Directed by:
Billy WilderCinematography:
John F. SeitzComposer:
Franz WaxmanCast:
William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Franklyn Farnum, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Billy Wilder's masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD, a corrosive black comedy that remains the most memorable assault on the emptiness and vanity of the movie business, stars William Holden as young, down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis. Narrated in flashbacks by the now-deceased scribe, the film unwinds the series of events that left him lying face down in a pool. Unable to sell his most recent chef-d'oeuvre, and in hock up to his eyeballs, Joe stashes his car in the driveway of what appears to be an abandoned mansion on Sunset Boulevard while trying to elude some persistent repo men. Closer inspection reveals the decrepit property to be inhabited by grandiose former silent movie goddess Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and her zombie-like manservant Max (Erich von Stroheim). Upon hearing that he's a writer, the lonely but still wealthy woman offers to pay him generously to stay at the house and work on her "comeback" script on the life of Salome. Although spooked by the people and the surroundings, in desperate straits, Joe takes the job, little suspecting the madness of the netherworld he's entered. Wilder's merciless portrait of the dangers of a profession that trades in fantasy cagily couples the cynical amorality of the never-was with the near-psychotic narcissism of the has-been to reveal the vacuity of wealth and the transience of fame. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
William Holden
USA
Best movies:
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
La Tour infernale (1974)
Gloria Swanson
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Beyond the Rocks (1922)
Why Change Your Wife? (1920)
Erich von Stroheim
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Greed (1924)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
Nancy Olson
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Union Station (1950)
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
Fred Clark
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
White Heat (1949)
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
Franklyn Farnum
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Jack Webb
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Men (1950)
Dark City (1950)
Lloyd Gough
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Storm Warning (1951)
Funny Girl (1968)
Cecil B. DeMille
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Hedda Hopper
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Midnight (1939)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Buster Keaton
USA
Best movies:
The General (1926)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Limelight (1952)
Anna Q. Nilsson
Sweden
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Regeneration (1915)
Adam's Rib (1949)
H.B. Warner
UK
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Yvette Vickers
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Pressure Point (1962)
Hud (1963)
Creighton Hale
Ireland
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Casablanca (1942)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
E. Mason Hopper
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Henry Wilcoxon
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Last of the Mohicans (1936)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Ruth Clifford
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Harold Miller
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Archie R. Dalzell
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)