Sunset Blvd.
Writers: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Harshman Jr.
SUNSET BOULEVARD
Charles Brackett
Billy Wilder
D.M. Marshman, Jr.
March 21,1949
SEQUENCE "A"
A-l-4 START the picture with the actual street sign:
SUNSET BOULEVARD, stencilled on a curbstope.
In the gutter lie dead leaves, scraps of paper,
burnt matches and cigarette butts. It is early
morning.
Now the CAMERA leaves the sign and MOVES EAST, the
grey asphalt of the street filling the screen. As
speed accelerates to around 40 m.p.h., traffic de-
marcations, white arrows, speed-limit warnings, man-
hole covers, etc., flash by. SUPERIMPOSED on all
this are the CREDIT TITLES, in the stencilled style
of the street sign.
Over the scene we now hear MAN'S VOICE
sirens. Police squad cars Yes, this is Sunset
hurtle toward the camera, Boulevard, Los Angeles,
turn off the road into a California. It's about
driveway with squealing five o'clock in the
brakes. Dismounted motor- morning. That's the
cycle cops stand directing Homicide Squad, com-
the cars in. plete with detectives
and newspaper men.
A-5 PATIO AND POOL OF A murder has been re-
MANSION ported from one of those
great big houses in the
The policemen and news- ten thousand block.
paper reporters and You'll read all about
photographers have it in the late editions,
jumped out of the cars I'm sure. You'll get
and are running up to it over your radio,
the pool, in which a and see it on tele-
body is seen floating. vision -- because an
Photographers' bulbs old-time star is in-
flash in rapid suc- volved. one of the big-
cession. gest. But before you
hear it all distorted
and blown out of
proportion, before those
Hollywood columnists
get their hands on it,
maybe you'd like to
hear the facts, the
whole truth...
A-6 FLASH OF THE BODY
MAN'S VOICE
Angle up through the If so, you've come to the
water from the bottom right party... You see,
of the pool, as the the body of a young man
body floats face down- was found floating in the
ward. It is a well- pool of her mansion, with
dressed young man. two shots in his back and
one in his stomach. No-
body important, really.
Just a movie writer with
a couple of "B" pictures
to his credit. The poor
dope. He always wanted a
pool Well, in the end
he got himself a pool --
SLOW DISSOLVE TO: only the price turned out
to be a little high...
Let's go back about six
A-7 HOLLYWOOD, SEEN FROM months and find the day
THE HILLTOP AT IVAR when it all started.
& FRANKLIN STREETS
It is a crisp sunny I was living in an
day. The voice con- apartment house above
tinues speaking as Franklin and Ivar.
CAMERA PANS toward Things were tough
the ALTO NIDO APART- at the moment. I hadn't
MENT HOUSE, an ugly worked in a studio for
Moorish structure ofsat a long time. So I
stucco, about four there grinding
stories high. CAMERA out original stories,
MOVES TOWARD AN OPEN two a week. Only I
WINDOW on the third seemed to have lost
floor, where we look my touch. Maybe they
in on JOE GILLIS' APART- weren't original
MENT. Joe Gillis, bare- enough. Maybe they
footed and wearing no- were too original.
thing but an old bath- All I know is they
robe. is sitting on didn't sell.
the bed. In front of
him. on a straight
chair, is a portable
typewriter. Beside
him, on the bed, is a
dirty ashtray and a
scattering of type
written and pencil-
marked pages. Gillis
is typing. with a
pencil clenched bet-
ween his teeth.
A-8 JOE GILLIS' APARTMENT
It is a one-room affair with an unmade Murphy bed
pulled out of the wall at which Gillis sits typing.
There are a couple of worn-out plush chairs and a
Spanish-style, wrought-iron standing lamp. Also a
small desk littered with books and letters, and a
chest of drawers with a portable phonograph and some
records on top. On the walls are a couple of repro-
ductions of characterless paintings, with laundry
bills and snapshots stuck in the frames. Through an
archway can he seen a tiny kitchenette, complete with
unwashed coffee pot and cup, empty tin cans, orange
peels, etc. The effect is dingy and cheerless --
just another furnished apartment. The buzzer SOUNDS.
