Tonight!

At 7:00 & 9:10 P.M.

Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, Sunset Blvd.

Top 5 Gloria Swanson Films I Still Need To See:

1. Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille, 1919)
2. Sadie Thompson (Raoul Walsh, 1928)
3. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Sam Wood, 1923)
4. Indiscreet (Leo McCarey, 1931)
5. The Affairs of Anatol (Cecil B. DeMille, 1921)


Top 5 Billy Wilder Films:

1. Some Like It Hot (1959)
2. Double Indemnity (1944)
3. Sabrina (1954)
4. The Apartment (1960)
5. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)


Top 5 William Holden Films:

1. Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954)
2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
3. Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
4. The Horse Soldiers (John Ford, 1959)
5. Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950)


Top 5 Cecil B. DeMille Films I Haven't Seen But Probably Should:

1. The Ten Commandments (1923)
2. The King of Kings (1927)
3. Cleopatra (1934)
4. Sign of the Cross (1932)
5. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)


Top 5 Films of 1950:

1. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
2. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
3. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
4. Harvey (henry Koster)
5. Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini)

Pre-Game Warm-Up: Gloria Swanson Edition

To prepare for this week's Metro Classic, I decided to finally watch some of Gloria Swanson's classic silent films. She started in films at Essanay in Chicago (Charlie Chaplin's studio at the time) around 1914. By the end of the war, she'd moved to Hollywood and starred in a string of films directed by Cecil B. DeMille that by 1921 made her one of the biggest stars in the world. Here's two of those films:


Don't Change Your Husband - Gloria Swanson doesn't get any close-ups in this Cecil B. DeMille film from 1919. This seems a little too early for that kind of thing, at least for him. Most of the scenes play out in two shots, with occasional inserts for close-ups of objects. DeMille keeps it all moving though, so the film ends up feeling as light and pleasant as its story (and there's some wonderful fantasy sequences as Swanson imagines what her new life would be like, they've got the same spirit of spectacle that would eventually take over DeMille's filmmaking). The plot has Swanson dissatisfied with her husband (he's a slob, he appears to eat nothing but onions, he can't dance), so she divorces him and marries the romantic young man who's been wooing her. But the new guy turns out to be even worse! He's a gambler and a drunk and he's cheating on her with a girl named 'Toodles'. Meanwhile, Husband #1 has got himself a rowing machine, shaved his mustache and become even richer as the head of the new Hemp Trust (seriously!). Has poor Gloria learned her lesson? It's really quite a fun film, and it's always good to be reminded that romantic comedy plots haven't advanced one bit in at least the last 90 years.


Why Change Your Wife? - This time, it's the husband (Thomas Meighan, who looks a bit like Joseph Cotton, or a unholy mix of Jude Law and Norm MacDonald) who's dissatisfied, seems his wife is always interrupting his shaving, trying to get him to quit smoking, looks down on his reading movie magazines and turning off his hot new foxtrot music and making him listen to some violin piece called "The Dying Poet". To try and spice things up, he buys her some lingerie, which she's too shy to wear properly, so he goes to a show with the lingerie model (a typical flapper-type). Divorce, followed by the realization that Spouse #2 is even worse, ensues. This is pretty much in the same style as the first film, and Swanson is just as good (still hardly any closeups, though). There's a long, expensive-looking sequence at a hotel pool that features some of the craziest, most impractical swimwear you've ever seen. Swanson I guess was famous at the time for her interest in haute couture, and for being one the first famous fashion stars. Personally, I think most of the clothes are pretty hideous and totally unflattering, but what do I know?

Swanson's success continued throughout the 20s, and by the end of the decade she was still star enough to produce her own films, joining United Artists with Chaplin, DW griffith, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. As a producer, she financed what would end up being Erich von Stroheim's last film as a director:


Queen Kelly - Swanson's first and only collaboration with director Erich von Stroheim, her Sunset Blvd. costar, was this unfinished film. She and her boyfriend at the time, Joseph Kennedy (yes, that one) produced it and she hired von Stroheim to direct. The projected film would have been about five hours long, but she fired von Stroheim about one-third of the way (and $800,000 or so) through. It seems her changed the script without her approval (or the approval of the Hays Office) to have most of the last section of the film take place in a brothel instead of a "dance hall", and knowing it would get censored, Swanson killed it. She went back later (with Gregg Toland) and shot a quick ending to the surviving footage, and Kino's used some production stills to recreate and give a sense of von Stroheim's version of the film. As it stands, neither version is particularly satisfying. The completed section is pretty terrific, with Swanson as a young convent girl (Kelly) whom the Queen's fiancé falls in love with. The Queen herself (Regina V, played by Seena Owen) is crazy and violent and likes to whip people and walks around naked with only a cat covering her breasts. All this is a lot of fun, but in the long version, it would have only been a sort of prologue, with the rest of the film taking place in Africa has Swanson is forced to marry an evil looking guy (an incredibly creepy Tully Marshall), take over her aunt's brothel and become a madam. All that survives of that is the forced marriage sequence, which is suitably horrifying. Swanson's ending cuts out all of that, taking an abrupt conclusion on to the Prince & Queen story.


