Sunset Boulevard (NR, 1950)

SUNSET BOULEVARD reveals the fickleness of movie fans and the cruelty of Hollywood. In her creepy rundown mansion on Sunset Boulevard, aging silent screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) dreams of reviving her long-gone film career. Enter screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), who owes a lot of money. When the two meet, Gloria sees her opportunity and asks Joe to help her finish a script that will put her back in the spotlight. Young and handsome Joe merely sees a hefty paycheck, and the opportunist eventually becomes Norma's lover. Watching the farce unfold is Norma's chauffer Max (Erich von Stroheim).

A monkey's funeral. Wind whistling through the organ pipes. Mansion doors stripped of their locks because of the suicide attempts. The details are all so wonderfully morbid; they melt together into a kind of hardboiled Hollywood gothic narrated by a dead man. While it's likely to scare little ones out of their pajama bottoms, a more mature teen and adult audience will find Sunset Boulevard a spectacular and hair-raising movie experience. In addition to being nominated for eleven Academy Awards (three of which it won, including Best Screenplay), writer-director Billy Wilder's film rated a twelve on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.

The performances do justice to the ruthlessly witty script. William Holden is a perfect deadpan to Gloria Swanson's Hollywood fright show. Erich von Stroheim is stoically tragic as the butler with an unthinkable secret. Nancy Olson is so sweetly ambitious as the love interest who gets tangled in their sticky web that you'll want to cry out to her, "Run! Run for your life!" All four received Academy Award nominations.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gloria Swanson, Nancy Olson, William Holden
Genre: Classic
Run time: 110 minutes
Theatrical release: August 10, 1950
DVD release: November 26, 2001
MPAA Rating: NR