Blu-ray Review: Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Comparing the Blu-ray transfer to the DVD release.

I reviewed this Blu-ray for Next Projection.

Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Erich von Stroheim
Director: Billy Wilder
Country: U.S.
Genre: Drama
Official Trailer: YouTube

Video
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080 p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Audio
English: Dolby True HD Mono
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Portugese: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish and Portugese

Sunset Blvd. finally gets its close-up on Blu-ray. As one of the most cynical glimpses of Hollywood to ever hit the silver screen, Billy Wilder's satiric masterpiece is classic cinema at its finest.

Long revered as one of the finest films ever made, this seminal work marks a career high for Wilder who, at the time, was Hollywood's most celebrated director, having recently won the Oscars for Best Director and Best Screenplay for The Lost Weekend (1945).

With its assortment of colourful characters both fictional and real, Sunset Blvd. delves into the dark side of movie-making -- from the desperation of those who seek a life in the spotlight to those jaded figures who work behind the scenes. It's a dirty business and Wilder wasn't afraid to shine a light on its dark corners.

Struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) is down on his luck in Hollywood and, after a series of misadventures, finds himself in a ramshackle mansion on the outskirts of town. Once inside the oppressive house Joe meets Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), an aging former silent screen star, and her solumn German butler Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim). When Norma shows Joe a script she plans to use as her "return" to the silver screen, she enlists him as her screenwriter in exchange for money to pay off his creditors. Lost in her delusions and exaggerated sense of self-worth, Norma showers Joe with money and jewellery -- lavishing the man she believes will be her gateway back to fame.

Sunset Blvd.'s theme of opportunism and its consequences narrows in on what making movies does to people in the business.

The transfer and digital reconstruction is gorgeous, capturing the luscious light and shadows in every shot. Paramount clearly appreciated the importance of preserving this classic and celebrating its place in film lore.

There is a wealth of supplemental features, many of which were brought over from the DVD restoration that was released a decade ago. Featuring the likes of film historian Ed Sikov, actress Nancy Olson and film historian Andrew Sarris, the extras give tidbits on the behind-the-scenes issues in bringing this classic to the big screen.

The only complaint is that, after clocking in at more than two and a half hours of extras, the information doled out in the interviews tends to get a bit repetitive. Perhaps had some of the smaller supplemental features been edited together into one longer finished product than viewers wouldn't suffer from a sense of deja vu. 

Extras
This Blu-ray release includes featurettes on "Sunset Blvd.: The Beginning", "Sunset Blvd.: A Look Back", "The Noir Side of Sunset Blvd.", "Paramount in the 50s" and a deleted scene, among other bonus supplements.

Final grade: A 

30 Day Movie Meme: Day 23

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as Daphne and Josephine

Day 23: FAVOURITE COMEDY FILM


I've written about this 1959 classic a bunch of times already. My obsession with this film has continued, unabated, for more than a year now -- ever since I watched it twice in one week and wondered why it had taken me so long to watch it in the first place.

Sure, it may not constantly have laugh-out-loud moments and it may not be to everyone's personal tastes, but Some Like It Hot has one of the cleverest scripts to ever come out of Hollywood, thanks in large part to director Billy Wilder and co-screenplay writer I.A.L. Diamond. It's so ahead of its time it's unbelievable.

The film is an absolute farce, with a broad sense of humour that revolves around a simple plot involving two musicians who witness a Mob murder and go into hiding by dressing as women and joining an all-girl touring musical band. It has a manic, high-octane energy -- everything feels as though it's moving in fast forward. Devoid of any dull moments, Some Like It Hot is as intelligent as it is hilarious. The jokes are whip-smart, the social commentary is sharp and the starring cast of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe are all impossibly perfect in their respective roles. The most startling thing about the film is that, to this very day, it remains as fresh and relevant as it was in 1959.

Marilyn Monroe as Sugar.

How many films of the 1950s and early-1960s openly challenged traditional gender roles and sexuality the way Some Like It Hot did so effectively? The first time I watched it I was blown away by the fact that it even managed to bypass the rigid Hollywood Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. With it's jokes about gender identity, sex and Jack Lemmon's character openly embracing and revelling in his new life as Daphne (even going so far as to accept a marriage proposal from the millionaire Osgood Fielding III), it's amazing that the film even went on to become a monster hit in 1959. Hollywood executives were left reeling, but the film remains a classic -- one of those genuinely superb films that actually deserves the laurels and praise of being labelled a 'comedy classic.'

