Sunset Boulevard on DVD

Billy Wilder’s famed masterpiece has been given a new lease on life thanks to a digital restoration that has been put onto DVD version. The restoration of this old black and white classic is eerily reminiscent of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) herself, a faded gem looking for a chance to be great once again.

Sunset Boulevard is great again, in every way. While the greatness of the film itself, via the writing, performances, and direction, has never faded, the movie itself hadn’t stood the test of time (according to the DVD’s supplementary materials), so it’s fortunate that Paramount Pictures has embarked on a strategy to preserve its greatest creations.

And this is a great one.

The story is about Hollywood, not its glamour but the rot beneath its surface. It was quite controversial at the time; Hollywood didn’t like the reflection it saw when Wilder held this particular mirror up to it, and today it remains powerful, shocking, astonishing, and even funny in places. But most of all it’s sad.

William Holden plays Joe Gillis, a down on his luck and cynical screenwriter who, while trying to evade some repo guys attempting to take back his car, pulls into a driveway off Sunset Boulevard and into a new and bizarre life.

The driveway leads to the rundown mansion of Norma Desmond (Swanson, who is positively riveting in her performance), a forgotten giant of the silent screen whose career ran out with the advent of sound. She’s a real whacko, living completely in the past in her shrine of a palace, helped by her devoted butler, Max (legendary director Erich von Stroheim). Norma’s one forward-looking thought is a dream of a comeback, in a remake of Salome she’s been writing out in longhand and means to have directed by her old friend Cecil B. DeMille (who plays himself).

Joe ends up agreeing to help her put the script into a marketable form, which in the end is his undoing: before he knows it his own life has been swallowed up by Desmond’s, even to his living with her and basically becoming her gigolo.

Joe does get one chance for redemption, via another scriptwriting opportunity with the fiancée of his friend (she’s played by Nancy Olson, the friend’s played by Jack Webb), but when she starts falling for him he destroys their relationship rather than ruin his friend's future and/or leave the comfortable confines of the dusty old mansion and the dusty old bag.

Sunset Boulevard is one of those timeless Hollywood classics, a great movie that has affected popular culture (for example, Norma’s line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," may be even more famous than the film). Though we didn’t see it in its initial release, the film seems as powerful today as ever.

Swanson is unbelievable as Desmond; her performance is over-the-top but completely believable; if she weren’t such a whack job in denial you’d feel sorry for her. Holden also does a good job as the down-and-out screenwriter, though his role isn’t as demanding. Erich von Stroheim is magnificently creepy as the devoted butler who’s far more than one might expect, and Olson is wonderful, fresh and sexy and innocent all at the same time.

This is a “film school” movie, where every frame and image can and should be studied as “the way it should be done.” It’s full of classic lines and situations, with classic performances and some surprising cameos (for example, Buster Keaton and Hedda Hopper). The casting was inspired; as you’ll discover in the DVD’s supplementary material, it’s amazing that director Wilder could get Von Stroheim to play his part considering his past association with Swanson, and there are other equally interesting coups as well – but we won’t spoil them for you here.

The DVD looks really good, though since it’s presented in its original 4x3 aspect ratio owners of 16x9 widescreen TV’s will have to stretch/zoom the picture to fit their screens. Despite that, however, Sunset Boulevard looks great, with sharp images and wonderful black and white contrast – especially in the moody and musty mansion.

Audio is Dolby Digital mono and is about as unremarkable as one would expect from 1950.

Then there are the extras. First up is a running commentary by Ed Sikov, who wrote “On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder.” It’s very interesting, but you’ll want to have sat through the movie enough times to do it justice before adding this to the soundtrack.

You also get “The Making of Sunset Boulevard,” a fascinating feature that’s about a half hour long and full of interesting insight and features interviews with Olson, Sikov, film critic Andrew Sarris, Paramount producer A.C. Lyles, and Glenn Close, who played Norma Desmond in the Broadway musical version. You also get another featurette “The Music of Sunset Boulevard,” and yet another “Edith Head: The Paramount Years,” which focuses on the legendary costume designer.

There’s also a “Hollywood map” of locations in the film, a photo gallery, the original prologue to the film (which was changed when audiences didn’t find it fit the film’s dark mood) and the theatrical trailer.

Sunset Boulevard, from Paramount Home Video
110 min. “narrowscreen” original 4x3 theatrical aspect ratio (not 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stoheim
Produced by Charles Brackett
Written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, Directed by Billy Wilder

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