Movie 23 - "Sunset Boulevard"

This movie!  It is strange, depressing, and good.  Another Billy Wilder picture, this film is dark, a film noir classic.  However it is not your usual noir.  William Holden, Gloria Swanson, and Erich von Stroheim are the major characters.  Holden plays Joe Gillis, Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, and von Stroheim plays Max. 

Joe is a poor screenwriter in Hollywood trying to avoid debt collectors.  While trying to outrun repo men, Joe gets a blowout and pulls into the nearest driveway.  He chose the wrong house.  In the dilapidated old mansion, former silent movie star, Norma Desmond, lives with her servant Max.  Norma has never gotten over not being famous anymore and treats everyone as servants, including Joe.  After mistaking Joe for a mortician, she coerces him into editing a screenplay she wrote.  Joe, needing money badly, agrees.  Norma talks Joe into staying there.  At first he is just an employee, working on the screenplay.  Then Norma begins trying to entertain Joe and buy him clothes.  This business arrangement begins to take a different turn when Norma admits her love for Joe.  Joe tells her he is wrong for her and leaves.  Norma attempts suicide.  This brings Joe back in.  Norma and Joe finish the screenplay and it goes to director, Cecil B. DeMille.  While waiting for a response, Joe begins working on another screenplay secretly with an acquaintance, who is a girl.  It is discovered that DeMille is not interested in the screenplay, but does not want to hurt Norma's feelings.  It is also discovered that Max has been cushioning Norma's life, writing her fake fan mail and trying to deter Joe's friends getting a hold of him.  He is actually her first husband and living as her devoted servant...creepy!!!!  When Norma figures out that Joe has been seeing this lady and writing, she goes a bit loony, more than she already was.  Joe blurts out the truth about the screenplay, DeMille, and Max.  He explains that no one wants her now.  Then as he tries to leave, he is shot and falls into the pool, dead.  The end scene shows Norma getting to be in front of the cameras again, completely delusional, with the police waiting for her. 

This is a story of a lonely woman who has passed her prime and has devolved into a world of complete fiction.  The down and out guy ends up taking the fall for her insanity.  This movie has been awarded many times and is listed on the 100 best movies of all time list.  Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman spoofed Norma and Max on "The Carol Burnett Show" and is one of their most famous skits.  Hilarious!!  Billy Wilder did a great job making this movie creepy.  Watch it!