On Sunset Boulevard

by Ed Sikov

  286–87 Wilder and Cukor: Levy, p. 175.

  287 “Joseph, you’d better get out here …”: Koszarski, p. 220.

  287 “There was something great…”: Ciment, Positif, Oct. 1970, pp. 5–17.

  287 “I don’t have to tell you …”: Erich von Stroheim to Paul Kohner, November 21, 1948, “Paul Kohner: Hollywood’s Gentleman Agent” (exhibition), Goethe-Institut, Los Angeles, April 10–May 31, 1997.

  288 Marshman hired: Entertainment Today, Oct. 10, 1975.

  289 “Bullshit!” and “I like it, I’ll do it…”: Bob Thomas, pp. 59–60.

  290 Holden’s fee: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 2.

  289 Note on Hispano-Suiza: The line is from Wilder’s script for Scampolo.

  289 “Suppose the old dame …”: Friedrich, pp. 418–19.

  289 “Billy once showed Axelrod …”: Deutsch, pp. 155–56.

  290 Brackett’s and Wilder’s earnings: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 2.

  290 “It won’t be Schwab’s …”: Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” Hollywood Citizen-News, Aug. 29, 1949.

  291 “I thought Billy Wilder was a friend …”: Paris, p. 431; AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 13.

  291 “I wanted two gossip columnists …”: “A New Turn for Sunset Boulevard” Los Angeles Times (undated clipping in AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 13).

  291 Swanson’s makeup: Bob Thomas, p. 61; Sunset Boulevard pressbook.

  291 “Do you know Bill Holden …”: Bob Thomas, p. 61.

  291 Getty mansion: Alleman, p. 94; Friedrich, pp. 418–19.

  292 Censors’ response: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard MPAA file.

  292 Swanson’s costuming: Head, p. 89.

  293 Production schedule: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 3.

  293 Instructions to Seitz: Goodman, p. 202; Lightman, p. 319.

  295 Haines quotation: New York Times, June 5, 1949, Sec. II, p. 5.

  295 Note on the waxworks: To be fair, all three former stars did play small roles in a number of other films of the 1940s and 1950s, though never, humiliatingly, as themselves.

  295 Stroheim’s suggestions: Freeman, p. 77; Koszarski, p. 289.

  296 “He was shooting Samson …”: Freeman, p. 77.

  296 On DeMille’s appearance: Motion Picture Herald, June 4, 1949; Hollywood Citizen-News, June 1, 1949; New York Times, May 29, 1949; Sunset Boulevard pressbook.

  297 “The night shot where Holden …”: Freeman, p. 77.

  297 “Darling, it’s late …”: Karasek, p. 328.

  297 Holden and Olson kissing: Bob Thomas, p. 62.

  297 Weather problems: Ursini, p. 62.

  298 The snoring corpse: Paramount News, Aug. 22, 1949.

  298 Von Stroheim’s driving: Swanson, p. 482; Freeman, p. 77.

  298 Shooting Gillis in the pool: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 3; Meehan, pp. 6–8; Lightman, p. 318.

  300 DeMille’s retakes: Freeman, p. 77; AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Legal briefs file “DeMille Productions, Cecil B.”

  300 “Strauss for the rehearsal…”: Freeman, p. 77.

  300–1 Final shot of Sunset: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 12.

  301 Budget of Sunset: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 7.

  301 Gifts: Playboy, Dec. 1960, p. 147.

  301 Wilder on the previews: Ciment, Positif, July–Aug., 1983, pp. 15–28. Note: I found no written record of when these previews occurred. Based on the reshooting schedule, they probably took place in late September or early October.

  301 Balaban’s response to morgue: Ursini, p. 61.

  302 Waxman’s career and style: Thomas, Tony, Music for the Movies, pp. 41, 78–79; Palmer, pp. 97, 104–5, 109–10.

  302 Sunset’s ads: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sunset Boulevard production file 1; Sunset Boulevard pressbook.

  303 Sunset’s industry screening: Hollywood Reporter, Aug. 3, 1950.

  303 Stanwyck kneels: Wiley and Bona, p. 202.

  303 “Fuck you”: Zolotow, p. 168.

  303 “Go shit in your hat”: Freeman, p. 76.

  303–4 “That this completely original work …”: Hollywood Reporter, April 17, 1950.

  304 Sarris remark: Sarris, “Romanticist,” p. 8.

  304 Oscar details: Wiley and Bona, p. 205.

  304 Mankiewicz’s remark: Geist, pp. 6–7.

  304–05 Wilder and Holden’s interchange: Bob Thomas, p. 65.

  305 “Screwing you’re getting …”: Madsen, Stanwyck, p. 286.

  305 The Wilders’ house: Neuhart, Neuhart, and Eames, p. 137; Billy Wilder to Donald Albrecht, May 20, 1994.

  305 Brackett and Wilder divorce: Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 2, 1949.

  306 “Billy had outgrown …”: Time, June 27, 1960, p. 75.