Some of my previous entries about Some Like It Hot:
(1) 30 Day Movie Meme Day 16: Favourite Quote
(2) Hollywood Tidbits: Some Like It Hot Part I.
(3) Hollywood Tidbits: Some Like It Hot Part II.

Classic Film Review: Seven Year Itch

Seven Year Itch (1955)
Written By: Billy Wilder & George Axelrod
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Starring: Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe

"I think it's just elegant to have an imagination. I just have no imagination at all. I have lots of other things, but I have no imagination."
~The Girl (Marilyn Monroe)

I've been on a Billy Wilder binge lately, re-watching all those classics that made him a legend -- Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Blvd. and The Apartment. It was during this time that I realized I'd never seen Seven Year Itch. It was about time to finally see the film that brought audiences the famous image of Marilyn Monroe standing on that subway grate, dress billowing.


Every summer, the heat in Manhattan is so unbearable that husbands pack up their wives and kids and send them off to spend those months with in-laws. Meanwhile, the men enjoy their temporary bachelor freedom while working to support their families and flirting with single women. The always-soliloquizing Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) has just unceremoniously dumped his wife and son off at the train station. Within minutes, he's playing back-and-forth with himself over whether or not he should flirt with all the beautiful "dames" he passes in the streets. He's feeling that seven year itch -- marriage for him has become the ultimate sexual repression. One evening he meets the beautiful (and, apparently, nameless) woman who lives upstairs (Marilyn Monroe). The two forge a tenuous bond -- he's attracted to her, while she's bored of being all alone in the big city and seeks companionship.

Based on the play by George Axelrod, the film version of Seven Year Itch controversially played with the original source by eliminating the actual physical affair aspect between Richard and The Girl. Instead, the film has the two flirt and banter their way through the two hour running time. Considering Richard's vivid imagination (he envisions various scenarios with beautiful women and conjures up ideas on how conversations with his wife would go), I found it worked better that Richard and The Girl never followed through with an affair. It would be hard to fathom how a jittery, irritating man would land someone like The Girl. His full-blown imaginary conversations make Richard come off as a basketcase -- lucky for him, The Girl isn't too picky about her friends.

Seven Year Itch is, obviously, structured like a play. While there are secondary characters that make an appearance on occasion, it's all about Ewell and Monroe in long scenes of witty dialogue.

The Girl is unlike anyone Richard has ever met -- flighty and flirty, she thinks dipping potato chips in wine is "just elegant." Her infectious energy and naive curiosity is of the kind that only Monroe could pull off successfully without grating on the nerves of the audience. While Monroe will never be ranked as a talented actress of the calibre of, say, Katherine Hepburn, she had an undeniable screen presence -- and it was more than just her beauty that got her steady work in Hollywood. It was her knack for physical comedy and comedic timing, which is on full display throughout Seven Year Itch.


Ewell doesn't fare as well, bogged down by the fact that his character, Richard, is irritating and bizarre. Monroe shines on her own; however, Ewell doesn't have any real chemistry with her. The dialogue is sharp (which is to be expected in a Wilder film) but both failed to fully click with one another.

It's an enjoyable, if dated, peak at sexual repression in the 1950s. Although I'd hoped for more insight into the sexual politics of married people at the time, Seven Year Itch still serves as an enjoyable distraction, albeit not of the same calibre of Some Like It Hot. 

FINAL GRADE: B+


Question: What do you think? Has the film aged well, in your opinion?

Hollywood Tidbits: Some Like It Hot (Part II)

The continuation from my previous entry on Tony Curtis' The Making of Some Like It Hot (2009).

One of my friends asked that I post some more bite-size quotes from the book (which I've almost completed).

