|
|
|
Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 35 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
|
 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Sunset Boulevard
Hedda Hopper. This is actually Hedda Hopper in a small cameo! She is calling the paper to report on the Norma Desmond case.
ageless. Right after Joe is shot. She is kind of crazy at this point.
camel hair. He is told by the clerk that he should take the vicuna but Norma requested camel hair.
Norma. While visiting Cecil B. Demille on the set of 'Sampson and Delilah'. The electrician (nicknamed Hog-eye) sees Norma calls down to her, moves the kleig light so that is gives her a heavenly look, and she replies "Hello Hog-eye".
Norma. This happened right after the phone call from "the pound" arrives and Joe jumps out of the pool.
barefoot. Swanson recalled, "The final mad scene raised problems. I had to descend a grand staircase crowded with extras and a few people like Hedda Hopper in a state of derangement, and Billy Wilder wanted me to come down on the side of the stairway where the steps were narrowest. On high heels I would have tripped for sure. I played the scene barefoot. I imagined a steel ramrod in me from head to toe holding me together and descended as if in a trance."
Swanson, a thorough professional, submitted to costuming and makeup to "age" her throughout filming. A health advocate, she rarely consumed alcohol, and never on set.
Dayton, Ohio. Joe concludes it's time to "wrap up the whole Hollywood deal and go home" on a bus back to Dayton, Ohio - to a $35 a week job behind the copy desk of the "Dayton Evening Post", if it was still open - "back to the smirking delight of the whole office."
Franz Waxman. He also scored "Rebecca", "Peyton Place", "Love in the Afternoon", "Rear Window", "Elephant Walk", "A Place in the Sun", "Bride of Frankenstein", "Mr. Skeffington" and many others. He is credited with almost 300 film scores in his long and distinguished career.
3. It won for Best Story and Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Best Set Decoration (Black and White) and Best Musical Score.
11. Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Best Set Decoration (Black and White), Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Film Editing, Best Musical Score.
3810 Wilshire Boulevard. The mansion was built in 1924 for William Jenkins. It was part of a divorce settlement for the second Mrs. J. Paul Getty. It was also used for the climax of "Rebel Without a Cause" in 1955, and demolished in 1957.
| "Sunset Boulevard" originally had another title, to conceal the nature of the story from Hollywood brass who, Billy Wilder knew, would severely censor the plot. What was the working title? | "Sunset Boulevard" Behind the Scenes
|
A Can of Beans. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett actually began filming "Sunset Boulevard" without a final shooting script. Wilder wanted to conceal the nature of the story, which was an exposé of Hollywood's dark side, from the studios, and chose the innocuous shooting title.
Montgomery Clift. Montgomery Clift had won a Best Actor nomination for his first role, in the previous year's "The Search". Two weeks before the first day of scheduled shoot, Clift backed out saying, "I don't think I can be convincing making love to a woman twice my age." Wilder was outraged. He said, "If he's any kind of actor, he could be convincing making love to any woman!"
Nine weeks. Filming was completed on June 18th, 1949. Production went remarkably smoothly.
| With a small role in the film as Artie Green, this soon-to-be television star would go on to play a cop known for saying, "Just the facts, Ma'am" - a famous, though often misquoted, line. Who was this actor? | Sunset Boulevard
|
Jack Webb. Jack Webb, most famous for his role as Sergeant Friday in television's "Dragnet", played Artie, the boyfriend of Betty Schaefer, the young woman with whom Gillis became involved. Artie was much more of an affable character than the rather stiff Joe Friday.
| Why did the movie studio call Norma Desmond's home several times? | Sunset Boulevard
|
To rent her unique car. Norma owned a very unique automobile, an Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8 that the studio was interested in using for a movie. Having missed them, Ms Desmond believed the calls must have been about her getting a role in a new movie.
| The film played out as a flashback. Who was dead at the beginning of the film, before the flashback began? | Sunset Boulevard
|
Joe Gillis. The movie started off with Joe's body, face down in a pool, having been shot by Norma. Of course at that time we, the viewing audience, were unaware of just who was dead.
| What kind of money trouble did Gillis have at the beginning of the film? | Sunset Boulevard
|
He was behind on his car payments.. Joe hadn't sold a script or story in so long that he was three months behind on his car payments. Some "collectors" wanted the keys to it, but Joe convinced them that he had lent the car to a friend and it wasn't around. Of course, that was a lie.
Her screenplay for a "comeback" movie. Joe was a down-on-his-luck screenwriter - the perfect match for Norma's desire for a "comeback" (she preferred the term, "return") movie role. Norma had written a tediously long screenplay for a movie about "Salome" and hoped Joe could clean it up for her. She was not very happy with most of his efforts to streamline it, however.
Max, the butler. Max, played by Erich von Stroheim, turned out to have been one of Norma's ex-husbands. He took good care of her, despite her eccentricities, and was even a bit sympathetic toward Gillis.
his car had a flat tire. Gillis was trying to outrun some men who wanted to repossess his car. His car blew a tire and Gillis pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be an abandoned house. It turned out to be the rather rundown home of former silent-movie star, Norma Desmond.
| Joe Gillis worked in Hollywood, or at least tried. What was Gillis' profession? | Sunset Boulevard
|
screenwriter. Gillis was down on his luck and hadn't had one of his scripts bought in a long time. So, he was behind on his bills which was why he found himself with Norma.
| Joe Gillis was the main character in "Sunset Boulevard". Perhaps most famous for his cynical, anti-hero roles, who played Gillis? | Sunset Boulevard
|
William Holden. Born in Illinois as William Beedle, Holden played Joe Gillis. He was well known for his roles in "Bridge on the River Kwai", "Stalag 17" and more recently, as step-father of the devil in "Damien: Omen II".
|
Play Now! 