Review of Sunset Boulevard (1950) by Devon — 22 Apr 2009

William Holden plays Joe, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter living in hollywood. The poor guy can't afford to make his car payments and no one seems interested in his hackneyed screenplays. One day while escaping from repo men, he stumbles upon a scene right out of an Edgar Allen Poe story.

It's the home of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), star of the silent era who hasn't really been seen in 30 years. She lives in this hollywood house of Usher with Max (Erich Von Stroheim), a servant so loyal he'll do anything to keep her delusions of stardom alive (even writing dozens of phony fan letters to her every week).

Everything in this house is creepy, the pipe organ in the front room plays dischordant chords whenever the wind blows through it, and there's rats in the abandoned swimming pool. Miss Desmond herself seems positively off her rocker; as Joe walks into the house for the first time, she mistakes him for a funeral director she'd called to bring a coffin for the chimp who died and was laying in wake in her bedroom.

After Joe corrects her, she presents him with a script she's been writing over the last few decades. It's intended to be a return to stardom for her, but proves to be a gordian knot for Joe when she asks him to "punch it up" for her.

Joe quickly goes from being the hired writer to the "kept" man, and he doesn't like it one bit. And yet, he can't bring himself to leave Norma, even when he meets a feisty script-reader (Nancy Olson), whom he sneaks out at night to collaborate with.

It's not clear he even can leave her, though. From the beginning, he seems trapped in a web like a fly. Director Billy Wilder uses this house of usher horror scene to skewer man's view of his relationships with women.

Norma Desmond as the wife, locking the man into marriage, old, matronly, takes care of his wants and needs, and yet he feels trapped, there's no romance. It's only through the younger new woman he feels the tingle of fresh love.

But even taken at surface value, the movie creates a great atmosphere as we pity poor Norma, a woman who exists soley in her past, unable to cope with the loss of youth. Buster Keaton and Cecil B. Demille play themselves in this movie, and the famous line "Mr.

Demille, I'm ready for my close-up" isn't spoken in some moment of final triumph, but in final defeat. Gloria Swanson's portrayal of the sad and psychotic Norma Desmond is both brilliant and hilariously over-the-top, as Norma puts it, she "speaks with her eyes".

This is a well put together movie, with great performances and great dialogue. Simply put, it's a classic.