"Sunset Blvd." 1950 Movie Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

Told in flashbacks, narrated by the murder victim. Joe is an unsuccessful screenwriter who has another script rejected by the studio; fleeing the men trying to repossess his car, he hides in a garage at a Sunset Blvd. mansion; the owner is Norma Desmond, a failed star who asks Joe to help polish the script intended to ignite her comeback on the screen. The butler moves Joe's possessions into the mansion where he is essentially a 'kept man'; that is okay, but Joe is horrified to learn that Norma thinks that she is in love with him. She sends the completed script to DeMille at Paramount, then drives her rare limousine to the studio for a confrontation.
Joe has been working with a studio secretary on another script, and the pair have fallen in love. Joe tells Norma, Norma calls the girl to bad-mouth Joe, Joe invites the girl to the mansion to see for herself. After the girl leaves, Norma shoots Joe, his body falls into the pool. By the time the police arrive, Norma is lost in fantasy; the butler persuades her that the waiting cops and news reporters are part of her new movie, so she descends the staircase and utters the famous line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up".

History of The Film Days after
In 1998, the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #16 Greatest Movie of All Time.
electronically restored for the 2002 DVD reissue.
A new 4K high-definition scan was done in 2008 for DVD and for the film's eventual release on Blu-ray disc.

Co-written & co-produced by Charles Brackett; co-written & directed by Billy Wilder; co-written by D.M. Marshman Jr.; starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Jack Webb, Julia Faye & Henry Wilcoxon; cameos by Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson & H.B. Warner; won Oscars for Best Original Script, Best Music Score & Best B&W Art Direction, also Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor & Actress, Best B&W Cinematography & Best Editing; won W.G.A. Award; nominated for D.G.A. Award; listed on National Film Registry (1989)

Lux Radio Theater 1951 broadcast of Sunset Blvd.

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on September 17, 1951 with Gloria Swanson and William Holden reprising their film roles
scarce copies exist on vinyl from Sandpiper Records and on audio CD from Greenpark

Gloria Swanson in "Boulevard!" cast recording album

Gloria Swanson in "Boulevard!": The Complete Musical
Adaptation of Sunset Blvd. [1956]
Music & lyrics by Dickson Hughes & Richard Stapley
Gloria Swanson kept making demo tracks of the various songs, hoping to enlist financial backers; but Paramount refused to allow the musical to go forward (or asked too high a price), so the musical was never performed for the public.
Stage Door cast recording CD [3/2009] for $42.01
official album page

"Swanson On Sunset" [1994]
three-character musical stageplay by Dickson Hughes, based on his & Richard Stapley's experiences
in writing "Boulevard!" with Gloria Swanson in the mid-1950s
article/review in the Los Angeles Times, Dec 1994

"Sunset Blvd." London musical [1993-??]
"Sunset Blvd." Broadway musical [1994-97]
adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the 1950 film
The musical version of the movie opened in London on July 12, 1993 and ran 1529 performances. It opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theater on November 17, 1994, ran for 977 performances and won the 1995 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Book and Score. SUNSET BLVD. - PLAYBILL - MAY 1995 - VOL. 95 - NO. 5 by ANDREW LLOYD (MUSIC BY) DON BLACK & CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON (BOOK & LYRICS BY) WEBBER (1995) 10086 SUNSET BLVD. WORLD PREMIERE 12 JULY 1993 by ADELPHI THEATRE LONDON (1993)

http://www.amazon.com/Sunset-Boulevard-1993-Original-London/dp/B000001E3D/
http://www.amazon.com/Sunset-Boulevard-1994-Angeles-Cast/dp/B000001E6V/
http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Webbers-Sunset-Boulevard-Deluxe/dp/B000BSM29I/
http://www.amazon.com/Sunset-Boulevard-World-Premiere-Recording/dp/B000R3VUSG/
http://www.amazon.com/Sunset-Boulevard-George-C-Perry/dp/0805029273/

Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links
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	"Sunset Blvd." script by Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett "the complete screenplay, with an Introduction by Jeffrey Meyers" Univ CA Press 9x5¾ pb [6/99] for $19.95
	"Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and The Dark Hollywood Dream" [2002] by Sam Staggs St. Martin's Griffin 8x5½ pb [2/2003] for $14.01 St. Martin's Press 8¼x5½ hardcover [4/2002] out of print/used
	"(The Making of) Sunset Boulevard: A Look Back" [Paramount Video 2002] 25-minute short featuring author Ed Sikov, actress Nancy Olson, critic Andrew Sarris, producer A.C. Lyles & actress Glenn Close available on both DVD sets above • full credits at IMDb

Magic Lantern Video & Book Store "Sunset Boulevard"1950 Movie

Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
"Sunset Boulevard"
1950 Movie