Bracketted

Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard by Sam Staggs devotes over 400 pages to the movie. As it is, I think Sunset Boulevard is Billy Wilder's most overrated movie (along with, perhaps, The Apartment), so the length of the book seemed a bit much.

And yet, I was disappointed that so much of the book is given to the aftermath of the film. I don't mean the release, I mean the effect it's had through the years. Pages and pages are devoted to listing any movie or TV show that seems influenced by SB. And 46 pages are devoted to Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicalization. It ended up I wished there were more about the movie itself.

The author does a good job, though, in the half of the book actually about the movie. William Holden may get more screen time than Gloria Swanson, but she's unquestionably the star of the book. Norma Desmond brought her back from obscurity, but then overshadowed her the rest of her life.

Nancy Olson may be the least interesting lead, but she's the only one still living, so she gets a fair amount of time. But it's people like Wilder, or von Stroheim, or William Holden, who are more interesting. SB was Holdens' breakthrough, but I didn't know he was already heavily drinking. Then again, I didn't know his wife was such a nasty person. (Even more amazing, Mamie Van Doren claims Jack Webb drugged her and raped her!)

Staggs is maybe best at reviving the reputation of Charles Brackett, Wilder's first major writing partner. He's too often forgotten in our age of auteurs, but he was the senior partner, and once Wilder started directing, Brackett was a producer. (They also were highly enough respected that they'd start shooting a film with only a partial script, writing it as they went along--I'm still astounded they could end up with such well-structured stories.)

It's true that once Wilder decided to leave Brackett, right after SB, he remained highly successful, but Staggs most interesting claim is post-Brackett Wilder is not as good, and more vulgar.

There's no question Bracket and Wilder, together, were one of the greatest writing and then filmmaking teams. Midnight, Ninotchka, Ball Of Fire, The Major And The Minor, Five Graves To Cairo, The Lost Weekend and SB is an impressive list. But even before they split up, Wilder managed to make Double Indemnity without Brackett.

And the films Wilder made post-Brackett and before he met his next important partner, I. A. L. Diamond, are nothing to sneeze at: Ace In The Hole, Stalag 17 (Staggs gets it backwards and much prefers A Foreign Affair--and for some reason seems to think the stalag is just like any other concentration camp), Sabrina and Love In The Afternoon.

Then I. A. L. comes along and you get Witness For The Prosecution, Some Like It Hot (Wilder's greatest in my book), The Apartment and The Fortune Cookie. True, starting in the 70s, their films are pretty weak, but Wilder had a 30-year run--how long is he supposed to be at his best?

I think Staggs may have a point about vulgarity. Secondary characters in Wilder's earlier films seem to be more individual, compared to the burlesque Russians in One, Two, Three or the burlesque French in Irma La Douce. And the plots are more outrageous. It's certainly possible Brackett, older and a respectable Republican, was able to rein in Wilder, while the younger Diamond couldn't stop him or even spurred him on. Or maybe the times were a-changin'.

Regardless, I don't see a significant drop-off in Wilder's films once he leaves Brackett. If I were to name my favorites, just as many were made after as during.