10 Great Screenplays: #4 Sunset Boulevard (1950)

It's difficult to pin Billy Wilder's 1950 classic, Sunset Boulevard, under just one genre. Much of the film plays out as very serious and in the mold of a film noir, as the main character manages to dig a whole that continually gets deeper until it traps him. Also, there are many lighter moments, where laughter is illicited. Last but certainly not least, there's the satirical elements that cannot be ignored. So what appears to a drama about a doomed man has multiple layers to it, thanks to the guidance of Billy Wilder's talent as a storyteller.

Wilder steps out from behind the camera for a picture.

Now, onto the writing. The screenplay was written by D.M Marshman, Jr., Charles Brackett, and Billy Wilder. Clearly they knew a thing or two about Hollywood, it's silent past and how the game worked in the studios. All of those elements figure into the story of Joe Gillis, a two-bit writer who can't sell any of his screenplays. He's a hard-luck loser, and that's obvious from page one. Why? Because he's dead.

Here is where the screenplay differs from the finished film. Yes, you know that Gillis is dead, but it doesn't open with his body floating face-down in a pool. He's in the morgue talking to other guys who have recently made the journey into the afterlife. Each of them explain how they got there and then it's Gillis's turn. Thus begins the tale of the screenwriter whose only talent appears to be attracting all sorts of bad fortune.

Who knew the wealthy district near UCLA was so menacing?

His stories don't sell, his agent cares more about golfing than actually finding a job for his struggling client, and his car is wanted by the repo men. After his failed attempt at a pitch (a nosy reader said the story was flat), he bumps into the repo men on Sunset Boulevard. They chase him and a tire pops forcing him to turn into the nearest driveway, which the repo men luckily do not see.

The place is abandoned looking, hasn't been truly cared for in years. Then Gillis sees two people, a wealthy old lady and her butler. They mistake him for an undertaker who's supposed to have a custom made coffin for the lady's recently deceased monkey. Eventually, he explains that he's a writer, not a very successful one, but a writer nonetheless.

At this point, Gillis recognizes the old lady as Norma Desmond, a silent movie star. She lives under the illusion that her fans have never forgiven her for "deserting them." This illusion also appears to be carried by Max, the mysterious butler. Gillis takes all of this in with the cheap sarcasm becoming of the hack writer he appears to be, especially the ridiculous script Desmond has apparently spent years working on. It's long, it's silent, and it's purely amateurish, but it's his escape route from the repo boys. He can lay low and at least pretend to work on the script while setting up shop in the Ms. Desmond's swanky yet slightly run-down mansion.

During a visit to town, Gillis runs into Betty Schaefer, the nosy reader who ruined his pitch earlier and her fiancee, his old friend, Artie Green. Schaefer wants to make the jump from reader to screenwriter and feels like working with Gillis is the way to go. He initially turns her down, but after a few run-ins, he decides to work with her. Unbeknownst to ol' Ms. Desmon, who's become very possessive of the writer, he sneaks out to write a few pages every night.

With all of the suspense building, it is my cue to leave the summary and talk about what makes the writing so special. For one thing, perhaps no two writers know how make a screenplay skip along with witty and natural dialogue than Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. Now throw in the black comedy and the satire on Hollywood. You have the makings of something very unique. The characters are colorful, bringing life to the stark, vampiristic settings in which the story takes place.

How's that for a closing shot?

In other words, the story is simply dripping with irony, a tool that is very powerful when placed in the right hands. No wonder the screenplay for Sunset Boulevard was the easy choice for Best Original Screenplay at the 23rd Academy Awards.