GILLIS
Yeah.
The buzzer SOUNDS again. Gillis gets up and opens
the door. Two men wearing hats stand outside one of
them carrying a briefcase.
NO. 1
Joseph C. Gillis?
GILLIS
That's right.
The men ease into the room. No. 1 hands Gillis a
business card.
NO. 1
We've come for the car.
GILLIS
What car?
NO. 2
(Consulting a paper)
1946 Plymouth convertible. Calif-
ornia license 97 N 567.
NO. 1
Where are the keys?
GILLIS
Why should I give you the keys?
NO. 1
Because the company's played ball
with you long enough. Because
you're three payments behind. And
because we've got a Court order.
Come on -- the keys.
NO. 2
Or do you want us to jack it up
and haul it away?
GILLIS
Relax, fans. The car isn't here.
NO. 1
Is that So?
GILLIS
I lent it to a friend of mine.
He took it up to Palm Springs.
NO. 1
Had to get away for his health,
I suppose.
GILLIS
You don't believe me? Look in
the garage.
NO. 1
Sure we believe you, only now we
want you to believe us. That car
better be back here by noon tomorrow,
or there's going to be fireworks.
GILLIS
You say the cutest things.
The men leave. Gillis GILLIS' VOICE
stands pondering beside Well, I needed about two
the door for a moment. hundred and ninety dollars
Then he walks to the and I needed it real
center of the room and, quick, or I'd lose my car.
with his back to the It wasn't in Palm Springs
CAMERA, slips into a and it wasn't in the
pair of gray slacks. garage. I was way ahead
There is a metallic of the finance company.
noise as some loose
change and keys drop
from the trouser pockets.
As Gillis bends over to
pick them up, we see that
he has dropped the car
keys, identifiable be-
cause of a rabbit's
foot and a miniature
license plate attached
to the key-ring. Gillis
pockets the keys and as
he starts to put on a
shirt
DISSOLVE TO:
A-9 EXTERIOR OF RUDY'S GILLIS' VOICE
SHOESHINE PARLOR (DAY)
I knew they'd be coming
A small shack-like build- around and I wasn't tak-
ing, it stands in the ing any chances, so I
corner of a public park- kept it a couple of
ing lot. Rudy, a blocks away in a parking
colored boy, is giving lot behind Rudy's Shoe-
a customer a shine. shine Parlor. Rudy
never asked any quest-
ions. He'd just look at
your heels and know the
score.
PAN BEHIND the shack to GILLIS' CAR, a yellow 1946
Plymouth convertible with the top down. Gillis enters
the SHOT. He is wearing a tweed sport jacket, a tan
polo shirt, and moooasins. He steps into the car and
drives it off. Rudy winks after him.
A-10 THE ALLEY NEXT TO SIDNEY'S
MEN'S SHOP ON BRONSON AVE. GILLIS' VOICE
I had an original story
Gillis drives into the kicking around Paranount.
alley and parks his car My agent told me it was
right behind a delivery dead as a doornail. but
truck. PAN AND FOLLOW I knew a big shot over
HIM as he gets out, walks there who'd always liked
around the corner into me, and the time had
Bronson and then toward come to take a little
the towering main gate of advantage of it. His
Paramount. A few loafers, name was Sheldrake. He
studio cops and extras are was a smart producer,
lounging there. with a set of ulcers to
prove it.
DISSOLVE TO:
A-11 SHELDRAKE'S OFFICE
It is in the style of a Paramount executive's office --
mahogany, leather, and a little chintz. On the
walls are some large framed photographs of Paramount
stars, with dedications to Mr. Sheldrake. Also a
couple of framed critics' awards certificates, and an
Oscar on a bookshelf. A shooting schedule chart is
thumb-tacked into a large bulletin board. There are
piles or scripts, a few pipes and, somewhere in the
background, some set models.
