Sunset Boulevard

“I’m still big. It’s the pictures that got small.” -Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond

A masterpiece of film noir with touches of bitter black comedy, Sunset Boulevard succeeds on every level: gorgeous cinematography, a compelling story, unforgettable dialogue, and characters you despise who somehow hold you rapt.

It’s also one of the best Hollywood-on-Hollywood movies, the cynical kind that says: “Okay, maybe Hollywood is corrupt, shallow, vain and more than a little insane – but I bet you can’t stop watching.”

The narrator starts this movie just right – he’s already dead, face down in a swimming pool, eyes open with surprise. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a failed screenwriter, tells us how it all began six months earlier, when he was trying to hide his car from the repo man and turned into the wrong garage on Sunset Boulevard.

Aging butler Max (director Eric von Stroheim) lets him into the cavernous, decaying mansion, where he is mistaken for a pet mortician called to attend to the deceased pet monkey of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), aging film goddess. He recognizes her as star of silent film, reveals himself as a script writer and promptly becomes the new pet monkey.

Norma engages him to work on her awful script for “Salome.” She’s deluded herself into thinking she’s about to make a huge comeback as the veiled Biblical temptress, and Cecil B. DeMille himself will direct the picture. She pays Joe’s bills, installs him in an apartment over the garage, buys him expensive clothes and throws a macabre New Year’s Eve party where he is the only guest.

Joe has one chance for redemption – a wholesome young scriptwriter, Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), who likes one of his unfinished scripts. He sneaks off to work on the script with her, they fall in love, he tries to get away form Norma…but as we recall from the swimming pool scene, he’s doomed from the start.

Swanson, who actually was a great star of silent film, is mesmerizing as the deluded, clawing Norma, sweeping about her gigantic mausoleum of a house in over-the-top movie star outfits. It’s a courageous performance, with Swanson allowing herself to look like hell as she undergoes “beauty treatments” in preparation for her comeback. Von Stroheim, who actually was a silent film director and directed Swanson, plays her devoted butler Max, who helps sustain her illusion that her fans are just waiting for her to re-appear.

More real movie stars of the silent era appear as Norma’s bridge partners, with Buster Keaton, Anna Q Nilsson and H.B. Warner all playing themselves, adding to the movie’s layers of fading stars playing fading stars. The mansion itself, once owned by oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, stands as symbol of Hollywood excess. And Cecil B. DeMille appears near the end of the film as himself, to hear a now completely insane Norma utter her famous line: “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.”

Holden delivers a fine performance as a man who can’t quite wrench himself free, by turns ashamed, belligerent, and bitterly amused. It’s a little jarring to see Jack Webb, later of dour Dragnet fame, as Joe’s carefree buddy and Betty’s fiancé, but the entire cast is terrific.

Director Billy Wilder pokes ragged holes in Hollywood’s myths about itself, and makes a movie about the movies that stands alone. Witty, moving, sumptuous, and rotten to the core, Sunset Boulevard will hold you spellbound.

Recomended for you:

If you liked Sunset Boulevard, try other Billy Wilder movies, or film noir classics like The Maltese Falcon or Citizen Kane.

'Sunset Boulevard' at a Glance:

Year: 1950, Black and White
Director: Billy Wilder
Running Time: 110 minutes
Studio: Paramount