accessories and jewelry. But in 1957, Paramount formally asked Desmond to stop, the studio bosses having decided not to grant permission after all. When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. Holden acted in Executive Suite (1954), The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), and Picnic (1955). 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: He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[1]. Betty is engaged to be married to Jack Webbs character, Arthur Artie Green, who is such a good buddy to Joe that he offers to put him up on the couch for a few weeks. It was a gift from her lover, automobile magnate Walter Chrysler. Norma is at the edge of insanity through the whole movie, but that doesnt mean shes not fun. The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. The great big white elephant of a mansion on Sunset Boulevard was actually on Wilshire Boulevard and would be used again as the abandoned mansion in the film Rebel Without a Cause. For the first industry screening, Paramount executives invited several silent-film stars. [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. The others were Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951), and Submarine Command (1951). Hedda Hopper: at the top of the stairwell as Norma descends toward the cameras. In fact, such was the buzz about the film during production that the viewing of the dailies became one of the hottest tickets on the lot. He just didnt have what it takes. [22] The golden run at the box office continued with Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), from a best-selling novel, with Jennifer Jones, and Picnic (1955), as a drifter, in an adaptation of the William Inge play with Kim Novak. The veteran actress particularly wanted to see what Mary Pickford felt and was disappointed to see that she had left. A disagreement over the montage where Norma puts herself through hell getting thinner and younger for her comeback nearly resulted in physical violence: Brackett thought it was too mean, while Wilder felt it was necessary to show what lengths a desperate actor would go to in Hollywood. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee of the year to be also nominated for Original Screenplay. It made him a true front ranked star after years of being an actor slogging through a series of largely forgottable films (and performances). But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. When Norma Desmond visits her old friend at Paramount, she affectionately calls him "Mr. DeMille" (not Cecil or C.B. True to character, Von Stroheim refused to leave Paris to attend the Academy Awards ceremony, and declared that his nomination for best supporting actor should've been for best actor. William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Salome was a wonderful part for Norma Desmonds celluloid comeback. Next image (0) (0) Still, whatever hard feelings there may have been between Swanson and von Stroheim, they were gone by the time Sunset Boulevard came along. The interiors of Norma's decaying mansion were actually a set at Paramount Studios. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. She worked closely with Gloria Swanson on Norma Desmond's wardrobe, as she figured Swanson would have had a better idea of what women of that time would have worn and what they would be wearing now. Sunset Boulevards cinematographer John Seitz said Wilder had wanted to do The Loved One, but couldnt obtain the rights. British author Evelyn Waughs satirical 1948 novel was about a failed screenwriter who lives with a silent film star and works in a cemetery. Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for the role.[11]. Suratt believed that DeMille's epic, "The King of Kings" (released in 1927) was based on her screenplay and filed a $1,000,000 plagiarism suit which was settled out of court in 1930. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. I instantly fell in love - both with the movie itself and with its handsome 32-year old male lead, William Holden. He was just a movie writer with a couple of B-pictures to his credit. 3.48. was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. The 49-year-old film directors body was found on the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments in Westlake, Los Angeles. 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 big. He rose to prominence with his role in the movie "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), which landed him his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. Neither did Toward the Unknown (1957), the one film Holden produced himself. 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. They had faces. When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. 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. This is a reference to the now-mad Norma's final possession by the character of Salome, with whom she'd been so obsessed. But that wasnt good enough for Hollywood. A version of how he obtained his stage name "Holden" is based on a statement by George Ross of Billboard: "William Holden, the lad just signed for the coveted lead in Golden Boy, used to be Bill Beadle [sic]. Co-writer D.M. It's the *pictures* that got small. The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. [7], Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in Those Were the Days! For some scenes, cinematographer John F. Seitz would sprinkle dust into the air so it could be caught by the lights and create a moody effect. In the fall of 1981, the television actor Stefanie Powers, who was dating William Holden, was in Hawaii filming the ABC show "Hart to Hart" when Holden stopped answering his phone. This can be deduced from the fact that when he pulls one out of the pack he turns the bottom end up to his mouth. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Sunset Boulevard DVD Special Collector's Edition William Holden Gloria Swanson at the best online prices at eBay! Billy Wilder's sixth film in a row for Paramount Pictures. There once was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world. Sunset Blvd. Without Norma Desmond, there wouldnt be any Paramount Pictures. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary. Two years later, he was praised for his Oscar-nominated leading performance in Sidney Lumet's classic Network (1976),[34] an examination of the media written by Paddy Chayefsky, playing an older version of the character type for which he had become iconic in the 1950s, only now more jaded and aware of his own mortality. You probably know about the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of Sunset Boulevard that premiered in London in 1993 and headed to Broadway in 1994 with Glenn Close in the lead role. The film originally opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. An ending for the film was cobbled together, but the movie was never shown in the U.S. Billy Wilder was actually friendlier with the other leading gossip columnist of the day, Louella Parsons. Or shall I call my servant? She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. 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. H.B. 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.
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