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Billy Wilder's, "Sunset Boulevard:" sensational!

Posted by tinear (A) on December 11, 2007 at 04:54:50

A down-and-almost-out middle-aged Hollywood writer (William Holden), in panicked flight from his creditors, escapes by turning into the driveway of an apparently deserted mansion.
Spied as he is surreptitiously attempting to leave by the resident and former silent film queen (Gloria Swanson), who lives in Grand Guignol majesty, he cagily agrees to assist her resurrect her film career which collapsed some twenty years earlier when "talkies" arrived.
The narrator is the writer and so cleverly is the dialogue that we hardly can fault him for so easily becoming a gigolo: the gold cigarette case, the splendid vicuna coat (it's almost a character in itself), the seventy bespoke shirts, etc.--- I mean, who could resist!
Of course, into this uneasy but fairly stable (it is mutually accepted that the rewriting of the script which was the pretext for the arrangement would be of indefinite length) comes a wrench in the form of a pert 22-yr. old who is familiar with the writer's earlier work and cajoles him into a partnership to resurrect an old story of his.
Many of today's "auteurs" would do well to study this film: the style is "noir" but not so pitch as to render images nonsensically opaque.
The actors? William Holden, Clark Gable without the ham, excels as the world-weary scribe.
Gloria Swanson, a true film giant in "her day" (which was long gone at this time) gives as great a performance as Vivian Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire," which I mean as the highest praise.
Erich von Stroheim, as the butler, is perfection, as well.
The only minor quibble I have is with the oft-lauded performance of the young love interest, played by Nancy Olson.
The two blondes at the raucous party, I thought, seemed far more interesting.

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