  306 “I never knew what happened …”: Kanin, pp. 178–79.

  306 “It’s like a box of matches …”: Linville, p. 58.

  306 Billy says nothing: Zolotow, p. 171.

  CHAPTER 18

  309 “Paramount feels their combined salaries …”: Los Angeles Examiner, Aug. 13, 1949.

  309 Brackett’s new deal: Los Angeles Examiner Oct. 30, 1950; Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 7, 1950.

  309 Note on Brackett: The Mating Season was Brackett’s final Paramount film, The Model and the Marriage Broker his first film for Fox.

  310 Carlson plagiarism suit: Stephanie Joan Carlson v. Paramount Pictures et al., Superior Court file #C591411, Los Angeles County Hall of Records.

  310 Note on Carlson suit: Court records terminate with a dismissal; whether or not the dismissal was accompanied by a settlement is unclear, and to my knowledge the principals have never discussed the details in public.

  311 Buckler suit: Variety, July 20, 1954; Hollywood Reporter, Aug. 4, 1955.

  311 Newman’s recollections: Zolotow, p. 174.

  311 Laughton idea: Zolotow, pp. 174–75.

  312 Note on the title: An “ace in the hole” is an ace kept facedown during a game of stud poker.

  313 “Sure, they called it cynical …”: Playboy, Dec., 1960, p. 145.

  313 “The dramatist who sets out…”: Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 1, 1950.

  314 “Do not give out…”: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Ace in the Hole screenplay file.

  315 Douglas’s fee: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, legal briefs file on “Douglas, Kirk.”

  315 Jan Sterling’s recollections: Interview with the author, Oct. 29, 1997.

  316 Note on “and another thing …”: By the time Wilder filmed this sequence he had deleted Lorraine’s final remark about getting to like it.

  316 Douglas’s letter to Wilder: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Kirk Douglas Collection, Box 1: Correspondence, May 2-Aug. 31, 1950.

  316 “Give it both knees …”: Douglas, p. 178.

  316 Censors’ response: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Ace in the Hole MPAA file.

  317 Note on Samuels’s payment: Because these transactions appear to have been private contracts between Wilder and his writers, Paramount’s budgets do not reveal what they each earned. AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Ace in the Hole production file 1.

  317 Cave set details: Ace in the Hole pressbook.

  318 Weather problems: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Ace in the Hole production file 2.

  318 Censors’ response: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Ace in the Hole MPAA file.

  318 Medical advice: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Ace in the Hole production file 3.

  318 Douglas chokes Sterling: Douglas, p. 178.

  322 “He didn’t ‘direct’ …”: Jan Sterling interview with the author, Oct. 29, 1997.

  325 Ace’s score: Thomas, Music for the Movies, pp. 150–55; and Thomas, Film Score, pp. 213–14.

  325 “Well, you had the circle of stars …”:
Newman, p. 39.

  326 Note on Wilder’s box office failures: The Emperor Waltz was a failure only by virtue of its exorbitant cost.

  326 “Ruthless and cynical…”: Hollywood Reporter, May 7, 1951.

  326 Venice Award: Paramount News, Sept. 24, 1951.

  326–27 “Fuck them all…”: Zolotow, p. 176.

  327 Desny plagiarism suit: Victor Desny v. Billy Wilder et al., Superior Court file #C591207, Los Angeles County Hall of Records.

  327 Tippy’s lawsuit: Quick, Jan. 8, 1951.

  327 Hernandez departs: Zolotow, p. 176.

  328 Note on Desny suit: The Ace in the Hole settlement was not widely covered in the press and may only have come to light when a trade paper covered the settlement of another plagiarism suit launched by Desny. In the 1960s, Desny successfully sued Fox for plagiarizing the Shirley MacLaine film What a Way to Go! (1964). Desny was awarded $ 50,000 in that case. According to an unsourced, undated clipping on file at the Academy library, “Judgement marks second time the writer has gone to court over a disputed story. In 1957, he won a suit against Paramount on charge his idea for a film script was pirated in studio’s 1951 feature, The Big Carnival. Suit was settled out of court for a reported $14,350.” Zolotow mentions the suit but claims the settlement was for $25,000. AMPAS clippings file, “Desny, Victor”; Zolotow, p. 176.

  CHAPTER 19

  329 “Talk is that Billy Wilder …”: Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 2, 1950.

  329 Note on the studio system: See Douglas Gomery’s The Hollywood Studio System for an unusually lucid discussion of the studios and their collapse.

  330 Wilders’ trip to Europe: Sammlung Paul Kohner, Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, h. ss-88/1h-6, file 1.

