My favourite moments: Holden meeting Nancy Olsen at the party, and they are acting with each other, but you sense something deeper's going on. And the scene where Swanson visits the Paramount lot and the lighting guy recognises her, then all the extras do.
Written by Brackett, Wilder and D.M. Marshman (winning Oscar), my only complaint actually is Swanson, who's just too much. Was she ever any good? (Indeed, this is reflected in Brackett's diaries, where on set he wishes 'she had been coached into something more human'.) The writing's fabulous, Waxman's music won the Oscar, John Seitz's cinematography is delicious. (Brackett again - 'not a top-notch cameraman' - OK, he could get it badly wrong, too.)
Erich Von Stroheim is good - yes, he was an actor first. The film is steeped in ironies, such as the fact that both he and de Mille did really direct her.
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| "..Ready for those cameras that would never turn." |
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| Nancy Olson is nearly 92. She was Oscar nominated |
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| Holden and Olsen about to adopt the 'two feet apart' rule |
Also guest starring Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton and H.B. Warner.
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