Will Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical stage extravaganza withstand the test of time as profoundly as Wilder's classic screen version? That question is best answered by a glimpse into the original. By the time, SUNSET BOULEVARD premiered in 1950 critics had already sanctified the film a classic.
One New York critic noted,"Sunset Boulevard is packed with all the glitter and symbols of American film making while remaining insightful and entertaining. Gloria Swanson as the faded star, will go down in movie history as Gloria Swanson's, Glorious Swansong."
The story co-written by director Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett builds to a melodramatic conclusion as it traces the relationship between the screenwriter and the faded actress has become so downright venerable that Webber could not help himself from translating it into a musical.
The queen of glamour in the silent era, Swanson made 45 films before SUNSET BOULEVARD among them some of Hollywood's biggest hits including SADIE THOMPSON (1928). Her last film before SUNSET BOULEVARD was FATHER TAKES A WIFE (1941) a forgettable comedy.
Born March 20, 1899 in Chicago, Swanson made her first film at 14 as an extra in a comedy starring Wallace Beery whom she later married.
In 1933, at the height of her career, Swanson earned an astonishing $10,000 a week. She was the second actress to make a million dollars (Mary Pickford was the first) and spent it extravagantly, throwing lavish parties at her 22 room mansion. "The public wanted us to live like kings and queens," she later recalled.
When Billy Wilder asked her to test for the role of Norma Desmond, Swanson balked at the idea. She already knew that she was second choice to Mae West (who blatantly refused to portray a washed-up cinema goddess). But after polling some friends Swanson signed the contract.
In the film the struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) seizes an opportunity to make some easy money by reworking a screenplay written by Desmond. She is convinced that the great Cecil DeMille will direct the film which will recapture her former stardom.
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