  331 New contract: Paramount News, Dec. 4, 1950.

  331 The Loved One and Dr. Knock: Los Angeles Examiner, Dec. 21, 1950; AFI Oral History with John F. Seitz; Sammlung Paul Kohner, Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, h. ss-88/1h-6, file 1.

  331 A New Kind of Love: Bret, p. 151; Los Angeles Examiner, March 11, 1951.

  331 Mankiewicz and DeMille furor: Geist, pp. 185–86; Billy Wilder (et al.) v. Screen Directors Guild of America, case #578838, Los Angeles County Hall of Records. I also thank Kenneth Geist for making his audiotaped interview available to me: Geist interview with Billy Wilder, Oct. 11, 1972.

  331 On Chevalier: Behr, p. 295.

  331 Note on A New Kind of Love: Paramount did make a film with that title in 1962; it starred Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Chevalier, who played himself. That film boasts a plot that would likely have appealed to Billy Wilder. Chevalier is the host of the Festival of St. Catherine, where women who want husbands parade to the saint’s statue to pray for a man. Samantha (Woodward) is a frigid fashion buyer for a New York department store; she meets Greg (Newman), a sports writer, on a trip to Paris. Samantha goes to St. Catherine, gets glamorized, and turns herself into Mimi, a wild Parisian. Greg falls in love with Mimi. After many complications owing to her disguise, Greg figures out that Mimi is really Samantha, and they get together in the end. Freedland, p. 206; Variety, April 25, 1951; and various clippings in the AMPAS file on Maurice Chevalier.

  333 On Rossen: Ceplair and Englund, p. 383; Sammlung Paul Kohner, Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, h. ss-88/1h-6, file 1.

  333 Note on the Laurel and Hardy project: Unlike Jou-Jou in Ein blonder Traum, the woman who comes between Laurel and Hardy would be rich—a widow visiting her husband’s grave. She falls in love with Ollie but hates Stan.

  333 “They were sharp wisecracks …” Zolotow, pp. 177–78.

  334 On Camille: Zolotow, pp. 177–78.

  334 Blum’s fee: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, legal briefs file on “Blum, Edwin.”

  334 “Along with Sunset Boulevard …”: Andres, pp. 1–2.

  334 Paramount’s financial expectations: Lemon, p. 36.

  335 Parsons’s announcement: Los Angeles Examiner, May 29, 1951.

  335 Note on Stalag 17: Paramount’s purchase of the rights was reported in Variety on Aug. 29, 1951. However, Wilder claims that he bought the rights himself for $50,000 and then took it to Paramount. Zolotow, p. 179.

  335 Don Taylor recollections: Interview with the author, Aug. 14, 1995.

  335 Cy Howard’s casting: Los Angeles Examiner, Oct. 17, 1951.

  336 Holden cast: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 79.

  336 Holden walks out: Douglas, p. 179; Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 79.

  336 “If I were you …”: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 64.

  336 “The kind of leading man …”: Goodman, p. 255.

  336 Location shooting: Andres, pp. 1–2.

  337 Costs: A preliminary budget dated Feb. 4, 1952, sets the price tag at $1,315,000, of which $250,000 went to Wilder; the final cost was $1,661,530. AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Stalag 17 production file 2.

  337 Preminger’s fee: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Stalag 17 production file 2.

  337 Production meeting and shooting schedule: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Stalag 17 production files 3 and 4.

  337 “He’s making me anti-Semitic”: Don Taylor interview with the author, Aug. 14, 1995.

  338 “Goddamn it…”: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 80.

  338 Escalating costs: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Stalag 17 production file 3.

  339 Original ending: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Stalag 17 screenplay file.

  340 Note on the Eisenhower era: True, the popular World War II general had not yet been elected when Wilder wrote the script for Stalag 17, but I think the 1950s can still be said to be the Eisenhower era.

  341 “Little more than his butler …”: Zolotow, pp. 180–81.

  341 “Proving the essential rightness …”: Denby, p. 52.

  341 Note on Laszlo: He was a camera operator on The Major and the Minor and a competent if undistinguished cinematographer since 1944.

  343 Box office returns: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 82.

  343 Cy Howard in the whorehouse: New York Herald-Tribune, May 4, 1951.

  344 “Well, you know, Bill…”: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 82.

  344 On Catcher in the Rye: Don Taylor interview with the author, Aug. 14, 1995. Note: of course the novel’s reclusive author has steadfastly refused to sell the film rights.

  344 Wilder’s travel plans: Los Angeles Examiner, May 6, 1952.

  344 Note on Epstein: He cowrote Casablanca with his brother Philip and Howard Koch.

  345 Memo on A New Kind of Love: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, A New Kind of Love MPAA file.

  345 “We find Audrey Hepburn …”: Deutsch, p. 156.

  CHAPTER 20

  347 Parsons’s announcement: Los Angeles Examiner, May 7, 1953.

  347 “She looks as if she could spell …”: Walker, p. 84.