After that miserable experience, Swanson successfully moved into sound pictures, getting an Oscar nomination for her first one, The Trespasser, which she and director Edmond Goulding (whom Swanson had hired to help her finish Queen Kelly) made in a matter of weeks and was enough of a hit to pay back all the losses on the von Stroheim film. But by the mid-30s, she appears to have lost interest in making movies (she moved to New York at the end of the decade) but instead worked in theatre, early television, fashion, painting, sculpting and writing. The Kino DVD of Queen Kelly has a fascinating special feature of Swanson herself introducing the film and talking about the experience of making and trying to finish it for a showing of it on television. She's totally charming, and seeing just how different she actually was from Norma Desmond reminds you of just how brilliant her performance in Sunset Blvd. really is.

Links: Sunset Blvd.

First we have William Brogdon's review of the film for Variety on April 19, 1950. "B.O.-wise, the ballyhoo possibilities are strong and returns will reflect the selling."

60 years later, we have AO Scott's video review in the New York Times.

Finally, the Internet Movie Script Database has the screenplay for Sunset Blvd.. It has some good lines.

Billy Wilder Rules: the Filmspotting Interview

As any attendee of Metro Classics knows, Sean and I have long been enamored with the great Filmspotting podcast. Based out of Chicago, the show (also broadcast on WBEZ public radio) is hosted by "Art-House" Adam Kempenaar and "Mainstream" Matty Robinson, two witty and knowledgeable guys who would much rather spend fifteen solid minutes diving into the intricate minutiae of a film than simply casting off an up-or-down vote, incorporating one snappy line and getting on with the show. It's their geniality and passion for film that makes the program special. Recently the two have also begun teaching classes on film at the University of Chicago. Their new course coincidentally is on the films of Billy Wilder. In honor of this academic summit and our upcoming screening of Sunset Boulevard, we sent a few questions Filmspotting's way in hopes that they could enlighten us all on the genius of Wilder. They did not disappoint.

1) In your upcoming class at the University of Chicago you will be examining ten major Wilder works, what films will you be showing?

We divided the class into three parts - dramas, comedies and then a group I'm calling 'genre' pics. We start with Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., The Lost Weekend and Ace in the Hole; then go to Sabrina, Love in the Afternoon, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment; and finish with Stalag 17 and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

2) Are there any in particular that you had to leave out that you wish you could include?

I've always been very curious about A Foreign Affair with Marlene Deitrich, but have yet to see it and couldn't include in the class because it's pretty tough to find. It's not currently on DVD.

3) What will the course be like? How much homework are you guys asking for?

No homework! We offer a little lecture to provide some background and context, play clips from supporting/similar films and then watch the film and spend the rest of the class discussing it.

4) Wilder made so many diverse pictures; what do you consider the hallmarks of his work, something that defines his films time and again?

Honestly, that's something I'm still working out and look forward to continue working out with the class through our discussions. But I think there's a dark side to Wilder, even with some of his most blatant comedies, that often comes through. And personally, I'm more invested in the dramas - he offers flawed heroes who strive to be almost Nietzschean supermen but fail miserably.

5) What is your favorite color?

Boring blue

6) Is there a quintessential Wilder scene that you would show the ignorant world in an attempt to define his style?

Something from Double Indemnity for sure - too many to choose.

7) Are there any Wilder films that disappoint, that don't work for you?

Many, actually. Wilder himself said nobody should bat 1.000. He thought .400 was a good average, and that's probably what he hit for his career. Especially later, there are a bunch of goofy comedies that don't really work or are worth watching mainly as curios - Kiss Me, Stupid, to name one... even The Seven Year Itch, for me, is mostly forgettable. Wilder really didn't know how to function outside the studio system, and The New Hollywood kind of ran over him.

8) If you had to choose between the ability to fly or be invisible, which would you choose?

Fly. And I think anyone who says otherwise is insane, frankly.

9) Which is your favorite Wilder film?

See #6. Can't get enough Barbara Stanwyck.

Coming Attractions: Sunset Blvd

Wednesday, March 24th at 7:00 & 9:10 P.M.

Giveaways: DVD courtesy of Scarecrow Video and a gift certificate to Cinema Books, respectively.

See you there!