At 75, "Sunset Boulevard" is ready again for its closeup

There are some movies where just about every line is quotable. Take Billy Wilder's 1950 masterpiece "Sunset Boulevard," which premiered 75 years ago this month.

Gillis: "You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big."Desmond: "I AM big. It's the pictures that got small."

The film was anything but small! The legendary director had Gloria Swanson as the rejected silent film star, Norma Desmond, who seemed to be going quietly out of her mind; and William Holden as the failed screenwriter Joe Gillis, who became her kept man.

"She was 52 at the time; William Holden was 31," said UT Austin film professor Noah Isenberg. "The age difference was extraordinary. Today we might not think much of it, but it was big."

Isenberg says the noir "Sunset Boulevard" tested the limits of what a 1950 audience would bear. The opening scene is gruesome enough, with the murdered Gillis face down in a swimming pool. But the film originally started in the L.A. morgue, with Gillis and other cadavers talking about how they got there. Isenberg said, "It was too dark, too morbid. Audiences weren't ready for it. Instead, you have John Seitz's camera trained on that curb." Appropriately, the film begins in the gutter.

The original film, now restored in glorious 4K ultra hi-def, is available from Paramount.

Nancy Olson was only 21 when she played aspiring writer Betty Schaefer opposite Holden's Gillis. Olson, now 97, says Holden's air of desperation in the film mirrored what was happening in his life. "His career was dying," she said. "And that's the character. If you look carefully, you will see one of the most extraordinary, real performances of a man who gave up his soul for survival."

Still, Olson says they got along famously on set, especially when director Wilder lined them up for their first-ever love scene in a crowded studio where some of the cast's family members happened to be present: "And we got to the end, where Bill says to my character, 'What happened?' And I turn to him slowly and answer, 'You did.' Whereupon he takes me into his arms and gently starts to kiss me.

"Now, Billy said, 'Do not separate until I say cut.' And we both were enjoying this. And all of a sudden, there was a female voice saying, 'Cut, damn it! Cut!' It was Mrs. Holden! I never got over it. But I learned something."

What was that? "Bill and I loved to kiss!"

And moviegoers loved the film: "Sunset Boulevard" got 11 Academy Award nominations. "I was shocked," Olsen said of the Oscar nods. "Now, we didn't win. But we've outlasted everybody."

To watch a trailer for the 75th anniversary release of "Sunset Boulevard" click on the video player below:

"Sunset Boulevard" was later re-born as a musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber. Sir Andrew was intrigued by the story of Hollywood discarding aging stars, and got the blessing of Wilder, who by then was being gently phased out of Hollywood himself – in his own way getting the Norma Desmond treatment. Webber said, "He does tell a wonderful story about him going to see some young movie executive who had just been there. And this young executive says to him, 'Um, well, Mr. Wilder, we're very impressed by this screenplay that you've done, but it would be really helpful if you could tell me what you have done in the past?'"

The director of such classics as "Double Indemnity," "The Lost Weekend," "Ace in the Hole," "Some Like It Hot," and "The Apartment," turned to the young executive and said, "You first."

"Sunset Boulevard," the musical, opened in London's West End in 1993, with Patti LuPone as Desmond; when they brought the show to Los Angeles and New York, Glenn Close played the lead.

And in the latest, radically re-conceived version, Desmond was played by former pop star Nicole Scherzinger.

Asked about seeing Scherzinger in the role of Norma Desmond, Webber said, "I have always rated Nicole as one of the most astounding singers I've ever worked with. And I worked with a few. And I could say that Nicole is right up there with the very, very, very top ones, might even be the best."

Scherzinger brought a new level of intensity to Norma Desmond, and took home a Tony Award this year.

You can stream the Broadway cast album of "Sunset Blvd." featuring Nicole Scherzinger by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):

The show closed last month, and we took Scherzinger back to the St. James Theatre just before they took down all the signs. "I can't believe that this is still up; I want to take it home!" she laughed. "I want to take it home and I want to put this in my garage."

One sign was half-removed from the stage door. "I think someone stole my face!" she laughed.

Asked what she thinks "Sunset Boulevard" says about the entertainment industry and its treatment of older women, Scherzinger said, "It's difficult that the industry kind of puts an expiration date on you when you've actually lived a life and actually, finally, have something really meaningful to say."

Hollywood has changed (and so has Paramount Pictures). But seventy-five years on, "Sunset Boulevard" still holds up. Isenberg said, "For people who love movies – cinephiles and film geeks, whatever we want to call them today – you can just luxuriate in a movie like 'Sunset Boulevard.' It's like a warm bath."

Gloria Swanson herself luxuriated in playing a faded movie queen. Even back then, she somehow knew that "Sunset Boulevard" would make her a legend.

Asked if Swanson was anything like the character she portrayed, Nancy Olson replied, "No. She was much more real and sensible. And she was the only person on the entire set that understood that this movie would live forever and that she would be remembered forever – that it was a story that had a truth to it that would never be forgotten."

Web exclusive: Extended interview - Nicole Scherzinger (Video)

For more info:

• "Sunset Boulevard," available on VOD and streaming on MGM+, is also available on Blu-Ray/4K disc
• "Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream" by David M. Lubin (Grand Central Publishing), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available August 12 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop org
• Noah Isenberg, professor, University of Texas at Austin
• "A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour" by Nancy Olson Livingston (Author), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

Story produced by John D'Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.

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