Rating: 
Summary: With one book, all of N D's secrets revealed....
Review: Although I've never even watched Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder's dark and biting satire/tragedy about the dark side of Hollywood, I have enjoyed reading Sam Staggs' riveting look at the making of -- and cultural impact of -- a bizarre-sounding film about a Hollywood has-been, a dead monkey, and a gigolo who ends up face down in a swimming pool.Close Up On Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream covers not only the nitty-gritty of the making of the 1949 film, but delves into the long partnership of writer-director Wilder with screenwriter Charles Brackett, the personalities of the stars (Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stronheim, William Holden, Nancy Olson), and even bizarre facts about the supporting cast (who'd have thought Jack Webb, Dragnet's straight-laced Sgt. Joe Friday, was into bondage?). Staggs also tells the long journey of Sunset Boulevard from the screen to the stage, starting with Gloria Swanson's long and eventually failed crusade to buy the rights from Paramount Pictures and concluding with the almost Byzantine tale of how Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber finally adapted the story of Norma Desmond, Joe Gillis, Betty Schaeffer, Max, and yes, the dead monkey into a musical. Staggs, who also wrote All About All About Eve, clearly knows his film history and it shows, but his prose is not without its flaws. He blasts Wilder's Stalag 17 as being a "misbegotten" World War II satire/concentration camp comedy. While he is entitled to his opinion about the quality of his movie, he is confusing his terminology, since a Stalag was a military-run prisoner-of-war camp subject to the Geneva Convention, while a concentration camp was under the jurisdiction of the SS Death's Head organization. However, while I'm still not sure whether I'd ever watch either the film or musical, I did enjoy reading this 2001 expose of one of the landmark films of Hollywood's Golden Age.
Rating: 
Summary: Staggs Stumbles down "Sunset Boulevard"
Review: Being a "Sunset Boulevard" fan of both the movie and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. Alas, it wasn't worth the wait at all. The book is broken into three parts; the movie, post-movie to pre-musical, and the musical. The movie gets the most in-depth coverage, because the movie is the most definitive. There's not much he can tamper with there, since most of it has been discussed before. Still, most of what he reports as fact is really a 'he says/she says'. The 'post-movie/pre-musical' is incosequential filler... rambling pages of nonsense. He talks about everything from the many attempts at turning the movie into a Broadway musical (Swanson's idea, originally), to television adaptions, to projects 'influenced' by "Sunset Boulevard". There's quite a bit there, yet not much to say. Finally, we get to the Andrew Lloyd Webber mega-musical. As anyone familiar with the play knows, there were times when the 'back-stage' scandals threatened to over-shadow the production itself. Yet Staggs just touches upon the most-reported (the Glenn Close/Patti Lupone fiasco, the Streisand recordings, the opening-night fiascos), and stays away from the less-reported-yet-juicier stuff (the Barbara Walters 'scandal', Diahann Carroll's vocal troubles). Not much research seems to have been taken, for these incidents surely would have surfaced. Overall, Staggs fills his book with the mundane and rhetoric. Even his 'side-bars' become distracting drivel (do we really need to know his opinion on Streisand playing Norma Desmond in the often-talked about movie version?), taking away from what could have been a more enjoyable stroll down the Boulevard.
Rating: 
Summary: For People in and of the Dark
Review: I've always been a huge fan of SUNSET BOULEVARD. From that outstanding opening shot of William Holden floating face down in that "pool he always wanted" to Norma Desmond's descent down the stairs into triumphant insanity, this film will always be one of the all-time greats. Sam Staggs has written an exhaustively-researched book about the whole SUNSET BOULEVARD experience. It goes into everyone and everything connected with the production, from biographical sketches of the guys playing the piano during a party scene to Jack Webb from "Dragent" (And does Mamie Van Doren have a memory of Sgt. Joe Friday that'll blow you away!). I would've given the book five stars but I felt my interest waning after the book left the movie behind to discuss the Broadway shows (as well as every instance where someone quoted the movie over the years). I've never seen the Broadway shows but I'm sure those chapters would've been more interesting if I had (I have more respect for Glenn Close after reading about her).
Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of SUNSET BOULEVARD.
What blew me away the most?
That they weren't really sure what they were doing and where they going when they were shooting the movie. That it all fell together into one of the great Hollywood classics is a miracle.
Rating: 
Summary: TOUGH TO PUT DOWN....
Review: Mr.Staggs has written another engrossing and entertaining look at a classic film. The history of the making of "Sunset Blvd."---warts and all. It's all here and it's fascinating. Funny, touching and sad looks at the stars, the director, the works. Even the sad history of Norma Desmond's mansion. At times you feel that you're right there with the author as he's explaining it all. This a must have companion piece to the film and I can't recommend it enough. Also read Staggs' "All About All About Eve"---another must have for Golden Hollywood buffs and a great companion piece for that film as well.
Rating:
Summary: A Little Dishy, But I'll Take It
Review: Stagg is a very good writer with a very worthy subject. The research is meticulous and the information he presents on the film and the people who made it make this book a winner- just like his companion study of "All About Eve". Some of the complaints here, though, are the same as with that very worthy book. Stagg gives at least equal weight to the film's afterlife, particularly the lightly-regarded Broadway version, as to the mega-classic 1950 Wilder film. And once again, the tiresome emphasis on certain obsessions- camp, divas, catfights, and cross-dressing- not that there's anything wrong with that- do tend to distract from the work as straightforward film history, at least for those of us less titillated by those aspects of the film's following. And finally, Staggs attacks Billy Wilder- the greatest filmmaker of all, in my opinion- with a preposterous theory that Wilder's work after ending his collaboration with Charles Brackett (including "Stalag 17", "Sabrina", "Witness For the Prosecution", "Some Like It Hot", and "The Apartment") doesn't hold up! What makes this book a must-own anyway is the great information about the film itself- the art-directors, musicians, actors and actresses, designers, and shooting locations, as well as the behind-the-scenes look at Paramount in its heyday. The interview with Nancy Olson is a particular highlight. And if you're into camp, divas, and catfights, change that rating to five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Sunset Blvd deserves better
Review: Sunset Blvd is my favorite movie, and I came away from the book terribly disappointed. Despite having access to Nancy Olsen and (the author claims, although I saw no evidence of it) Billy Wilder, as well as many others who knew those involved in the movie, there are few or no details about the making of the movie that haven't been revealed elsewhere, particularly in Ed Sikov's excellent Wilder biography. And a lot is omitted -- for example, though Staggs mentions Gloria Swanson's youthful appearance (as well as a pointless & tactless rumor about it), he doesn't mention why she looked so young -- because Swanson avoided going out into the sun. The structure of the novel is likewise confused. The first part bounces back and forth between analysis of the movie and the making of it. The analysis is thin and uninteresting. Of the many questions that a serious discussion of the movie would include, one of the few that is asked is: why does Joe Gillis push away Betty at the end? Staggs' answer: because of the production code. Please. The last part of the book is dominated by an extended, boring discussion of the musical made from the movie. There's a theme to the book, and it isn't subtle: that Wilder's best work needed Charles Brackett. This leads to some strange passages. Staggs has some faint praise for Some Like It Hot but his criticism of Stalag 17 is bizarre (a "misbegotten" mix of comedy and drama?), to say the least, and the comments on The Apartment are worse. Staggs calls The Apartment "dated" (wrong, of course) then goes on to gush about what is possibly the most dated of Wilder's movies, The Lost Weekend. And while there are legitimate criticisms of The Apartment, of all the criticisms, valid and invalid, I've ever heard, "threadbare" surely qualifies as the most inane. Needless to say, in pursuing this theory, Staggs doesn't try to explain Double Indemnity, also made without Brackett. As far as I'm concerned, and I don't think I'm alone, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment are all better than any of the Brackett & Wilder works except Sunset Blvd. There's decent discussion of movies that followed Sunset Blvd that imitated it, but the glaring omission of Network, with its many parallels to Sunset Blvd, is inexplicable. All in all, the book just isn't worth the time and effort it takes to read it, let alone the money needed to buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Starts Strong, Ends Weak
