Sunset Boulevard Resources

This Internet Movie Database page has the full lowdown on all of Sunset Boulevard's trivia and quirks, in addition to providing lots of information on the cast, the director, etc.

On Rotten Tomatoes, you can read some of the sterling reviews and appreciative pieces Sunset Boulevard has received over the years. Aside from a tiny cadre of skeptics, it's all pretty positive.

This site provides a little background on the movie—just a little mental nosh. (If you want an in-depth analysis and summary, you'll have to look elsewhere, like, say Shmoop.)

Although it initially received mixed reviews, Webber's adaptation of the movie had a series of successful runs in London, New York, and L.A. Billy Wilder liked it—and that's what counts.

Astrology is a classic L.A. interest, then and now—and Norma Desmond is an adherent, sending her script to DeMille in tune with the planetary calendar and agreeing to work with Joe because he is a Sagittarius.

Artie Green jokes that Joe is a "Black Dahlia suspect," a reference to an extremely brutal and famous L.A. murder that occurred in 1947. The victim was a young woman, Elizabeth Short, whom the newspapers nicknamed the "Black Dahlia."

What's life without a little Dickens? Joe compares Norma's house—and by extension Norma—to Miss Havisham, who fell into a state of decay by being angry at the world and at the man who left her at the altar.

Mack Sennett's "Bathing Beauties" appeared in some of Sennett's short comedy films. As you can guess by the title, they were women in bathing suits. Norma Desmond pretends to be a Bathing Beauty for Joe's amusement at one point.

Joe sarcastically tells Sheldrake that he'll write The Naked and the Dead next time, after Betty condemns his Bases Loaded script for being hollow hackwork. The Naked and the Dead (1948) is a famous World War II novel by Norman Mailer about American G.I.s fighting the Japanese Army in the South Pacific.

Norma Desmond's screenplay is based on the story of Salomé, who was a princess who supposedly demanded—and received—the death of John the Baptist as a gift from her stepfather, King Herod.

Some silent stars—like Swanson and Buster Keaton—actually appear in the movie, along with real directors from that era like DeMille and von Stroheim. Additionally, a ton of silent-era stars are mentioned or referenced, from Greta Garbo and Mabel Normand to Norma Desmond's impression of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp.

At one point we see Joe reading The Young Lions (1948), a World War II novel by Irwin Shaw.

The Paris Review normally covers fiction, poetry, and drama—but they interviewed Billy Wilder for their first "The Art of Screenwriting" installment.

No surprise—Ebert liked Sunset Boulevard. In fact, he gave it four stars and praised it for having one of the greatest last lines of all time.

While the New York Times really liked Sunset Boulevard, the reviewer thought that the narrative device of having a dead man tell the story was "beneath" Wilder and Brackett. Now that narrative device is probably one of the most famous and distinctive aspects of the film. So eat it, old NYT guy.

TCM gives an extremely short paragraph synopsis of the movie, along with some details on how it was made, how casting worked, etc.

This article on Gloria Swanson's performance as Norma Desmond goes into crazy detail on her process—for instance, she stayed in character when she went home in the evenings—along with providing invaluable background detail on her career (and the occasional intermingling of gossip, like the affair Swanson had with John F. Kennedy's dad).

In this interview, an aging Wilder comments on the musical adaptation of his movie, featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber's music. It was rumored that Wilder wasn't pleased with that adaptation—but, here, he quashes that rumor.

Two giants in showbiz, ladies and gents. Although this interview ranges all over the place, Swanson does comment on her role in Sunset, particularly her Charlie Chaplin impression.

In this interview from way back in 1957, Swanson tells Mike Wallace that Norma Desmond isn't really that close to her personality, and that she doesn't have any corpses floating in her own swimming pool.

Did Ebert get to interview all the greats? We're jealous. In this one, Holden talks with Ebert about a lot more than Sunset Boulevard, though he does mention that Sunset originally began with a scene where corpses at the city morgue talked about how they died, and Joe Gillis's corpse narrates his death from there. It didn't really work with audiences, so Wilder substituted the scene where we see Gillis floating in the pool.

It's a rare treat to see the man behind the script.

The silent film star talk-talk-talks.

Ah, one of the most famous lines in the movie—up there with, "Mr. DeMille I'm ready for my close-up."

… would be nicer under other—less dead—circumstances.

You can judge for yourself if the musical version was a good idea or a bad one.

Waxman's score actually won "Best Score" at the Oscars in 1951—so this is classic film music. Put it in your library pronto.

Here's another rendition of one of the highlights from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of the movie. There aren't too many cat people in tight leotards in this one, though, so it's a little different from Webber's other work.

This is a re-vamped, re-recorded version of Waxman's score—something that was only available within the last 15 years.

In the original movie poster, we see a crazy-looking, giant Norma-head menacing Joe and Betty, plus a menacingly tied strip of film with the title on it.

Swanson nails the insane look—but the reporters standing around look like they see this kind of thing all the time.

We wonder how long Holden had to hold his breath to film this scene, considering that it took Wilder a while to get it right?

Here's another image of Swanson as Desmond, switching into utterly crazy mode.

Here, Gillis is just relaxing with Norma… and probably hating himself.

Here, Nancy discovers the truth about Joe's relationship with Norma—and she looks pretty upset, in consequence.

Here, Cecil is meeting with Desmond, trying to delicately lower her expectations. This scene was filmed on the set of an actual movie DeMille was making at the time, Samson and Delilah.