Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. Filtered cigarette packs always open at the filtered end, which meant he would've been lighting the filter otherwise. But trophies or not, Sunset Boulevard has stayed near the top of the list of great movies about moviemaking. Holden had a supporting role in Ashanti (1979) and was third-billed in another disaster film, When Time Ran Out (1980), which was a flop. )[19], He took third billing for The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, directed by George Seaton from a play by Clifford Odets. 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). As the band plays 'Diane', we also see Desmond ascending her staircase. In later interviews, Davis admitted that she thought Swanson's work in the film was absolutely outstanding. It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, the center of the American film industry . Reluctantly, Wilder met with William Holden, who hadn't done much after the great Hollywood innovator Rouben Mamoulian's Golden Boy (1939). That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. It was Erich von Stroheim who suggested the revelation that Max was writing all of Norma's fan mail. [7], Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in Those Were the Days! Norma is Scorpio, and Mars had been transiting Jupiter for weeks and that was the day of greatest conjunction. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. The butler stonewalls Joe from the outside world until hes rolling up twenties tight enough snort through to deal with even the shortest withdrawal from the big empty house. "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. Hola Elige tu direccin Pelculas y Series de TV. Darryl F. Zanuck, Olivia de Havilland, Tyrone Power and Samuel Goldwyn all refused to allow their names to be used in the film, but Billy Wilder decided to use Zanuck's and Power's names anyway. What do you say about a longtime friend a sense of personal loss, a fine man. In 1998 the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. [12] Swanson later said, "Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. The first-floor set of Norma Desmond's mansion was also used in the western comedy Fancy Pants (1950) starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, giving fans a chance to see it in full color. cynical Hollywood survivor played by William Holden. Among the many past associations embedded in Sunset Blvd. 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). [49], His death was noted by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, whose 1987 song "Tom's Diner", about a sequence of events one morning in 1981, included a mention of reading a newspaper article about "an actor who had died while he was drinking". From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. William Haines, along with fellow silent screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, was approached to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners. When the movie first dropped, Louis B. Mayer, the Mayer in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, told everyone who would listen that Wilder disgraced the industry that made him and fed him, and urged that he be tarred and feathered, and run out of Hollywood. Wilder, who had been feeding himself for quite some time, told Meyer to go fuck himself. [10] RKO borrowed him for Rachel and the Stranger (1948) with Robert Mitchum and Loretta Young. This was the last major Hollywood feature film to be shot on nitrate stock. Zach Laws, Chris Beachum. over the spiraling budget. Holden's films after that time had not impressed Wilder (in the 1940s Holden's movies were decidedly mediocre). [45], According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden bled to death in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, on November 12, 1981, after lacerating his forehead from slipping on a rug while intoxicated and hitting a bedside table. [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. 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. In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight. Next image (0) (0) West wanted to rewrite her dialogue. It would not be turned into a motion picture until: The Naked and the Dead (1958). Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, son of Mary Blanche Beedle (ne Ball), a schoolteacher, and her husband William Franklin Beedle, an industrial chemist. And that young man who was found floating in the pool of her mansion, with two shots in his back and one in his stomach, was nobody important, really. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. It is also one of the most frequently misquoted movie lines, usually given as, "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. [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. Fat Man: "You were murdered?" Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival Special Award for Ensemble Acting, Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, "When Alcoholics drink themselves to death", "William Holden Dead at 63; Won Oscar for 'Stalag 17', "Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Award: 1982 Oscars", "The Screen Strand Shows 'Invisible Stripes', "30 Days, 30 Classics Day 17: Sabrina (1954) starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart", "Screen: Crosby Acts in 'Country Girl'; Film Based on Odets Drama Makes Bow", "The Screen in Review; 'Bridges at Toko-ri' Is Fine Film of War", "Han Suyin dies at 95; wrote 'Many-Splendored Thing', "13 Fascinating Facts About 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "The Towering Inferno Movie Review (1974)", "Network Movie Review & Film Summary (1976)", "William Holden Gave His All Even "When Time Ran Out", "William Holden's Unscripted Fall From Grace", The William Holden Wildlife Education Center, "West Holden: More than just the son of William Holden", Image of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1951, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Holden&oldid=1142631715, Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners, United Service Organizations entertainers, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple partners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, episode: "William Holden/Frances Bergen Show", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:28. They stayed that way even if the pictures got small. Joe Gillis mentions that the painting of wild horses that covers the projection screen in Norma Desmond's mansion was given to her by "some Nevada Chamber of Commerce." Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. But when Sondheim pitched the idea to Billy Wilder at a party, Wilder said, "You can't write a musical about Sunset Boulevard. The veteran actress particularly wanted to see what Mary Pickford felt and was disappointed to see that she had left. 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. He stayed true to his word. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is one of his three or four masterpieces, a seminal Hollywood black comedy-satire, which unlike most films keeps improving with the passage of time.. Benfiting from a glorious and iconic cast, the film concerns a faded silent film star, played by Gloria Swanson (in a variation of her own onscreen persona), who lives in the past with her butler (and former . Sunset Boulevard is no. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). 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. Being born on 17 April 1918, William Holden was 63 years old at the time of his death. This is a reference to the now-mad Norma's final possession by the character of Salome, with whom she'd been so obsessed. Every character is jaded, except the oldest players. As far as being a forgotten star, past her prime, Norma is only 50 in the movie, Swanson was 53 when she made it and was herself very busy on the then-new medium of television. Brackett thought it was too mean while Wilder felt it was necessary. (1950) in my head, and I'd always sort of related to that character floating in . (Norma Desmond would be quick to point out that, thanks to computers and iPads, the pictures have gotten even smaller. 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. Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. LAS COSAS DEL QUERER", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunset_Boulevard_(film)&oldid=1142173541, Best Overall New Extra Features Library Release. She was disappointed to see that all the parts she was offered subsequently were watered-down versions of Norma Desmond. [2] His brother Robert ("Bobbie") became a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and was killed in action in World War II, over New Ireland, a Japanese-occupied island in the South Pacific. Billy Wilder's sixth film in a row for Paramount Pictures. Gloria Swanson, meanwhile, was born on March 27, 1899. The directions given by the Paramount guard for Norma and Joe to go meet Cecil B. DeMille on "Stage 18" is accurate: this stage, one of the largest on the Paramount lot, was known for years as "The DeMille Stage" and now is called "The Star Trek Stage", as all the "Trek" movies and some scenes from the TV shows have been shot there (the TV series, from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) onward, had its main sets right across the studio street on Stages 8 and 9, which are right below the second-floor office occupied by Betty Schaefer in this film. Technically the address was 641 S Irving Blvd but the estate lay at the corner of Irving and Wilshire Blvd. Sunset Blvd. Ironically, the last films that Gloria Swanson made for Paramount were not at this famous facility. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. But it was too difficult to put a camera underwater to get the shot, so Wilder and cinematographer John Seitz came up with an ingenious solution: they put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection from above. An ending for the film was cobbled together, but the movie was never shown in the U.S. Holden made a fourth and final film for Wilder with Fedora (1978). See, Bettys a message gal, not a virgin, and there are no whores in Hollywood. 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. The character of Norma Desmond is modeled on the fate of several leading actresses of the silent era. The undertaker, who appears for a few seconds early on with the white casket for Norma's deceased pet chimp, was veteran actor Franklyn Farnum, who played extras in over 1,000 films during his lengthy but unsung career. [4] He made a sex comedy with David Niven for Otto Preminger, The Moon Is Blue (1953), which was a huge hit, in part due to controversy over its content. This makes her the youngest of the cast members, excluding any extras. When Joe and Betty stroll around the studio back lot they pass through the Washington Square set that was used in The Heiress (1949). The two men never worked together again. Dont bother with a rewrite, man, take it direct! The mundane accident that took the Hollywood actor's life was made even worse by the fact that nobody found his body for a week afterward, according to the Associated Press. Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to sit in for a cameo, but she wanted $25,000. American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball has acknowledged that another Billy Wilder film, The Apartment (1960), influenced that screenplay. But it originally began in the L.A. county morgue, with toe-tagged corpsesincluding Joe'sspeaking to each other (in voiceover) about how they died. Suratt was reportedly obsessed with the fact that she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and after her career ended commissioned the leader of the U.S. Reform Bah' Movement to co-write a script on the life of Mary Magdalene. However, he knew that her arch-rival Hedda Hopper had trained as an actress and would therefore be more convincing onscreen. 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. . The truth of the matter was that Bing Crosby was one of the very few actors to whom Billy Wilder had borne a grudge, mainly because Crosby had done the unthinkable during filming of The Emperor Waltz (1948), and ad-libbed dialog, something he and Bob Hope had done for years as standard operating procedure in their breezy "Road" pictures. 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. The other line, "I am big! When Norma is telling Joe about how rich she is, she mentions a beach house and downtown real estate. Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), costarring Barbara Stanwyck, in which he played a violinist-turned-boxer. Gillis: "No, swimming pool." Although she had long before ruled out the possibility of a movie comeback, she was nevertheless highly intrigued when she got the offer to play the lead. but at 641 S. Irving Blvd. If anything, its observations on the greedy machinations of Tinseltown are truer now than they were in 1950. producer Music by Franz Waxman Cinematography by John F. Seitz . a mean old woman who looks and acts a little like Ma Bates if she'd been dead for several years but was somehow still just as talkative and feisty. Erich von Stroheims Max von Mayerling is equally awestruck, still caught in the wake of Normas star dust. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. Holden's first film back from the services was Blaze of Noon (1947), an aviator picture at Paramount directed by John Farrow. In a case of life mirroring art, she outlived him. Although it can get chilly by the ocean, a light jacket or sweater would be plenty. It was only natural that he should film several sequences on the studio's backlots. While Hollywood Blvd. But like so many of the female actors of the era, Holden soon realized it was his physical attributes and not his acting ability that the studio cared about. But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. Fat Man: "A husky fellow like you?" In real life, when Swanson and DeMille had worked together, that was what they always called each other. When Norma visits Cecil B. Sunset Boulevard is also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly. It's not possible to shoot through water and get a clear image beyond. He earned an Oscar nomination for "Sunset Boulevard" and won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 for his role in "Stalag 17," per IMDb. Unsurprisingly, he was largely self taught, spending countless hours with instruction manuals and newspaper clips, playing all four hands simultaneously until he became an expert. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. [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. About 28:00 in, when Max is playing the organ, it is the same chords that Captain Nemo (James Mason) plays on his organ aboard the Nautilus in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea." An out of work writer in Hollywood (Holden) randomly pulls into the driveway of a silent film star (Swanson) who can use the assistance of his writing talent. I think that Sunset Boulevard was the most important film of William Holden's career. He walked into his bedroom and tripped over a throw rug and slammed his head so hard into the corner of a teak nightstand, the piece of furniture flew into the wall causing an indentation, per "William Holden." . His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. Everyone had a good laugh, though the record doesn't reflect whether Marshall joined in. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Just us and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! Norma Desmond didnt need dialogue, she can say whatever she wants with her eyes. Holden did a sports film at Columbia, Boots Malone (1952), then returned to Paramount for The Turning Point (1952). Joe insists hes not a Hollywood whore, but he accepts Normas gifts, gold cigarette cases, a platinum watch, suits, shirts, and shoes that would impress Rudy. 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. Swanson made the transition to talkies with The Trespasser in 1929. For the cover photo of the very first issue, in April 1951, of what many consider the most important film magazine of all time, the Paris-based "Cahiers du Cinema, " the editors chose the image of Gloria Swanson and William Holden in her screening room. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. Sunset Boulevard mixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking. April 17 marks the 100th birthday of William Holden, who is ranked No. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . Norma Desmond returns to the Paramount lot and is overcome with nostalgia. William Holdens Joe Gillis helps a timid soul named Norma Desmond cross a crowded street on Paramounts back lot. They had to have the ears of the old place, too. Rudy's shoeshine stand at the parking lot where Gillis hides his car from the creditors was inspired by Oscar Smith's shoeshine stand located just inside the Bronson Gate at the old Paramount Studios, which was a popular hangout for gossip and socializing while Billy Wilder was building his career there. There are several references to Gloria Swanson's actual career in the film. To get around the restrictions of the Breen Code, the script was submitted piecemeal, several pages at a time. The death was just one of many infamous Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, which included the Roscoe Arbuckle bottle rape trial, the death of Olive Thomas, the mysterious death of Thomas H. Ince, and the drug-related deaths of Wallace Reid, Barbara La Marr, and Jeanne Eagels. 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. This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. Hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) accidentally falls in with faded screen legend Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Billy Wilder was one of the ultimate Hollywood insiders and he grew with film. Billy Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. Wilder's version is the one they went with (he was the director, after all), but the argument marked a turning point for him, and he decided never to work with Brackett again. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. . read file from blob storage c#; ted dwane and isabel soden; best seats at belk theater charlotte; my rabbit ate ibuprofen 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. Neither did Toward the Unknown (1957), the one film Holden produced himself. [39][46] He dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. Although a registered Republican, he never involved himself in politics. He was perfection on and off-screen. Holden was a bit of an anti-hero, or at least a very flawed hero. A second film with Seaton did not do as well, The Proud and Profane (1956), where Holden played the role with a moustache. X. It was a big hit, as was The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a Korean War drama with Kelly.[20][21]. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." 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".