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Holden's first film back from the services was Blaze of Noon (1947), an aviator picture at Paramount directed by John Farrow. 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. Eventually it wasn't Wilder who shouted "Cut!" These actors were bigger than life. Well, they kissed, and kissed, and kept kissing, and the crew began to snicker, and finally Marshall's voice rang out: "Cut, dammit!" The apartments, and the "Alto Nido" sign out front that is glimpsed briefly in the film, are still there. [27] He played an American Civil War military surgeon in John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, which was a box-office disappointment. After a private screening for Hollywood dignitaries, Barbara Stanwyck knelt in front of Gloria Swanson and kissed the hem of her skirt. Watch 'Sunset Boulevard (1950)' Online Streaming (Full Movie) | PlayPilot When she received her Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony, Holden had died in an accident just a few months prior. 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. Sunset Boulevard English audio 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,. This is an old film which has been made into a musical. Holden was reunited with Wilder in Stalag 17 (1953), for which Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. But in 1957, Paramount formally asked Desmond to stop, the studio bosses having decided not to grant permission after all. was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. Mary Pickford, Pola Negri, and Greta Garbo turned down the role. The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. She is still waving proudly to a parade which had long since passed her by. [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. On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson also appeared in Airport 1975. 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. There's a little dig in the scene when Cecil B. DeMille finds out that Paramount has been calling Norma Desmond because it wants to rent her car for "the Crosby picture." The movie featured the famed director Erich von Stroheim, who made photographs of Gloria Swanson move so beautifully the world was enthralled, as Max Von Mayerling, the director who made, married, and divorced the enthralling Norma Desmondand then gave up his career in film to be her slave in butlers clothing. Still, whatever hard feelings there may have been between Swanson and von Stroheim, they were gone by the time Sunset Boulevard came along. [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. 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. Sunset Boulevard now begins with police cars racing to Norma Desmond's house, where a dead body is floating in the pool. 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. In a case of life mirroring art, she outlived him. It was this astonishing footage that rekindled interest in the film. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. "I'm not surprised that this could have happened.". [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. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. Here's some backstage information to enhance your experience the next time you visit the Paramount lot.. Sunset Boulevard turns the tables on film noir by casting Joe in the oldest role on the books. His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. [46] Rumors existed that he was suffering from lung cancer, which Holden had denied at a 1980 press conference. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. The other line, "I am big! For purposes of authenticity Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson wore their own clothes in the film. The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. The "fee" for renting the Jean Paul Getty mansion was for Paramount to build the swimming pool, which features so memorably. This makes her the youngest of the cast members, excluding any extras. And what faces. The structure in the film required a tennis court, or rather the ghost of a tennis court, with faded markings and a sagging net. The plot element of Norma Desmond's obsession with writing a screenplay based on Salome as a vehicle for her comeback was obviously influenced by eccentric, aging actress Valeska Suratt, who had a brief film career (1915-1917) playing mostly vamp roles. Peavey died in a San Francisco asylum, where he was being treated for syphilis-related dementia, in 1931. With the help of his partners, he created the Mount Kenya Game Ranch and inspired the creation of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation. For a number of years, exhibitors voted Holden among the most popular stars in the country: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Norma, the aging silent-movie star who ensnares down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), is the vamp become vampire (look at those clawlike hands! A new 4K high-definition scan was done in 2008 for the film's release on Blu-ray disc. 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. When Joe and Norma sit down to watch one of her old movies, Joe pulls out a cigarette and places the bottom end in his mouth. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. Yeah. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. In 1989 the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress selected this as one of 25 landmark films of all time. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. . "[18] Rumors at the time had it that Hepburn wanted a family, but when Holden told her that he had had a vasectomy and having children was impossible, she moved on. Florabel Muir, the New York Daily News Hollywood correspondent, thought Peavey was the murderer and tried to ambush him into a confession. 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. 