Hey all!

Mark and I are hosting the October movie night on 10/15. Movie to start
at 8:00 (perhaps we'll have a short, but I'm not promising).

The movie will be....

(drum roll please)

Sunset Boulevard! (See info a la Kevin below.)

Please RSVP by 10/10 if you'll be able to make it.


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The next presentation at Friday Night Movies:
(Friday, October 15th starting @ 8:00pm)

*** Sunset Boulevard ***

(USA, 1950)  Directed by Billy Wilder.  Starring William Holden, Gloria
Swanson and Erich von Stroheim

Awards: 
Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best  Musical Score,
Best Screenplay
Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor: William Holden, Best Actress:
Gloria Swanson, Best Supporting Actor: Erich von Stroheim, Best
Supporting Actress: Nancy Olson, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Memorable Quotes:

Joe Gillis: The poor dope - he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end,
he got himself a pool.

Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You
used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.

Joe Gillis: I didn't know you were planning a comeback.
Norma Desmond: I hate that word. It's a return.

Max Von Mayerling: She was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know,
you're too young. In one week she received 17,000 fan letters. Men
bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. There was a
maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk
stockings. Later he strangled himself with it!

Norma Desmond: We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

[to newsreel camera]
Norma Desmond: You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing
else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there
in the dark! ...All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.


Trivia:

The role of Norma Desmond was initially offered to Mae West (who
rejected the part), Mary Pickford (who demanded too much project
control), and Pola Negri (who, like Mae West, turned it down) before
being accepted by Gloria Swanson.

Montgomery Clift, signed to play the part of Joe Gillis, broke his
contract just two weeks prior to the start of shooting. Billy Wilder
quickly offered the role to Fred MacMurray; he said "no." William Holden
was also not interested in the part; however, being only a contract
player at Paramount, he was ordered to play Joe Gillis.

The "Desmond mansion" had been built by a William Jenkins in 1924 at a
cost of $250,000. Its second owner was J. Paul Getty who purchased it
for his second wife. Mrs. Getty divorced her millionaire husband and
received custody of the house; it was she who rented it to Paramount for
the filming.

The movie that Joe and Norma watch in the private screening room is
Queen Kelly (1929) starring Gloria Swanson.  It was directed by Erich
von Stroheim who plays Max.

The script planned by Joe and Betty (the story of a couple, which is
never together because of jobs with incompatible working time) exists:
it was written by Billy Wilder and filmed in Germany: Das Blaue vom
Himmel (1932).

Look for cameos from famous movie personalities playing themselves:
Cecil B. DeMille, Buster Keaton, H.B. Warner, Hedda Hopper

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