Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T READY: Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard." 62 C I N E M O N T A G E B O O K R E V I E W SEE PAGE 67 camera moves or fancy setups to prove I am a moving-picture director," Wilder once said. "I like to believe that movement can be achieved eloquently, elegantly, economi- cally, and logically without shooting from a hole in the ground." Which is not to say that Wilder lacked artistic ambitions and even pretensions: In a fascinating insight, Lubin writes that it was Wilder's reading of nov- elist Evelyn Waugh's Los Angeles-set satire "The Loved One" that provided an early ker- nel of inspiration for the script that became "Sunset Boulevard." The ill-attended, rath- er perfunctory Hollywood funeral for silent film pioneer director D.W. Griffith, by then a shamefully neglected figure, was another motivating factor for Wilder and Brackett. "Billy and I spent the morning in discussion of the Hollywood story," Brackett wrote in his diary, soon after Griffith's sendoff. "It's all centered around a swimming pool owned by an old silent days' star." L u b i n ex p e r t ly t ra ce s t h e a ss o r te d histories of the other major players in "S u n s e t B o u l e v a rd ," i n c l u d i n g G l o r i a Swanson, whose silent-film superstardom is well evoked. "At the zenith of her career, Swanson was among Hollywood's greatest celebrities, beloved by legions of fans who were whipped into a constant state of adoration by a popular new medium, the movie magazine, Photoplay being the best known," writes Lubin, who notes that Photoplay was the magazine that furnished figures on the actress's alleged spending habits, including $500,000 annually for jewelry, $50,000 for gowns, and $10,000 for lingerie. Yet Swanson could relate not just to Norma Desmond's ascent but her decline as well, especially after her ill-advised decision to pour her energy (and f inancial resources) into her own company, Gloria Swanson Productions, and retain the directorial services of the future costar Stroheim, then a director associated with prof ligac y, for her production of "Queen Kelly " — at the expense of her acting career. " No o t h e r s ta r eve r t u r n e d d ow n a contract which agreed to pay $26,000 every week, fifty-two weeks every year for five years," wrote journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns, but that's just what Swanson did. "La Belle Swanson, at twenty-seven, then the best dressed woman in the world, a public idol, brushed it aside and two years later she was broke — and I mean flat broke." When Wilder turned up with the ideas for "Sunset Boulevard," which had been conceived for Mae West and pitched to Mary Pickford, Swanson had been consigned to the small screen as the host of "The Gloria Swanson Hour." A screen test persuaded Wilder and Brackett of her enduring star presence and intuitive sense of the role. "She has no inhibitions," Brackett wrote in his diary. "It's just a question of holding her back." (They also felt they had to use makeup to add evidence of aging to the still-glamor- ous Swanson.) The book attends to everything from the casting of Holden as Joe Gillis (he had been picked as a backup following Montgomery Clift's withdrawal) to the participation