:10:02
It turned out to be perfect,
better than Clift would have been.
:10:06
He was a better choice than Clift,
:10:09
because here was the All-American
boy being corrupted.
:10:13
Remember where he comes in
at the party in a vicuòa coat?
:10:19
You just die! There's something
about him that is so exquisite.
:10:26
For me, he's the lynchpin of the film.
:10:29
He is the one who makes it really
work because he is so real.
:10:36
She's quite a character,
that Norma Desmond.
:10:39
She was the greatest.
You wouldn't know, you're too young.
:10:42
Erich von Stroheim, perfect casting.
:10:45
Here's a great director
of the '20s and '30s.
:10:48
Made fantastic pictures but blew it
by making a film called "Greed",
:10:54
which was far too long, truncated,
a big scandal and a big mess.
:10:59
And then by making "Queen Kelly",
starring Gloria Swanson.
:11:05
This was not some actor in the part.
:11:08
This was a person
who had knowledge of all this.
:11:12
"Queen Kelly" is the film we see
in her screening room,
:11:16
when she shows Bill Holden
her glorious past.
:11:20
When she stands in front of her image
and does that creepy gesture,
:11:24
it's even more creepy because
that film ruined her career.
:11:29
It was financed by Joe Kennedy,
the father of JFK and RFK.
:11:34
He was also, apparently,
Swanson's lover at the time.
:11:38
She called him from the set and said,
:11:42
"Come out here!
A madman is directing this!"
:11:45
She meant Erich von Stroheim.
:11:48
To watch him on the set,
:11:50
he always arrived completely
dressed in his butler's uniform.
:11:56
He always wore his white gloves
and sat in his chair.