  348 “After so many drive-in …”: Goodman, p. 271.

  349 Actors’ fees: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, legal briefs files on Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, and William Holden; Sabrina production file 2.

  349 Bogart’s Warners contract, Committee for the First Amendment, and relationship with the Wilders: Hyams, pp. 125, 141, 163.

  350 “Look, let’s just shake hands …”: Bogart, pp. 179–81.

  350 “Audrey is a tall girl…”: Goodman, p. 271.

  350 Lehman’s hiring: Walker, pp. 86–87.

  350 Cast and crew in New York: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sabrina production files 3 and 4.

  351 All-night writing sessions: Walker, pp. 86–87.

  351 Hartman’s nervousness: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sabrina production file 4.

  351 “More likely …”: Walker, p. 90.

  351 Costuming details: Harris, p. 103; Collins, p. 282.; AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sabrina production file 4.

  351–52 Givenchy and Balenciaga story: Collins, p. 282.

  352 Cost of cocktail dress: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sabrina production file 4.

  353 Bogart’s churlishness: Walker, pp. 86–88.

  353 “Get them to do something …”: Gehman, p. 90.

&n
bsp; 353 Drinks after work: Walker, p. 88.

  353 “Bogart gave me …”: Anon., Playboy, June 1963, p. 65.

  353 Bogart walks out: Bogart, p. 179–81.

  353 “Did she write this?”: Thomas, Golden Boy, p. 85.

  353 Holden and Hepburn in love and Clifton Webb remark: Maychick, pp. 98–100.

  354 “Dumb prick”: Woodward, p. 117.

  354 “Kraut bastard Nazi son of a bitch”: Bogart, pp. 179–81; Harris, p. 105.

  354 “I examine your face …”: Walker, p. 88; Zolotow, p. 253.

  354 Holden written out: Walker, p. 88.

  354 “Crock of shit”: Collins, p. 287.

  354 Lehman’s doctor: Zolotow, pp. 183–84; Lally, pp. 234–35.

  355 Cost of Sabrina: AMPAS, Paramount Collection, Sabrina production files 3 and 5.

  355 “Fuck you”: Zolotow, p. 187.

  355 “Billy has to take over …” and “all kinds of names …”: Zolotow, pp. 182–84.

  355 Drastic retouching of Heburn’s physique: Sabrina pressbook.

  359 Retreat to Badgastein and Holden’s painting: Thomas, Golden Boy, pp. 88–89, 95.

  359 Wilder leaves Paramount: “Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy,” American Masters, PBS, 1998.

  360 Wilder signs with Allied Artists: Los Angeles Examiner, May 26, 1954.

  CHAPTER 21

  362 Censorship issues: AMPAS, MPAA file on The Seven Year Itch;.

  362 Censors report on Itch: Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 2, 1953; AFI, Charles K. Feldman Collection, folder 263.

  362 French and Spanish versions of Itch: AFI, Charles K. Feldman Collection, folder 263.

  362 Notes on negotiations: Wilder’s share was 48.25 percent. By the way, Maurice Zolotow reports a very different transaction, the story of which Kevin Lally repeats practically verbatim. According to Zolotow, Wilder was a friend of superagent Swifty Lazar. At a party in Bel-Air, Lazar is said to have overheared an MGM executive telling someone that the studio was about to close a deal on The Seven Year Itch. The executive said that Axelrod wanted Wilder to direct the film adaptation. Lazar is then said to have called Billy and asked if he wanted to direct the movie, and, by the way, could he be Billy’s agent on the deal? Billy said that he could. Lazar then went to New York and mentioned to Axelrod that he could get Billy Wilder to direct the film as long as he could represent Axelrod on the transaction. Thus Lazar is said to have gotten 10 percent from Billy’s end and 10 percent from Axelrod’s. Then Charles Feldman approached Swifty, saying that he wanted The Seven Year Itch for his client, Monroe. Swifty said that he could persuade Billy, “who had personally bought the play with his own money, for $255,000—to sell the property to Twentieth Century–Fox, Marilyn’s studio.” Thus Lazar got 10 percent of Feldman’s deal, too, with Feldman reselling the film rights to Fox for $500,000. The name of Swifty Lazar does appear in a few of the many memos describing the deal on file at the American Film Institute and the UCLA Arts Library, but the story of his agenting for everyone seems entirely fictitious. Why would Charles Feldman, himself an agent, yield an agent’s commission to Swifty Lazar? Why would MCA’s Lew Wasserman do the same, as well as Axelrod’s agent, Edward Colton? In any event, Wilder did not buy the film rights himself. The Feldman Group did. Zolotow, pp. 189–90; Lally, pp. 239–40; UCLA Arts Library, Special Collections, Twentieth Century–Fox legal files on The Seven Year Itch, AFI, Charles K. Feldman Collection.