Darkness on Sunset

Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) draws
Joe Gillis (William Holden) deeper into her web
in a film noir and cinema classic, Sunset Boulevard.

Sunset Boulevard (1950, Paramount)

Starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson,

Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson and Jack Webb.

Written by Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett. 

Directed by Billy Wilder

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

 — Norma Desmond

The above line is one of the most quoted — and misquoted — lines in movie history from a film that stands among the best ever produced. It’s delivered by an unforgettable character, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), whose slide into insanity is complete at the end of the story.

A film that opens the can of worms that is Hollywood, “Sunset Boulevard” tells the tale of what happened when Joe Gillis (William Holden), a hack screenwriter, became the boy toy of Desmond, a huge star in the silent era whose career crashed with the coming of sound.

The end of their sordid affair is revealed at the start, when Gillis’ body is fished out of the pool after he was shot several times by the deranged Desmond. The story then is told in a flashback narrated by the deceased!

What follows are real places and situations that aren’t disguised, such as the Paramount gate and studio, and Cecil B. DeMille, as well as how stories go in one end of the movie factory and come out the other changed completely.

The film also features real situations draped in fiction. Swanson was a major star before the talkies took hold, and DeMille directed her in some of her biggest hits. Desmond’s butler, Max von Mayerling (Eric von Stroheim), was her director and former husband. The film screened for Gillis by Desmond in reality was “Queen Kelly,” starring Swanson and directed by von Stroheim.

The jaded Gillis’ downfall came after he became disgusted with his role as a kept man. After he showed Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), the young woman who is engaged to his best friend (Jack Webb) but loved Gillis, his sleazy way of life, he decided to pack up and leave. He soon discovers nobody walks out on Norma Desmond.

I am big. It was the pictures that got small.

That is another Desmond line to remember. It also can describe the vast number of movies that followed and most of those that preceded this fascinating film noir.

With terrific performances by all — including DeMille — and the usual biting wit that was Wilder and Brackett’s trademark, “Sunset Boulevard” gets better with each viewing.