Swanson stars as fading film star Norma Desmond and Holden plays the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness. Von Stroheim plays Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband, and butler. Genre: Feature Film-Drama Rating: NR Release Date: 8-AUG-2006 Media Type: DVD
Billy Wilder's noir-comic classic about death and decay in Hollywood remains as pungent as ever in its power to provoke shock, laughter, and gasps of astonishment. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a broke and cynical young screenwriter, is attempting to ditch a pair of repo men late one afternoon when he pulls off L.A.'s storied Sunset Boulevard and into the driveway of a seedy mansion belonging to Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie luminary whose brilliant acting career withered with the coming of talkies. The demented old movie queen lives in the past, assisted by her devoted (but intimidating) butler, Max (played by Erich von Stroheim, the legendary director of Greed and Swanson's own lost epic, Queen Kelly). Norma dreams of making a comeback in a remake of Salome to be directed by her old colleague Cecil B. DeMille (as himself), and Joe becomes her literary and romantic gigolo. Sunset Blvd. is one of those great movies that has become a part of popular culture (the line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," has entered the language)--but it's no relic. Wow, does it ever hold up. --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
I'm Ready for My Close-Up! Gloria Swanson actually was able to get a second chance at a screen fame with this film. She also proved that being a silent screen star was no barrier to being a great actress in sound pictures. How she failed to win a Best Actress Oscar is beyond me! The writing is fantastic, Bill Holden is wonderful and Gloria Swanson is terrific. As an added bonus, Erich Von Stroheim plays Gloria's butler and ex-husband. The story is enchanting. I don't want to give too much away. One of the great films.
Brilliant and distrubing When Sunset Blvd came out in 1950 Varity reviewed it with the word `disturbing' and never was truer word spoken. I suspect many of us became familiar with this from the skits with Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman about a `has been' movie star and her servant, Max. But the film with Gloria Swanson and William Holden is so much more. Done in a film noir style with Holden as the narrator, his character is a down at the heels writer who, on the run from his creditors, finds himself stumbling into a nearly... more info
The Power of an Icon It certainly says something about the power of an icon and the glitter of a golden age in movie-making that "Sunset Boulevard" stands up so amazingly well as a bit of storytelling, in spite of its deranged silent-movie star character being parodied mercilessly by everyone from Carol Burnett on down. And curious it appears that at the time of "Sunset Boulevard's making, the silent-movie years were seen as something long-gone. Here was the faded star of that era, Gloria Swanson, as a deranged ghost,... more info
Centennial 2008, Review This review is for the November 2008 Centennial release. This issue is a mixed bag. The picture is sharp, but the contrast is quite a bit darker. In some scenes the effect is very good and in quite a few other scenes, I found it a bit too dark. The November 2002 release was done with the services of Lowry Digital, the same service that did the recent James Bond restoration work with excellent results. Comparing the two, The 2002 release done by Lowry Digital was very good and didn't really need any... more info
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