:08:02
She thought it was a small part.
Why would they want her as the star?
:08:07
She hadn't been seen since the '30s,
so she took them up on it,
:08:12
divorced her fifth husband,
or however many she'd had,
:08:17
and moved to Hollywood.
:08:20
She worked so hard.
She was so dedicated.
:08:23
She was the only one of all of us
:08:27
that truly understood the film's
importance, what it could become.
:08:33
She wasn't the crazy diva
she appears to be in the film.
:08:37
She knew what she was doing.
It's a version of herself that she plays.
:08:43
Gloria Swanson gave, I think,
a fantastic performance.
:08:47
I didn't know
you were planning a comeback.
:08:49
I hate that word! It's a return!
:08:52
A return to the millions who've never
forgiven me for deserting the screen.
:08:57
The part William Holden plays
in the picture, the gigolo part,
:09:01
was written for Monty Clift.
:09:04
He actually accepted the role. He was
filming "The Heiress" at the time.
:09:10
He was very young and very famous,
with a stark magnetism.
:09:17
He went skiing in Switzerland
and thought about it.
:09:20
Perhaps on the advice of his agent,
he turned them down.
:09:24
So they approached William Holden,
whose problem was
:09:28
that he'd made his name in a film
made 10 years earlier, "Golden Boy".
:09:33
People forget Bill Holden was really
in a very frayed part of his career.
:09:40
It was a long time since "Golden Boy",
since he was the Great White Hope.
:09:46
He was a has-been himself.
He'd kept working but nobody noticed.
:09:52
Wilder met with him
and really saw the intelligence,
:09:56
the character and the talent
underneath this All-American façade.