:20:02
All of a sudden,
a female voice from below says,
:20:06
"Cut, damn it! Cut!"
:20:10
And it was Ardis Holden.
:20:12
The New Year's Eve party
is bizarre and unpleasant.
:20:17
She's hired a band.
:20:19
She's gotten all this expensive
champagne... caviar.
:20:24
Joe Gillis expects that it's a party.
It is, but there are only two guests.
:20:30
He's a little freaked out. It begins
to dawn on him what it is he's doing.
:20:36
I thought that was an inspired scene,
and very hard to pull off.
:20:42
The other key scene is the final
scene, and the last one they filmed.
:20:48
Norma walking down the stairs,
:20:51
performing in what she believes is
her cherished "Salome" epic,
:20:55
having killed her lover
and employee, Joe Gillis,
:21:00
being filmed by newsreel cameras
she believes are DeMille's cameras.
:21:06
She does that creepy, creepy
kind of dance thing.
:21:12
I was on the set for that and thought,
"What an interesting combination!"
:21:17
She had a great time.
:21:19
I was on the set for when Norma
comes down the stairs.
:21:25
By the way, that was done
in two or three takes.
:21:29
It's one of those movies
where everything clicked.
:21:34
America accepted the film
to a certain degree.
:21:37
It was a reasonably big hit,
but didn't win the Oscar.
:21:41
When the film came out,
I was married.
:21:44
By the time the Oscars came around,
I was pregnant.
:21:49
I went to the Awards pregnant.
:21:52
I did not expect
"Sunset Boulevard" to win.
:21:56
The fact that it didn't win Best Picture
:21:59
is partly a reflection of Hollywood's
distaste for the subject matter.