“You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!” While some industry executives were enraged by Sunset Boulevard, many cast out silent stars found hope that if Gloria Swanson, and Norma Desmond, could make a comeback so could they.
The reactions erupted almost instantly after the first screening of the film which was made in secret with multiple rewrites and new scenes appearing on Swanson’s desk first thing each morning. I look into these points in my introduction to Sunset Boulevard which was given for a screening at The Little Theatre in Bath in November 2025.
The film was shown as part of Picturehouse’s ‘Lynchspirations’ season as a title that inspired Lynch’s Mulholland Drive – Lynch himself would say that he loved the reality and dreams that Billy Wilder’s film presented. The audio in the below video was recorded specially for it based on the rough introduction that I had written before the screening.
Find where you can watch Sunset Boulevard here.
Just A Little Bit Random 