:04:03
That was as tight a script
as I've ever worked on.
:04:07
What was fascinating, and
I've never seen any script like it,
:04:12
was that in the left column
would be all the camera direction.
:04:17
In other words, Billy,
in his writing, was directing.
:04:21
I've been at Paramount 72 years.
I started in 1928.
:04:26
Of all of the people on the lot - writers,
directors, producers, executives -
:04:31
no one has made such an impression
on me as Billy Wilder.
:04:36
He and Charlie Brackett
were writers on the lot.
:04:39
Wilder was a huge name in 1950.
:04:41
He'd won an Oscar
for "The Lost Weekend".
:04:44
He'd made "Double Indemnity"
and "The Major and The Minor".
:04:47
A series of successful films.
:04:50
You're Norma Desmond.
You were big in silent pictures.
:04:56
I am big.
It's the pictures that got small.
:05:01
This was a bitter film
for Hollywood to look at,
:05:04
because it was about Hollywood.
:05:07
I think what Billy was
most concerned about
:05:10
was the fact that
he might be perceived
:05:15
as betraying his colleagues
and his own industry.
:05:20
Some people loved it,
some hated it.
:05:22
The trade papers were mixed.
"Variety" called it "disturbing".
:05:26
It is disturbing. "The Hollywood
Reporter" gave it a rave review.
:05:30
It said it's a movie that
should be studied frame by frame.
:05:34
But the most famous story
is the encounter
:05:38
between Louis B Mayer, head of
MGM, and Wilder after a screening.
:05:43
Louis B Mayer became incensed
at one screening
:05:48
and said to Billy,
"How could you do this?"
:05:52
Everyone there,
except for Mayer, loved it.
:05:56
Mayer stomped out to his car
:05:59
and said to Wilder on the way out,
"You bastard!"