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Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a struggling young Hollywood screenwriter who accidentally drives into the grounds of a big old house on Sunset Boulevard while trying to get away from two men intent on repossessing his car as he is behind with his payments. The owner of the house is old time movie actress Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) now forgotten by the public but who used to be big. ("I am big. It's the pictures that got small"). Gillis tells her he is a Hollywood scriptwriter so she offers him a job to help her complete a script which she hopes will enable her to make a glorious "comeback" to the silver screen. The script is in fact so bad it would be unfilmable and although at first reluctant Gillis decides he will take advantage of the situation he has found himself in by agreeing to help with Norma's script. He realises that this will be a unique opportunity for him to hide from his creditors in this big house and live there rent free and also get paid while making a pretense of working on the script. Also living in the house is Norma's manservant and chauffeur Max (Erich von Stroheim) who helps to protect Norma from the realities of modern life and feeds her ego that she is still a great star. ("Madam is the greatest star of them all"). Gillis eventually starts to feel trapped and virtually becomes a prisoner in the house when he realises that Norma is becoming more and more infatuated with him (although he is years younger than her) and she becomes more possessive as the weeks go by. Gillis decides the time has now come to leave the house and return to his previous life but that is easier said than done when Norma Desmond has such a hold over him. At the Academy Awards that year "Sunset Boulevard" was deservedly nominated for the Best Picture Award but lost to "All About Eve". Billy Wilder was nominated as Best Director but lost to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for "All About Eve". William Holden was nominated as Best Actor but lost to Jose Ferrer for "Cyrano de Bergerac". Gloria Swanson was nominated as Best Actress (and surely should have won) but she lost to Judy Holliday for "Born Yesterday". This must have been a bitter disappointment for Billy Wilder when the film received so many nominations and yet only managed to come away with Oscars for Best Story and Screenplay, Best Score and Best Art Direction/Set Direction. The original choice for the part of Joe Gillis (played in the film by William Holden) was Montgomery Clift but he turned it down. The role was then offered to George Raft who also passed. However, William Holden was fantastic in the part I thought and his excellent performance in this film led to being offered many more prestigious leading roles. He worked once again with Billy Wilder in "Stalag 17" and "Sabrina". The role of Norma Desmond was first offered to Mary Pickford, Mae Murray and even Mae West before Swanson came under consideration. Gloria Swanson had not made a film for many years when she accepted the part in "Sunset Boulevard" so she was perfectly cast as Norma Desmond. I have always thought it rather amusing that although Erich von Stroheim played Norma Desmond's manservant and chauffeur in the film he could not actually drive in real life. So for the famous scene where he "drives" Norma and Joe through the Paramount gates the car was in fact being pushed along by crew members!
Favourite lines:
William Holden: "The poor dope. He always wanted a pool. Well in the end he got himself a pool - only the price turned out to be a little high".
Holden: "Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture. They think the actors make it up as they go along".
Gloria Swanson (to Holden): "Still wonderful isn't it? And no dialogue - we didn't need dialogue. We had faces".
Swanson: "All right Mr De Mille, I'm ready for my close up".