* How Tony Curtis managed long hours on the set without taking washroom breaks: “I put my thinking cap on and built a funnel-and-hose thing. It went around my thigh, down the inner side of one leg, and was hidden inside the silk stocking that I was wearing. I didn’t have to stand up or sit down. It wasn’t all that comfortable, but it worked. I should have taken out a patent on it …One day Jack (Lemmon) caught me in the men’s room. I was adjusting the thing. 'What the fuck are you doing?' he asked. 'Never mind,' I answered. 'I’m inventing something.' I didn’t tell him because he might judge me. He was kind of conservative in an odd way." (p. 82)

*  Billy Wilder and his perfectionism: “I remember the scene in Poliakoff’s office, the agency where Jack and I are scrounging for work. Jack got excited, and after finishing a speech with the line ‘Now you’re talking,’ he repeated the line. Billy froze. ‘That’s not how the speech reads,’ he said. Jack pleaded. It felt right to him to say the line twice. Billy walked over to Izzy (co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond), who was sitting a short distance away. They started talking in low tones. This went on for close to half an hour. He finally came back to us. ‘Okay, you can repeat it,’ he said solemnly." (p. 111) 

* Marilyn Monroe once took 81 takes before nailing a scene which required her to speak only one simple line - 'Where's that bourbon?' - She directed her frustration at Billy Wilder: "Jack and I were like two bad little kids in school. We wanted to laugh out loud so badly, but we had to turn away and do it into our hands. It was fucking outrageous. Next Billy tried putting cue cards inside the drawers. Even that didn't help. But he had to get the shot. There was no way to cut around it. I wish I'd bet a thousand dollars on eighty takes. It took eighty-one. 'I swallowed my pride,' recalled Billy. 'If she showed up, she delivered, and if it took eighty takes, I lived with eighty takes, because the eighty-first was very good.' Cut. Print. Faint." (p. 167). 

* Curtis always seemed to be in awe of Jack Lemmon: "I was delighted to have Jack as a costar. He could be theatrical without worrying if he was making a fool of himself. He was comfortable in his own skin. That giggle he did as Daphne wasn't just clever. It was brilliant. Jack didn't mention his personal life at work. We both came from a certain tradition. When you were on the job, you never discussed politics, religion, family or sex. It just wasn't done in those days. But when I saw him at Hollywood parties, he had a glass of whiskey in his hand and he was more forthcoming ...A lot of men who are gentle need to drink because they're embarrassed about not being cavemen. That's my theory,  anyway." (p. 159)

++ I find this passage really interesting because, if you've read the book, it's yet another example of Curtis being literally in awe of Lemmon's ability as both a comedic actor and as a human being. Curtis rarely wrote about Lemmon in The Making of Some Like It Hot (he tended to focus more on Monroe and Wilder), but when he did mention Lemmon, it was always respectful and tasteful. Curtis denied being jealous of Lemmon's talent but I wonder how true that really was because of how he writes about Lemmon -- both praising him and also pushing him into the background in favour of Monroe and Wilder. One thing I think Curtis does convey really well is the simple fact that Jack Lemmon was a class act. And Hollywood doesn't make them like that anymore. 

Hollywood Tidbits: Some Like It Hot

My obsession with Some Like It Hot continues, one year later.

I got the late, great Tony Curtis' last book, The Making of Some Like It Hot: My Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the Classic American Movie for Christmas. I started reading it this morning and I haven't been able to put it down.

Curtis had a really simple, engaging style of writing. It's more conversational -- like he's narrating this high point in his film career directly onto the page.

There are those (film critics, celebrities and the general public) who label Curtis as an outright liar and paint him as an opportunistic man prone to exaggeration. Did he or did he not impregnate Marilyn Monroe? Did they really have a torrid, top secret romance? Curtis says yes, while others point out that Monroe isn't around to tell her side of the story. Nor is the film's director Billy Wilder or his co-star Jack Lemmon. Curtis wrote his book in 2009, many, many years after the deaths of Monroe, Lemmon and Wilder (and a year before his own).

Regardless, I take everything Curtis wrote with a grain of salt. I know to make sure I don't fall into any traps as I read The Making of Some Like It Hot. But damned if the man doesn't spin a great behind-the-scenes yarn. I'm a sucker for those largely unknown Hollywood dramas that often played out in between takes, I'm only 60 pages into the book, but here are some interesting (and likely true) tidbits in this gospel according to Curtis:

* He was once roommates with Marlon Brando for four months: "I respected him. But I wasn't interested in the Method. He was great because he was Marlon, not because of the Method. I thought it was phoney. Why complicate the job of acting? Memorize your lines. Learn the part. Find out what the director wants. Then show up on time and act. This idea of trying to remember when your sister stole your peanut butter sandwich so you can give an angry performance is bullshit. If you can't turn it on by yourself, you don't belong in front of the camera." (p.39)

++ An interesting commentary on the much respected Method acting technique (introduced by Brando), to say the least.

