Sunset Boulevard: Notes on a Classic

In 1939, Billy Wilder made a note, “Silent movie star commits murder. When they arrest her she sees the newsreel cameras and thinks she’s back in the movies.”

Ten years later, he made the film.

“A great big white elephant of a place. The kind crazy movie people built in the crazy twenties.” – Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard.

📸 The William O. Jenkins House, also known as the “Phantom House”, built for businessman William O. Jenkins in 1922 and 1923, Norma Desmond’s house in Sunset Boulevard.

I’m doing some in-depth research on the movie Sunset Boulevard. Here’s my third note.

Sunset Boulevard: Notes on a Classic

”No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes one a star.” – Norma Desmond, just before shooting the man who rejected her, Joe Gillis.

📸 William Holden as Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.

Sunset Boulevard: Notes on a Classic

Along with H.B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson, Buster Keaton (pictured) appears as himself in Sunset Boulevard, as one of Norma Desmond’s bridge players. In a derogatory comment, Joe Gillis refers to the bridge players as “the waxworks”.

Sunset Boulevard: Notes on a Classic

An Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A, Norma Desmond’s car in Sunset Boulevard.

Norma Desmond: “We have a car. Not one of those cheap things made of chromium and spit but Isotta Fraschini. Have you ever heard of Isotta Fraschini? All hand-made. It cost me twenty eight thousand dollars.” That’s around $500,000 in today’s money.

From 1936, Billy Wilder (pictured with Gloria Swanson) and Charles Brackett collaborated on sixteen films, all critical or commercial successes. Before the filming of Sunset Boulevard, they decided this movie would be their final creative collaboration. They didn’t realise it at the time, but they were about to go out at the top.

The working title for Sunset Boulevard was A Can of Beans. Billy Wilder chose that title because he wanted to keep the studio in the dark about the movie’s Hollywood premise.

Before casting Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder considered Mae West for the role. However, Mae West wanted to change her dialogue, and Billy Wilder was obsessive about his scripts, so that idea was a non-starter.

In August 1948, Billy Wilder was still looking for an actress to play Norma Desmond in his movie “A Can of Beans”, which became “Sunset Boulevard”. In his script, Wilder used the name Swanson to denote the character. Then he had the bright idea to invite Gloria Swanson to screen test for the part. Initially insulted by the idea of having to screen test, Gloria eventually agreed. And the rest, as they say, is history.

📸 Gloria Swanson and Billy Wilder