Sunset
Cats: Romance|This is the Jihad of all “indictment of Hollywood”, “this business of ours called show chews them up and spits them out” and “this town is mean in spite of the palm trees” pictures ever made. It angered a few people, studio heads who came to believe that director Billy Wilder had bitten hard on the hand that fed him. It is sometimes so hard to watch as the characters border on unlikeable while being so tragic at the same time.
It is possible that some people have not seen this picture, even though it was on VHS and DVD so I do not want to say too much about it. The story concerns a down on his luck screenwriter who is about to have his car repossessed right from under him. He pull into a driveway on Sunset Boulevard while being chased by the repo men and hides. The writer, Joe Gillis (William Holden) Believes that the house is abandoned; the kind of house built during the first set of golden years of Hollywood - the silent era. He is both right and wrong; the house is from that first golden era and it is not abandoned. Over the next almost two hours we go on this downward spiraling journey of lost dreams, bitter disappointment, despair and poor mental health and ultimately murder.
Made at the start of the 1950’s, one could almost mark the beginning of the end of the second golden age of Hollywood with the release of this picture. The motion picture industry peaked business wise again in 1946 but now it was time to come down from the mountain. Television was slowly killing the studios, that and the success of an antitrust suit that required the studios to divest their theaters. The desperation of the two main characters, could they not be mirrors for the industry? An industry that is being given a most cynical portrayal?
Gloria Swanson, Joe Kennedy’s longtime mistress and silent screen star is magnificent. She is larger than life practically bursting off the screen when she has to and pulls it back when we see how unbalanced this woman is. William Holden had a career rebirth with this picture. His portrayal of Joe, a man with a mixture of good manners and very flexible morals, a dry, almost flat Midwestern delivery of dialogue and, especially, narration, put him immediately into the major leagues. With an economical use of expression our eyes are drawn to him. He became a very hot property after this picture.
This picture contains one of the greatest images ever put to screen. The aging silent film star, sitting alone on a soundstage high up in a chair gets hit by a microphone swinging by. Not for younger kids as this is tough stuff and besides what age is it appropriate to explain to a kid the definition of gigolo.
Sunday February 22nd at 4:00PM on Turner Classic Movies.
June 14th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Another Good blog post, I will be sure to bookmark this in my Del.icio.us account. Have a great evening.