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. Fury of the Gods Brings Back the "Shazamily": Inside DC's New Superhero Adventure, Scream 6's Brutal NYC Trip: "You Can't Trust Anyone" This Time, Cocaine Bear Is Not Just About a Killer "Coked-Up" Bear, It's Also an "Underdog Story", How Marvel's Wastelanders Podcast Created an Exciting Story with No Visual Safety Net, Sunset Boulevard: The Original Hollywood Expose. Wilder changed the scene so that DeMille offered Lamarr's chair to Norma without Lamarr being present. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. [40], Holden had a daughter born in 1937 from his relationship with actress Eva May Hoffman. He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). Swanson herself reportedly asked him to do it. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston's history. 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." He was a genuine star. These include Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Rudolph Valentino, Rod La Rocque, Vilma Bnky, Mabel Normand, Marie Prevost, Pearl White, and Douglas Fairbanks. The antique car used as Norma Desmond's limousine is an 1929 Isotta-Fraschini Tipo 8A, a luxury car made in Italy, and once belonged to 1920s socialite Peggy Hopkins Joyce. The house was owned by the J. Paul Getty family. (1950) in Australia? is directed toward his associate producer, Henry Wilcoxon, who had starred in his epics Cleopatra (1934), The Crusades (1935) and Unconquered (1947), later moving to a position behind the camera as DeMille's associate, which he held until the older man's death in 1959. (1950) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Directed by Billy Wilder Writing Credits Cast (in credits order) verified as complete Produced by Charles Brackett . Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard took the tinsel out of Tinseltown, the gild off the golden boy, and the cover off a forgotten murder. 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! The body was found by Henry Peavey, who took over for convicted embezzler Edward F. Sands as Taylors valet. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Norma Desmond was the greatest of them all. Wilder and his co-writers reversed several elements, and there was no official connection between the movie and Waugh's book. Strange? There were actually three mansions used during filming. It would not be turned into a motion picture until: The Naked and the Dead (1958). Who didnt then? When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. Billy Wilder was frustrated with people assuming that the ending was meant to be ambiguous and asking him what happens to Norma after the final dissolve. He loves Norma so much, he even forges thousands of pages of fan mail, just to feed her delusion. [23][24] Picnic was his last film under the contract with Columbia. Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. 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. The film originally opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. )[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. ), and he calls her "young fellow." The four films were released between August 1950 and November 1951. The drugstore where Joe Gillis meets up with his old movie industry friends is Schwab's Pharmacy, then a real pharmacy/soda fountain at the intersection of Sunset Blvd. 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. [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. The character of Joe Gillis was very much in tune with William Holden's standing at the time. Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. Billy Wilder was actually friendlier with the other leading gossip columnist of the day, Louella Parsons. He said it was because she was braver than any man. Clift's biographers say it was because he had a strong following among older women, who wrote him letters describing how they'd like to mother him, and he didn't want to encourage such behavior. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. Sunset Boulevard Ending Explained: Hollywood Is Always Hungry For The The moment he discovers that life could be beautiful, Norma slits her wrist with Joes razor. [7], Back at Paramount, he starred with Bonita Granville in Those Were the Days! The pool was used in its empty condition in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). The actor-turned-director-turned-actor-again, who had indeed been one of the great silent-filmmakers, winced at playing a character so self-referential and demeaning, but he needed the money. This film was originally released in the United States as The Christmas Tree and on home video as When Wolves Cry. 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. To help promote the film, Gloria Swanson did a three-month tour of 36 cities in America and Canada. Marshman was a journalist but both Wilder and Brackett had been impressed by the critique he had given of their earlier film, The Emperor Waltz (1948). And like the title, Holden seemed to have the looks and muscular build Hollywood craved. To everyone's surprise, Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar in 1951 for Born Yesterday (1950), beating Gloria Swanson in this film, and Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950). The latter was shot in Africa and sparked Holden's fascination with the continent that was to last for the rest of his life. DeMille." At the time this movie was made, the incident was still quite recent. Being born on 17 April 1918, William Holden was 63 years old at the time of his death. When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr. Online Film & Television Association Awards, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." Holden, just 63 when he died, had most recently appeared in the Blake Edwards' film "S.O.B." But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe youd like to hear the facts, the whole truth. producer Music by Franz Waxman Cinematography by John F. Seitz .