STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: FILM - “Sunset Blvd.”
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
For anyone who knows movie quotes, or at least vaguely knows movie quotes when you hear them, you might recognize this one.
It is one of the famous quotes from the 1950 Sunset Blvd. (as it is stylized onscreen)
Directed by Billy Wilder and written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D.M. Marshman, Jr., Sunset Blvd. is about unsuccessful screenwriter Joe Gillis who is desperate for a job.
After escaping a pair of repo men wanting to repossess his car, Gillis ends up at the mansion of forgotten, but rich, silent film star Norma Desmond, who wants to make a “return” to the screen. She also takes a liking to him.
Although it’s clear he doesn’t feel the same way, he takes advantage of the arrangement. However, their poisonous relationship takes a toll on Gillis.
As this is an exploration about Hollywood, there are cameos of various people from the industry, such as silent film actor Buster Keaton..
.... director Cecil B. DeMille...
... and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
While not a cameo, I still want to point out the character of Artie Green, played by Jack Webb. Webb is well-known for creating the popular Dragnet franchise and starring in it as Sergeant Joe Friday. Dragnet started as a radio series that premiered in 1949, one year before Sunset Blvd.’s release.
While being a financially successful film in the long run, the film incited anger within the Hollywood industry. One of the famous outbursts was from Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). After a private screening with studio heads and invited guests, he accused Billy Wilder of “disgrace[ing] the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!”
Luckily, not all of the response in Hollywood was negative. Actresses Barbara Stanwyck and Mary Pickford were floored by Gloria Swanson’s performance as Norma at the private screening.
Today, Sunset Blvd. is a film taught in film courses, which is how I got introduced to the film. It’s a film noir, though it is not a crime story (at least not until the end; spoilers).
The film has even been parodied by the animated shows Tiny Toon Adventures and American Dad, while the plot has been used as an episode for The Twilight Zone.
I wonder how this film ends... or begins...?
Sunset Blvd. slowly became one of my favorite films of Billy Wilder, having now watched it multiple times. There is beautiful and iconic imagery, memorable characters, and snappy dialogue that, can still be understandable.
Bust out your hidden projector and give it a watch.
