Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Director: Billy Wilder  Starring: Erich Von Stroheim  William Holden  Gloria Swanson  
Currently Unavailable: This item is currently unavailable from the Manufacturer.
Format: N/A
Also Available: DVD The Paramount Centennial Collection $10.99 
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Product Summary
Publisher: Paramount Home Video
Format: N/A
UPC: 00097360492743
Buy.com Sku: 204854498
Item#: RCCDT2
Category Keywords: Character Study  Classic  Deception  Essential Cinema  Film About Film  Film Noir  Filmmakers  Filmmaking  Los Angeles, California  Movie Stars  Murder  Recommended  Showbiz  Suspense  Thriller 
Rating: NR
 
 


Editor's Note

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.

 
Features
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Dolby Digital Mono - French
Additional Release Material:
AND TIMES OF BILLY WILDER
Audio Commentary: Ed Sikov - Author of ON SUNSET BOULEVARD: THE LIFE
Trailers: Theatrical
Featurette:
1. EDITH HEAD - THE PARAMOUNT YEARS
2. THE MUSIC OF SUNSET BOULEVARD
3. Making Of
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
Text/Photo Galleries:
Photo Galleries
Hollywood Location Map
Morgue Prologue Script Pages






 
Technical Info

Release Information
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Release Date: 6/18/2007
Running Time: 110 minutes
Original Release Date: 1950
Catalog ID: 049274
UPC: 00097360492743
Number of Discs: 1

Audio & Video
Original Language: English
Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed
Available Subtitles: English
Video: B&W

 
Cast & Crew
Lloyd Gough
Franklyn Farnum
Charles Dayton
Jack Webb
Fred Clark
Erich Von Stroheim
Nancy Olson
William Holden
Gloria Swanson
Edith Head - Costume Designer
John Seitz - Director of Photography
Gordon Jennings - Special Effects
John Meehan - Production Designer
H.B. Warner - Cameo
Billy Wilder - Screenwriter
Buster Keaton - Cameo
Farciot Edouart - Special Effects
Jay Livingston - Cameo
Franz Waxman - Composer
Arthur P. Schmidt - Editor
Doane Harrison - Editor
Hans Dreier - Production Designer
Hedda Hopper - Cameo
Ray Evans - Cameo
Cecil B. DeMille - Cameo
Charles Brackett - Screenwriter
Charles Brackett - Producer
Anna Q. Nilsson - Cameo
Richard Strauss - Composer
Billy Wilder - Director

 
Awards

Academy Awards (1950)
Winner, Best Art Direction - Set Decoration (b&w)
Billy Wilder, Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay
Franz Waxman, Winner, Best Original Score
Charles Brackett, Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay
Jr. D.M. Marshman, Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay

 
Memorable Quotes
"All right, Mr. DeMille. I'm ready for my close--up."----Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson)


 
Professional Reviews
Chicago Sun-Times
"...Gloria Swanson gives her greatest performance....The movie cuts close to the bone....SUNSET BOULEVARD remains the best drama ever made about the movies..." 06/17/1999 p.5

Entertainment Weekly
"...A mordant masterpiece about two victims of self-deception who destroy each other and themselves....The movie is unimprovable..." 11/29/2002 p.83

USA Today
"These days, it seems like 1950's best movie." 02/17/2004 p.3D

  
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