STACK #251 September 2025

FEATURE MOVIE

Words Bob J

William Holden

T he story idea for Sunset Boulevard originated from a casual discussion between director Billy Wilder and his screenwriter/producer partner Charles Brackett on what had happened to all the old silent movie stars who had disappeared from the big screen with the advent of the talkies. This evolved into an outline for a satirical comedy about a long-forgotten burlesque queen planning a comeback via Hollywood, with Mae West in the lead role. When approached by Wilder, an angry West immediately turned the offer down, yelling at him, “What d’yer mean, an old has-been?” Following a more tragic rewrite, they attempted to contact Greta Garbo, who in 1941 had gone into self-imposed exile from the world of movies. But Garbo was not lured back. Next on Wilder’s list was America’s sweetheart, Mary Pickford. Visiting her in her Pickfair

coaxed into accepting by Cukor. Wilder now not only had his faded silent movie star, but also the film’s title. Wilder’s classic noir film is presented as a first-person narrative, beginning with the voiceover of Joe Gillis (played by William Holden), who is quite dead, floating face down in a swimming pool. Police have been called to the home of Norma Desmond, an ageing silent screen actress whose butler has reported a murder. Gillis’s voice then recounts what transpired over the previous six months. While avoiding two debt collectors who want to repossess his car, he pulls into the driveway of an old, dilapidated mansion on Sunset Boulevard, inhabited by the former silent movie star Norma Desmond. Recognising her, Joe tells her he is a scriptwriter, and she offers him a job revising her self-penned script of Salome , in which she intends to star. The long-forgotten actress firmly believes her public are still out there, eagerly awaiting her return to the screen after a two-decade absence. The unemployed Gillis eagerly accepts the offer, but all too soon becomes trapped in Desmond’s delusional insanity.

Gloria Swanson (Centre)

The name Norma Desmond was a combination of silent film star Norma Talmadge and silent movie director William Desmond Taylor whose still-unsolved 1922 murder is one of the great scandals of Hollywood history. DYK?

Sunset lobby card

silent screen, Polish-born Pola Negri, who in 1926 had fainted in front of the cameras at her lover

explaining his project about a megalomaniac silent movie queen dreaming of an impossible comeback, but lamenting that he had no one to play her. Cukor casually said, “What about Gloria? Have you asked her?” “Gloria who?” countered Wilder. “Gloria Swanson,” replied

home in Beverly Hills, he tried to convince her that the film would make her famous, adding the dreaded word “again”. Pickford, her eyes filling with tears, said, “Mr Wilder, I’d rather remain a beautiful memory to my legions of fans.” She had not made a film for 15 years and still believed she was a major star, but the parade of former fans had long passed Mary Pickford. Wilder had one more shot left: the vamp of the

Rudolph Valentino’s funeral. But when he phoned her, Negri’s guttural Polish accented reply was almost unintelligible, and Wilder soon realised why the actress had not managed to continue her career into the era of talking pictures. Wilder had now run out of names and realised he was scuppered, as it was imperative to have a former silent star for the story to be believed by his audience. A few weeks later Wilder was talking with film director George Cukor,

Cukor. “She was once Paramount’s biggest star and the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. She lived in a palatial mansion on Sunset Boulevard until she gave up making movies and went back east.” Wilder immediately contacted Swanson in New York. She initially refused but was later

When he finally attempts to extricate himself from her world, his own life comes to an abrupt end. This richly textured masterpiece of cinema, at once a gripping drama and a scathing portrait of Tinseltown, received 11 Oscar nominations and won three.

Sunset daybill

• Sunset Boulevard is out Sep 17

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