Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Sunset Boulevard

Steve Hayes reviews the spellbinding film-noir classic:

Billy Wilder takes a sardonic look at Hollywood's past in the classic SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950). The film stars William Holden, Nancy Olsen, Erich Von Stroheim, and, in the greatest comeback in motion picture history, Gloria Swanson as silent screen star Norma Desmond. Based on an Oscar-winning original screenplay by Wilder and writing partner Charles Bracket, it tells the story of a down-and-out Hollywood screenwriter taken in by a faded silent star. Eventually, he finds himself trapped in her web of memories, money, sex, and disillusionment. It's a gritty look at the motion picture industry that's as true today as the when it was made. A business that takes talented people, builds them up, puts them on pedestals, then tosses them aside and forgets them once their talent and box office appeal have been used up. SUNSET BOULEVARD is fascinating, frustrating, funny, and fragile. It's not a pretty picture, but just try and look away.

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