Sunset Boulevard (World, 9.30pm) has come to be so famous, that the earlier careers of two of the stars, Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim, have been almost completely eclipsed by it.
The story still has shock value even now; at the time, Hollywood were shocked at the painful portrayal of movie land. After one preview, MGM head Louis B Mayer apparently leapt out of his chair and roared at director Billy Wilder, 'you have disgraced the industry that made you and fed you'.
Why were they so shocked? It is not a pretty tale, and starts at the end with the body of a handsome, unsuccessful screenwriter called Joe (William Holden) floating in a swimming pool and a voice (also Holden) begins to explain just how the body got to be there.
Joe was not having much luck persuading the studios to buy his material and one day, struggling to fend off the repo men who have come for his car, decides to hide it in the garage of a deserted Hollywood mansion. Except it isn't deserted, it belongs to someone. He finds himself drawn into the pathetic terrifying fantasy life of a mature, former silent movie star Norma Desmond (Swanson) and her adoring butler, (and ex-husband and ex-director) Max (Von Stroheim).
She has spent the last 20 years growing crazier and crazier, muttering darkly about the good old days and planning her triumphant return. 'We had faces then' she tells Joe, 'I am big. It is the pictures that got small.' There were cameos by real figures from the silent era, Buster Keaton, and Cecil B DeMille, and a cinephile's in-joke when Norma show Joe some clips from the old days, and the footage is from Queen Kelly, which Swanson and von Stroheim made together in 1928. The film was a complete disaster at the time, going way over budget and far too long, and never showed in the US until these clips were shown.
The way in which the vacuity of Hollywood is depicted has perhaps never been bettered, but in one respect, Sunset Boulevard has dated terribly.
