Classic 50s Movie: “Sunset Blvd.”

Scott Myers

Follow

May 19, 2015 · 5 min read

May is Classic 50s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Lisa Byrd.

Movie Title: Sunset Blvd.

Year: 1950

Writers: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr.

Director: Billy Wilder

Actors: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson

IMDb Plot Summary: The story, set in ’50s Hollywood, focuses on Norma Desmond, a silent-screen goddess whose pathetic belief in her own indestructibility has turned her into a demented recluse. The crumbling Sunset Boulevard mansion where she lives with only her butler, Max who was once her director and husband has become her self-contained world. Norma dreams of a comeback to pictures and she begins a relationship with Joe Gillis, a small-time writer who becomes her lover, that will soon end with murder and total madness.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 50s Movie: When I think of the movies of the 50’s, I think big- huge soundstage sets, larger than life characters, scene stealers, melodramatic lines, orchestrated background music and lots of repression. Norma Desmond is all of those things in one. Her repression and exile result in the destruction of a common man. I can’t understand the life of a Hollywood star, but I can relate to Joe, a struggling writer trying to feel he is contributing to the world.

For all of Max’s stiff yet unwavering adoration of Norma, Norma’s sneering close-ups, and Joe’s pathetic attempt at a double life, this story is about how easy it is to allow our lives to become stagnant. It’s also about the struggle to break free and the contentment to stay the same. This movie is a great reflection of the 50’s- everything was for show. Moms wore pearls to cook and clean in, dads perpetually wore the dark suit, teens didn’t break the rules, milkmen brought us our milk with a smile, and gas station attendants pumped our gas and installed carburetors without the oil and grime. Norma Desmond not only believed in her own fantasy world but drew us in along with Max and Joe.

When I was growing up in the 70’s, the 50’s was the golden era. We wore bobby socks and poodle skirts as costumes hoping to capture the nostalgia our parents waxed over. There was no talk of the underside of the 50’s- the dirty seedy side that ever era has. It was just like the movie. The setting is one of the sunniest locations of all, Hollywood, but also the Gothic darkness of Desmond’s mansion. Betty is bobby socks and drive-ins; Norma is scarlet fever and the cold war.

For all of that, it is also a story of love and what we do in the name of love. Every time I watch Sunset Blvd., I fall for Norma all over again. I wish I could love someone like Max can. And, I hope that the body really isn’t Joe.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie: If I have to pick…

1. I am a star scene. That is the scene where I feel I can finally go with Norma off to crazy town.

2. There are no other guests scene. How humiliating to be the only guest at your party.

3. No one ever leaves a star scene. Norma is at her most pathetic yet her most brilliant.

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie:

Joe: You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma: I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.

(We all like to think we are that awesome. Truth is only a few of us are.)

Joe: Audiences don’t know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along.

(As a teacher, I think that’s what everyone else thinks. Joe is really talking to me.)

Max: She was the greatest of them all. You wouldn’t know, you’re too young. In one week she received 17,000 fan letters. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg for one of her silk stockings. Later he strangled himself with it.
(Isn’t that how we all feel when we leave something? It will crumble without us?)

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie:

Make sure to look for Joe’s under his breath quips following Norma’s big lines. Even while he is going along with the fun, he understands reality.

Also watch for all the stars, films, and places that are real. Wilder went to a lot of trouble to anchor this story in the real world.

Thanks, Lisa! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

We already have a set of classic 60s Movies, 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 50s movies. And thanks to the GITS community, we’ve got 31 movies in the works! Those who I put in bold have already sent me their posts. If you haven’t sent yours to me, please do so as soon as you can:

12 Angry Men — Ipsita Barik
A Place in the Sun — Zach Jansen
A Star is Born — Melinda Mahaffey
A Touch of Evil — David Joyner
All About Eve — Ricardo Bravo
American in Paris — stefani1601
Bridge on the River Kwai — Tom Peterson
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — uncgym44
Commando Cody: Sky Marshall of the Universe — J Nilsson-Acosta
File on Thelma Jordon, The — David Joyner
Harvey — Felicity Flesher
High Noon — Jeff Messerman
Invasion of the Body Snatchers — Rick Dyke
Kiss Me Deadly — John Henderson
Marty — jetwillie69
Night of the Demon — David Hutchison
Night of the Hunter — Mark Twain
On the Waterfront — Bilbo Poynter
Pickpocket — Zach Jansen
Pick Up on South Street — Vincent Martini
Quiet Man, The — Traci Nell Peterson
Rear Window — Roy Gordon
Rebel Without a Cause — Jack McDonald
Searchers, The — mkm28
Seven Samurai, The — Paul Graunke
Singin’ in the Rain — Maegan Kelly
Some Like It Hot — Will King
Stalag 17 — James Schramm
Sunset Blvd. — Lisa Byrd
Tokyo Story — Jeff Messerman
Vertigo — Jason Pates