Overview
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
Whenever I watch films from this era, I have to start with the disclaimer that I generally do not prefer older films. While they may have been groundbreaking and important at the time, they generally do not age well (at least not for my palate). I actually enjoyed this movie, although I suspect that there may have been a better movie in there. Holden is fine as the male lead, but the movie doesn’t take off until we meet Norma Desmond. I can’t think of another character that I have ever seen that is quite like her. She is at different times a villain, comedian (her Chaplin impersonation is quite good), goddess, and sympathetic figure. And sometimes she changed in the same scene! I did some reading on Ms. Swanson – it turns out that Norma Desmond was tame compared to the real-life aging actress. I wish that I could have met her.
IHATEBadMovies.com reviews Sunset Boulevard
Movie title: Sunset Boulevard
Movie description: A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
Date published: 2025-10-21
Director(s): Billy Wilder
Actor(s): William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb, Franklyn Farnum, Larry J. Blake, Charles Dayton, Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson, H.B. Warner, Ray Evans, Jay Livingston, Fred Aldrich, Joel Allen, Gertrude Astor, Anne Bauchens, Edward Biby, Danny Borzage, Ken Christy, Ruth Clifford, John Cortay, Archie R. Dalzell, Eddie Dew, Julia Faye, Al Ferguson, Gerry Ganzer, Rudy Germane, Kenneth Gibson, Creighton Hale, Chuck Hamilton, Len Hendry, E. Mason Hopper, Stan Johnson, Tiny Jones, Howard Joslin, Arthur Lane, Perc Launders, William Meader, Gertrude Messinger, Harold Miller, Howard Negley, John 'Skins' Miller, Lee Miller, Ralph Montgomery, Bert Moorhouse, Jay Morley, Eva Novak, Frank O'Connor, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Jack Perrin, Sidney Skolsky, Emmett Smith, Archie Twitchell, Yvette Vickers, Henry Wilcoxon, James Hawley, Bernice Mosk, Virginia L. Randolph, Bill Sheehan, Roy Thompson, Jack Warden, Finn Zirzow
Genre: Drama
My Review
Whenever I watch films from this era, I have to start with the disclaimer that I generally do not prefer older films. While they may have been groundbreaking and important at the time, they generally do not age well (at least not for my palate). I actually enjoyed this movie, although I suspect that there may have been a better movie in there. Holden is fine as the male lead, but the movie doesn’t take off until we meet Norma Desmond. I can’t think of another character that I have ever seen that is quite like her. She is at different times a villain, comedian (her Chaplin impersonation is quite good), goddess, and sympathetic figure. And sometimes she changed in the same scene! I did some reading on Ms. Swanson – it turns out that Norma Desmond was tame compared to the real-life aging actress. I wish that I could have met her.
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My Review - 8/10
8/10