When was sunset boulevard made

Marshman Jr. Directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, it was named for the famous boulevard of the same name that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. It stars William Holden as down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded movie star who entraps the unsuspecting Gillis into her fantasy world in which she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen.

Released 65 years ago this week on August 10, , director Billy Wilder 's classic explored fame from the perspective of those who had it and lost it like Gloria Swanson and her "waxwork" friends, playing lightly fictionalized versions of themselves and those who never quite made it, like the struggling young screenwriter William Holden and the failed actress-turned-script reader played by Nancy Olson.

Even if you haven't seen "Sunset Boulevard," you may feel like you have, whether because of the popular Andrew Lloyd Webber musical it spawned, the movies that copied it particularly "American Beauty," with its narration from beyond the grave , and the countless parodies of Swanson's final "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" scene. In honor of the film's anniversary, here are 15 things you need to know about the Hollywood classic.

Initially, Wilder above and writing partner Charles Brackett conceived the story as a comedy about a has-been actress making a comeback, and they imagined Mae West as the star. But West found the role unflattering, a problem that continued to make casting difficult after Brackett and Wilder rewrote the film as a drama. They approached such silent-era stars as Mary Pickford, Pola Negri, and even Greta Garbo who'd starred in the writers' hit "Ninotchka" , but all of them turned down the role of Norma Desmond.

George Cukor, a director famed for his sensitivity toward actresses, suggested Swanson, another glamorous silent actress who hadn't successfully transitioned into the sound era. She had also once lived in a mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Unlike Norma, she wasn't hiding away in a Hollywood mansion; she was working in New York in the then-new medium of television. She was insulted by Paramount's' request that she do a screen test, but Cukor convinced her that it was the role she would be remembered for, worth the indignity of such an audition, and he joked he would shoot her if she didn't take it.

To hide what they were making, from both Paramount brass and the Production Code censors, Wilder and Brackett told everyone they were making a comedy called "Can of Beans. To play kept man Joe Gillis, the filmmakers cast Montgomery Clift, but the rising young star dropped out two weeks before the shoot. His given reason was that the affair between a young man and an older woman was too similar to what he'd done in "The Heiress," but the real reason may have been Clift's off-camera relationship with older singer Libby Holman.

The story was that she felt the movie would be seen as a mockery of their romance, and that she threatened to kill herself unless Clift quit.

He almost hired Marlon Brando to replace him, but the Broadway star had never made a film before Brando's screen debut in "The Men" was still more than a year away. Eventually, contract player William Holden got the part, which made him an A-list star. Anna Q. Nilsson Anna Q. Nilsson as Anna Q. Warner H. Warner as H. Billy Wilder. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. In Hollywood of the 50's, the obscure screenplay writer Joe Gillis is not able to sell his work to the studios, is full of debts and is thinking in returning to his hometown to work in an office.

While trying to escape from his creditors, he has a flat tire and parks his car in a decadent mansion in Sunset Boulevard. He meets the owner and former silent-movie star Norma Desmond, who lives alone with her butler and driver Max Von Mayerling. Norma is demented and believes she will return to the cinema industry, and is protected and isolated from the world by Max, who was her director and husband in the past and still loves her.

Norma proposes Joe to move to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay for her comeback to the cinema, and the small-time writer becomes her lover and gigolo. When Joe falls in love for the young aspirant writer Betty Schaefer, Norma becomes jealous and completely insane and her madness leads to a tragic end. A Hollywood Story. Did you know Edit. Trivia Unlike the character she played, Gloria Swanson had accepted the fact that the movies didn't want her anymore and had moved to New York, where she worked on radio and, later, television.

Although she had long before ruled out the possibility of a movie comeback, she was nevertheless highly intrigued when she got the offer to play the lead. Goofs As the policemen run towards the pool, you can see the dead man's head lift up out of the water. Quotes Joe Gillis : Wait a minute, haven't I seen you before? Crazy credits The Paramount logo appears as a transparency over the opening shot. The words "Sunset Blvd. There is a scene during Norma's beauty makeover when a magnifying glass is held in front of her eyes, and we are startled by how smooth Swanson's skin is.

Billy Wilder and his co-writer Charles Brackett knew the originals of the characters. What was unusual was how realistic Wilder dared to be. Nilsson and H. He drew from life when Norma visits Cecil B. When Max the butler tells Joe, "There were three young directors who showed promise in those days, D. Griffith, Cecil B. When the silent star first greets the penniless writer inside her mansion, they have a classic exchange. Norma responds with the great line, "I am big.

It's the pictures that got small. The plot has supplied Joe with a lot of reasons to accept Norma's offer of a private screenwriting job. He's broke and behind on his rent, his car is about to be repossessed, and he doesn't want to go back to his job as a newspaperman in Dayton. He is also not entirely unwilling to prostitute himself; Holden projects subtle weakness and self-loathing into the role. He goes through the forms of saying he doesn't want Norma's gifts, but he takes them--the gold cigarette cases, the platinum watch, the suits, the shirts, the shoes.

He claims to be surprised on New Year's Eve when she throws a party just for the two of them, but surely he has known from the first that she wants not only a writer, but a young man to reassure her that she is still attractive.