* Marilyn Monroe's intelligence: "Marilyn was not unintelligent. She was bright, perceptive and insightful -- but only about other people. When it came to herself, or to issues relating to herself, she didn't have a clue. She needed constant reassurance." (p.39)

* His first encounter with Marilyn: "We walked to my car and I opened the door for her. I got behind the wheel, drove out the gate, and turned left, heading for Hollywood. I angled the review mirror a little so I could see her face. To my surprise she winked at me. We laughed." (p.31)

* The first time he and Jack Lemmon walked in front of the cast and crew dressed as women: "I blushed under the makeup and let the actor in me take over. I launched into a little routine. I was coy. I was reluctant ...When Jack came out he did it in a big way. He was in character as Daphne. He flew out, twirling and pirouetting. He danced ...I just stared. How the fuck could he do that? I was envious, but it was the first and last time. I loved the guy." (p. 59)

30 Day Movie Meme: Day 16

Day 16: FAVOURITE QUOTE


This one wasn't as tough as I expected, given the love I have for Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy, Some Like It Hot. 


A few runners-up:
(1) "I am big! It's the pictures that got small."
(Sunset Blvd.)
(2) "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
(A Streetcar Named Desire)
(3) "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"
(Casablanca)
(4) The "patron saint of mediocrity" speech.
(Amadeus)
(5) "You keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
(The Godfather Part II)

It all comes back, though, to the final scene (the final few seconds, to be exact) of Some Like It Hot. You've got Jack Lemmon, one of the masters of exaggerated facial reactions, dressed as a woman. On a speedboat. With a millionaire named Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown). Osgood is the one who utters the famous line: "Well, nobody's perfect."

Lemmon plays Jerry, a man on the run with his friend, Joe (Tony Curtis), after the two witness a mob murder. Lemmon's Jerry soon becomes Daphne, as the two friends decide to disguise themselves as women as a ruse to throw off the mobsters. While Curtis is off flirting with Marilyn Monroe's Sugar, Lemmon's subplot in the film involves being wooed (and proposed to) by Osgood. The two develop a charming bond (thanks in large part to the great chemistry between Lemmon and Brown), all of which culminates in a simple exchange at the very end of the film when "Daphne" reveals she's really a man.

Jerry: "Osgood, I'm gonna level with you. We can't get married at all."
Osgood: "Why not?"
Jerry: "Well, in the first place, I'm not a natural blonde."
Osgood: "Doesn't matter."
Jerry: "I smoke! I smoke all the time!"
Osgood: "I don't care."
Jerry: "Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I've been living with a saxophone player."
Osgood: "I forgive you."
Jerry: "I can never have children!"
Osgood: "We can adopt some."
Jerry: "But you don't understand, Osgood!"
*Jerry pulls off wig*
Jerry: "I'm a man!"
Osgood: "Well, nobody's perfect."


Why I Love This Quote: It's arguably one of the best fade-out lines in film history. Both actors are perfect in this scene, especially with Lemmon's growing exasperation as he gently tries to break his engagement to Brown without revealing the fact that he's a man. Brown's nonchalance and unconditional love is unwavering with each new shocking revelation. What is so incredible about the scene (and the Daphne/Osgood relationship, in general) is the suggestion that Jerry (as Daphne) was happy in his new role as a woman. This is evident in the scenes where Daphne is being wooed by her rich millionaire. Jerry, as Daphne, is thoroughly enjoying the attention. A later conversation between Jerry and Joe reveals that Jerry has accepted Osgood's marriage proposal and is smitten with his new beau and his big, shiny diamond ring. When Joe asks him why he'd want to marry a man, Jerry responds: "For security!" A movie that started out about two men evading gangsters turned into something much more interesting: Jerry embracing his new feminine way of life.

