Sunset Boulevard (1950)

A Hollywood Story: Sensational...Daring...Unforgettable...Sunset Blvd

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Written by: Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr., Charles Brackett

Music by: Franz Waxman

Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb, Franklyn Farnum, Larry J. Blake, Charles Dayton

Genre: Drama

Released: 1950-08-10

Runtime: 110 minutes

Rate, review and log Sunset Boulevard on Film Reality, see where to watch it, its soundtrack and what everyone else thought.

Sunset Boulevard (1950): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Wilder harks back to Swanson's silent-film career when Norma shows Joe the film Queen Kelly (1929), starring Swanson and directed by Erich von Stroheim, who himself portrays Norma's former director and husband Max von Mayerling.
• After a similar reaction during its second screening in Poughkeepsie, New York, and a third in Great Neck, the morgue opening was replaced by a shorter poolside opening, using footage filmed on January 5, 1950.
• In 2006, the Writers Guild of America ranked the film's screenplay (written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.) the 7th greatest ever.
• Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who plays herself in the movie, wrote, "Billy Wilder... was crazy about Evelyn Waugh's book The Loved One, and the studio wanted to buy it."
• Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper also played herself, reporting on Norma Desmond's downfall in the film's final scenes.
• Cinematographer John F. Seitz stated that Wilder "had wanted to do Evelyn Waugh's 1948 novel The Loved One, but couldn't obtain the rights."
• Sunset Boulevard was dramatized as an hour-long radio play on the September 17, 1951, broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Gloria Swanson and William Holden in their original film roles.
• Erich von Stroheim plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted butler, and Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, and Fred Clark appear in supporting roles.
• Pauline Kael described the film as "almost too clever, but at its best in its cleverness", and also wrote that it was common to "hear Billy Wilder called the world's greatest director."
• The song "Antarctica Starts Here" by John Cale, from his 1973 album Paris 1919, describes a "paranoid great movie queen" that Cale said was inspired by the character of Norma Desmond.
• Franz Waxman's musical score was the final element added to Sunset Boulevard.
• After viewing the film, Barbara Stanwyck knelt to kiss the hem of Gloria Swanson's skirt.
• After a seven-week run, Variety reported the film had grossed "around $1,020,000", ($13,649,378 in 2025 dollars) making it one of that theater's most successful pictures.
• The Village Voice ranked the film at No. 43 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics.
• Sunset Boulevard received 33 votes in the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound polls, making it the 63rd greatest film of all time in the critics' poll and 67th in the directors' poll.

Source: Wikipedia

Play 10 questions. Test yourself on Sunset Boulevard and see how everyone else answered.