:06:03
- Billy had a famous retort.
- It was heated language.
:06:07
He was appalled at the image
of Hollywood that Wilder would present.
:06:12
Wilder had a bitter, sardonic streak.
:06:15
As a screenwriter in Germany
in the '20s and '30s,
:06:21
his films had bite and
he kept that in Hollywood.
:06:24
Somebody pointed out Wilder may be
the only Hollywood director then
:06:30
whose parents were consumed
by the Holocaust.
:06:35
That's why there's always the dark
element, even in his comedies.
:06:41
There was a time in this business
when they had the eyes of the world.
:06:45
But that wasn't good enough.
They had to have the ears, too.
:06:50
So they opened their big mouths
and out came talk, talk, talk!
:06:54
Norma Desmond is one of
the great characters ever created.
:06:59
She stands up in any literature,
movies as one of the greats.
:07:05
Gloria Swanson wasn't first choice.
:07:08
He thought about Mae West
and saw her.
:07:11
She wanted to rewrite the dialogue,
as always. That didn't do well.
:07:16
They thought about Pola Negri.
:07:18
"Too much Polish accent",
Billy described it.
:07:22
Then he went to see Mary Pickford,
:07:23
America's sweetheart and
our first big star at Paramount.
:07:28
Mary always owned her own negative
so that was out.
:07:32
They were stumped until Wilder
was having tea with George Cukor,
:07:36
and Cukor said,
"What about Gloria Swanson?"
:07:40
Perfect.
Here is the character, as written.
:07:44
The others would have been good,
:07:47
but this picture was made
for Gloria Swanson.
:07:50
She'd fallen out of the public eye.
:07:53
She was a has-been and was making
her famous comeback.
:07:58
She claimed she didn't really know
what the role was.