SUNSET BOULEVARD Billy Wilderâs classic tale of Hollywood misfortune and swimming pools is where Gumbo has us this week. Once again weâre challenging each other to hop on our â10â train as we Queue up movies we deem to be utterly fantastic!
Hereâs what you haveâ¦In Hollywood of the 50âs, the obscure screenplay writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) is not able to sell his work to the studios, is full of debts and is thinking in returning to his hometown to work in an office. While trying to escape from his creditors, he has a flat tire and parks his car in front of a crumbling decadent mansion on Sunset Boulevard, owned by former silent-movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), who lives alone with her butler Max. Norma is demented, and believes she will return to the cinema industry and escape the isolated world she has built for herself. Norma proposes Joe to move to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay that will propel her inevitable comeback â but as things settle in, the small time writer find himself the eye of her affection, and when he falls in love for the young aspirant writer Betty Schaefer, Norma becomes jealous and completely insane â which leads to her madness as well as a tragic end. Listen to find out whether or not we follow suit on Gumboâs â10â⦠That and our âTop 3 Movie Butlersâ
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