Movie review - "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) ****

Classic Billy Wilder film is sometimes called a film noir but is really more of a horror film, an endlessly creepy tale of a struggling screenwriter (William Holden, in a role that got his career back on track) who hooks up with a faded silent movie star (superb Gloria Swanson). Full of weird off beat touches: a monkey funeral, the empty pool, the dialogue, the car, the butler (Eric Von Stroheim) who turns out to be a former great director and Swanson's ex-husband. Brilliant writing, with even a little sentimentality in the scenes between Holden and Nancy Olson. A writer once said you are either a Sunset Blvd type of person or a Casablanca person; I'm Casablanca but I still enjoy Sunset Blvd.