Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Being both a fan and film historian, I was aware of Sunset Blvd.‘s reputation in film circles. Billy Wilder’s 1950 film tells the sad story of a forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond. William Holden is a screen writer, who stumbles upon her crumbling mansion and agrees to help fix her screenplay.

Norma believes the screenplay will lead to a new contract and career revival. Norma is so overwhelmed by her past stardom she cannot see the true situation of her circumstances. Movie goers have forgotten her as she sits in her old mansion waiting for Hollywood to come calling.

Norma spends most of her evenings watching her old films with Holden’s character Joe Gillis. Norma maintains her mansion in the same 1920s style popular when she was a star. She also drives a barely running 1920s automobile.

Erich Von Stroheim plays Max Van Mayerling, a former husband and Hollywood director. He gave up his career to take care of Norma and plays her butler for people outside of her house.

Gloria Swanson steals the show as Norma Desmond. Norma’s career sort of mirrored Swanson’s. Gloria Swanson was arguably the biggest female star of the 1920s. With the coming of sound, she made a few more films but they were sporadic.

Swanson’s performance in this film revived her career for a few years but she retired in the mid-1950s. She primarily limited herself to television work and an occasional film. Swanson made and spent $8,000,000 during the 1920s. When she died in 1983 at 84 years of age, she was still a millionaire with an estimated worth of $1,400,000.

Sunset Blvd. is the number 48 film on the IMDB Top 250 films of all time. I think it is rated a little low. I would put the film in the Top 20 of films I’ve seen.

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