Review: This book started quite strongly, with Billy Wilder witnessing a confrontation between D. W. Griffith and Samuel Goldwyn shortly before Griffith's death. Staggs sees this as the genesis of "Sunset Boulevard." The first half of this book is very interesting. This part deals with the actual making of the movie and its reception in 1950-1. However, once the Academy Awards are handed out and Gloria Swanson doesn't win, Staggs loses focus. The idea of seeing how "Sunset Boulevard" lasted in the public imagination between Wilder's film and Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical sounds interesting, but in Staggs' hands this runs off in too many different directions. He mentions a ton of movies about Hollywood that bow toward Wilder's film, but he doesn't go into any in much detail. He goes into a list of porn movies. He covers SB references on TV. It never pulls together. Also, it bugged me a little that he is very critical of Wilder's post SB (and post Charles Brackett) films. He seemed to think this was a new, contrarian position, but, in fact, this was a commonly held view in the Seventies that Wilder's best films were Double Indemnity, Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard. So this book started promisingly but lost its way.
Rating:
Summary: Starts Strong, Ends Weak
Review: This book started quite strongly, with Billy Wilder witnessing a confrontation between D. W. Griffith and Samuel Goldwyn shortly before Griffith's death. Staggs sees this as the genesis of "Sunset Boulevard." The first half of this book is very interesting. This part deals with the actual making of the movie and its reception in 1950-1. However, once the Academy Awards are handed out and Gloria Swanson doesn't win, Staggs loses focus. The idea of seeing how "Sunset Boulevard" lasted in the public imagination between Wilder's film and Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical sounds interesting, but in Staggs' hands this runs off in too many different directions. He mentions a ton of movies about Hollywood that bow toward Wilder's film, but he doesn't go into any in much detail. He goes into a list of porn movies. He covers SB references on TV. It never pulls together. Also, it bugged me a little that he is very critical of Wilder's post SB (and post Charles Brackett) films. He seemed to think this was a new, contrarian position, but, in fact, this was a commonly held view in the Seventies that Wilder's best films were Double Indemnity, Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard. So this book started promisingly but lost its way.
Rating:
Summary: Ready For This Close-up!
Review: This is a fantastic book on the behind-the-scenes evolution and influence of "Sunset Blvd.", one of the best movies in the history of film-making. Sam Staggs has once again delivered an exhaustively-researched and entertaining book on Hollywood. A companion of sorts to his earlier work, "All About All About Eve" (both were films in release in 1950 and resurrected the careers of great actresses, Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson), this book reveals the dark nature of noir and the bitter humor of black comedy. Staggs leaves no stone unturned in his examination of the works that came before and influenced "Sunset Blvd.", plus the works that came after, including the film's transformation into a successful Broadway musical (those chapters alone give enough dish for several books!). I cannot recommend this book enough to cinephiles and casual film fans alike!
Rating:
Summary: A Hell of a Book!
Review: This latest Hollywood book by Sam Staggs is even better than the one about All About Eve. This is even better written and isn't inundated with the personal opinions that plagued the earlier volume. This one hits the mark much better in that he tells the story of the making of this classic with well-researched information not disrupted by supposition.
Revealing interviews with cast and crew like Nancy Olson are not only revealing in their tales of life on the sound stage but are actually legitimately informative. Staggs' narrative flows smoothly and makes you feel as if you were present at the interviews and during the research itself.
In addition, this is a fun read. I heartily recommend it.
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