Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-17 (Friday)

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

Sunset Boulevard (TCM) 1950 movie directed by Billy Wilder and starring
William Holden as a down on his luck Hollywood screenwriter who while
trying to evade having his car repossessed finds himself hiding out at
the estate of a very rich former silent film star (Gloria Swanson).  The
aging star has delusions of current fame and manipulates Holden into
moving in with her to rewrite a screenplay she wrote.  Holden
desperately needs the money and tolerates her nonsense.  The movie
follows the two as they have their ups and downs, with very minor ups,
and a huge down for both of them.  I never saw this movie before now.
It was pretty good.  I did notice Holden's character in this movie was
very similar to his character in "The Bridge on the River Kwai."  And
while I only saw it once, and don't remember it all that well, wasn't
Holden playing the same character in Stalag 17 too?  I'm not sure if he
just plays himself in all his movies or he was directed to act that way.

Sefton in Stalag 17 (1953, also directed by Wilder) gets scenes in which
he is in charge, so that's different than the other two movies, but yes,
I'll agree that Holden had a type.

What amused me about Swanson is that in real life, she was well aware
that her time in Hollywood had come and was long gone, which is why she
lived in New York and was performing in the occassional stage play. She
shared no delusions with Norma Desmond.