Interesting trivia: Co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond wrote the line the night before the scene was shot.

30 Day Movie Meme: Day 10

Day 10: FAVOURITE CLASSIC FILM


This one is pretty impossible to answer. What is considered a classic? Anything prior to 1975? Or nothing later than 1960? My instinct is to put The Godfather (1972) but it would make a better choice for one of the later options. Same goes for Some Like It Hot (1959) and On the Waterfront (1954), both of which I will save for later entries.

There are so many possible answers, but instead of agonizing over it I'll pick the first one that comes to mind and that will be that.

Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Starring: Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Erich von Stroheim

I wrote a film review for Sunset Blvd. back when I first started this blog. You can read it here if you're interested.

I love when a classic film lives up to all the hype that surrounds it. Sunset Blvd. manages to be an original, crisp and fascinating look at Hollywood life and, despite the passage of time, it's still completely relevant in our current celebrity-obsessed culture. It's one of those rare films that reveal new subtleties and layers in both plot and character development with each repeat viewing.

The first time I watched this film (which I purchased on a whim only last year), I couldn't believe how how flawlessly executed it was (Billy Wilder was a master of story structure and visuals). It's an unusual blend of film noir and black comedy, giving the viewer a backstage glimpse of lives filled with betrayal, deceit and the emptiness of wealth and fame. Gloria Swanson's portrayal of Norma Desmond, the aging silent screen star who longs for a comeback, is campy, terrifying and tragic all at once.

Visually cinematic (floating dead bodies and slow descents from grand marble staircases included) and clever in dialogue ("She was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know it, you're too young. In one week she received 17,000 fan letters. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Later, he strangled himself with it!"), Sunset Blvd. will never stop being the significant and powerful silver screen classic it has become. It also has one of my favourite final scenes in a film, ever.





 

Classic Film Review: The Apartment

The Apartment (1960)
STARRING: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray
DIRECTED BY: Billy Wilder

"Ya know, I used to live like Robinson Crusoe; I mean, shipwrecked among 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand, and there you were." ~C.C. "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon)~

I credit Sunset Blvd. for my current obsession with the filmography of the late, great Billy Wilder. I credit Some Like It Hot (the greatest classic film I viewed for the first time last year) for my current obsession with the late, great Jack Lemmon. And, finally, I credit Mad Men for being the incredible television series that ignited my interest in the sexual politics and social history of the 1960s. If you watch Mad Men, then you are aware that it is, in part, an homage to The Apartment; most obviously in the scene in which Joan Holloway references the film directly and more subtly in the smoky atmosphere and office politics of Sterling Cooper.

C.C. "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a career man. Clacking away on a typewriter in the same room as at least 50 other employees, just another face in row after row of office drones, Bud will do anything in his power to advance his position at the office. As Bud soon learns, he holds the key to his own success. Literally. Bud "rents" out his apartment for a few hours a day to his male superiors in the office so they can carry on their affairs in private. The key to Bud's apartment travels around the office in a manila envelope. Unlucky at love himself, Bud remains an eternal optimist and gets it into his head that the quirky and pretty "elevator girl" Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) will fall for his charms in due time. Little does Bud realize, his womanizing boss, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), wants to use Bud's apartment too, so that he can carry on his own affair with Fran.

Wilder's screenplay is an extraordinary blend of comedy and drama, something he deftly combines to balance the varying emotions of his central characters. The film is structured like a stage production with lengthy scenes that are dialogue-heavy, however, the moments never feel too long and each one manages to sustain the intensity of the situation. Rarely can a film make you laugh out loud one moment and contemplate love, life and death the next. This film is often categorized as a comedy classic, however, its themes deal with loneliness, vicious corporate environments, sexual harassment in the workplace, adultery and suicide. It's all sex and money and betraying one another.

As Bud, a young man compromising his principles in order to get ahead in life, Lemmon is at his charismatic best. Despite his quiet desperation to connect with a woman, in an attempt to dispel his overpowering loneliness, Lemmon never allows Bud to become self-loathing or irritating. Bud rarely wallows in his own misery, instead trying to see the good in every situation. He may be naive and too eager to martyr himself in the name of lusty affairs (his neighbours assume Bud is the one who is wooing all those woman who move in and out of his apartment) but Bud is never anything but completely likeable.

Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray are both excellent in their roles as Fran and Mr. Sheldrake. Their scenes exhibit how different they truly are from one another. Sheldrake wants nothing more than to carry on his affair with Fran without any strings attached, although he claims to love her. Fran, on the other hand, thinks she's in love and wants him to leave his wife. Fran and Sheldrake emotionally disconnect on each and every encounter they share. MacLaine, in particular, is wonderful in her portrayal of a woman who feels like a piece of trash who is just another notch on the bedpost for Sheldrake and his revolving door of women. Her emotion is always visible right under the surface.

Bud and Fran are two people who have been jaded by love in the past and watching their interactions in the apartment works so well because of the performances and chemistry between Lemmon and MacLaine. In the capable hands of Billy Wilder, The Apartment and its themes are still relevant today. The film has aged remarkably well and should be admired for addressing these issues up front. The screenplay is still fresh and witty, even 50 years later. It's a classic film that lives up to the praise.

FINAL GRADE: A

Classic Film Review: Sunset Blvd.

Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim

With the recent resurgence in my quest to watch all the major Hollywood film classics, I purchased Sunset Blvd. on a whim last year knowing very little about the movie itself other than the infamous line uttered by Gloria Swanson; "Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) is down on his luck in Hollywood, having run out of original ideas for a new film to present to various major studios. He owes money to creditors and, while running from them in his expensive and shiny white car, a flat tire leads him to make the quick decision to park his car in the garage of a forboding mansion on the outskirts of town. Once inside the oppressive building Joe meets Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), the aging former silent screen star and her solumn German butler, Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim). Together, actress and butler, the two live a life of almost complete isolation, surrounded only by the relics of Norma's celebrity past. Norma shows Joe a script she has written based on the story of Salome, which she plans as her "return" to the silver screen. Despite the tedious script, Joe agrees to edit it for a fee, which would help him with the creditors. Norma goes above and beyond, showering Joe with jewellery, expensive suits and cigarette cases made of solid gold. What unfolds is a drama about a young struggling writer and the sudden riches he aquires from the older, emotionally unstable and lovestruck Norma who wishes for nothing more than to be a cinema icon once again.

Stylistically, the film is flawless. I haven't seen enough of Billy Wilder's work to compare it against, but it's easy to see why he is considered one of the cinematic greats. This is film noir to perfection, complete with a witty, all-knowing narrator. The script remains clever and fresh, despite the familiarity of the story and the passage of time. It includes references to Gone With the Wind ("Who wants to see a Civil War picture?" asks one producer), Charlie Chaplin, Rudy Valentino and features cameos by Buster Keaton and Cecil B. De Mille, as themselves. With Paramount Studios, as an entity, acting as a co-star in the film one can't help but feel the authenticity of Old Hollywood within the film. As a result, Wilder's film feels like a genuine glimpse into the lives of the Hollywood elite and those former talents long forgotten by their audiences.

Although Wilder originally wanted to cast Mae West and Marlon Brando in the leads, his choices are quite remarkable when one considers the back story of each cast member. At the time of production Gloria Swanson had been absent from the silver screen for several years, much like her alter ego. It marked her "return," just as Salome should have been the breakthrough for her on screen alter ego, Norma Desmond. William Holden's career mirrored that of Joe Gillis as, after a successful start in film, his career was struggling when Wilder approached him. Nancy Olson, who plays Betty Schaefer, the object of Joe's affection, was just stating out in Hollywood, much like the ambitious young screenwriter she portrays in the film. Then, of course, there is Erich von Stroheim who, playing the butler and former director Max, was formerly a silent film director in real life. He made "Queen Kelly" back in 1929 with his future co-star, Gloria Swanson. In fact, the film Swanson's Norma screens for Joe in Sunset Blvd. is an actual clip from "Queen Kelly." This is inspired casting, on all counts, and each actor is remarkable and memorable in their respective roles.

I love when a classic film lives up to all the hype that surrounds it. Sunset Blvd. manages to still be original, crisp and a facinating look at Hollywood life, despite the passage of time. I plan on watching it again soon so that I can catch all the little details and character nuances I may have missed upon my first viewing.

FINAL GRADE: A+