Start on Sheldrake. He is about 45. Behind his wor-
ried face there hides a coated tongue. He is en-
gaged in changing the stained rilter cigarette in
his Zeus holder.
SHELDRAKE
All right, Gillis. You've got
five minutes. What's your story
about?
GILLIS
It's about a ball player, a rookie
shortstop that's batting 347. The
poor kid was once mixed up in a hold-
up. But he's trying to go straight --
except there's a bunch of gamblers
who won't let him.
SHELDRAKE
So they tell the kid to throw the
World Series, or else, huh?
GILLIS
More or less. Only for the end
I've got a gimmick that's real good.
A secretary enters, carrying a glass or milk.
She opens a drawer and takes out a bottle of pills for
Sheldrake.
SHELDRAKE
Got a title?
GILLIS
Bases Loaded. There's a 4O-page
outline.
SHELDRAKE
(To the secretary)
Get the Readers' Department and
see what they have on Bases Loaded.
The secretary exits. Sheldrake takes a pill and
washes it down with some milk.
GILLIS
They're pretty hot about it
over at Twentieth, but I
think Zanuck's all wet. Can
you see Ty Power as a
GILLIS (cont'd)
shortstop? You've got the best
man for it right here on this lot.
Alan Ladd. Good change of pace for
Alan Ladd. There's another thing:
it's pretty simple to shoot. Lot
of outdoor stuff. Bet you could
make the whole thing for under a
million. And there's a great little
part for Bill Demarest. One of the
trainers, an oldtime player who
got beaned and goes out of his head
sometimes.
The door opens and Betty Schaefer enters -- a clean-
cut, nice looking girl of 21, with a bright, alert
manner. Dressed in tweed skirt, Brooks sweater and
pearls, and carrying a folder of papers. She puts
them on Sheldrake's desk, not noticing Gillis, who
stands near the door.
BETTY
Hello, Mr. Sheldrake. On that Bases
Loaded. I covered it with a 2-page
synopsis.
(She holds it out)
But I wouldn't bother.
SHELDRAKE
What's wrong with it?
BETTY
It's from hunger.
SHELDRAKE
Nothing for Ladd?
BETTY
Just a rehash of something that
wasn't very good to begin with.
SHELDRAKE
I'm sure you'll be glad to meet
Mr. Gillis. He wrote it.
Betty turns towards Gillis, embarrassed.
SHELDRAKE
This is Miss Kramer.
BETTY
Schaefer. Betty Schaefer. And
right now I wish I could crawl
into a hole and pull it in after
me.
GILLIS
If I could be of any help...
BETTY
I'm sorry, Mr. Gillis, but I
just don't think it's any good.
I found it flat and banal.
GILLIS
Exactly what kind of material do
you recommend? James Joyce?
Dostoosvsky?
SHELDRAKE
Name dropper.
BETTY
I just think pictures should say
a little something.
GILLIS
Oh, you're one of the message
kids. Just a story won't do.
You'd have turned down Gone With the
Wind.
SHELDRAKE
No, that was me. I said, Who
wants to see a Civil War picture?
BETTY
Perhaps the reason I hated Bases
Loaded is that I knew your name.
I'd always heard you had some
talent.
GILLIS
That was last year. This year
I'm trying to earn a living.
BETTY
So you take Plot 27-A, make it
glossy, make it slick --
SHELDRAKE
Carefull Those are dirty words!
You sound like a bunch of New
York critics. Thank you, Miss
Schaefer.
BETTY
Goodbye, Mr. Gillis.
GILLIS
Goodbye. Next time I'll write
The Naked and the Dead.
Betty leaves.
SHELDRAKE
Well, seems like Zanuck's got
himself a baseball picture.
GILLIS
Mr. Sheldrake, I don't want you
to think I thought this was going
to win any Academy Award.
SHELDRAKE
(His mind free-wheeling)
Of course, we're always looking
for a Betty Hutton. Do you see
it as a Betty Hutton?
GILLIS
Frankly, no.
SHELDRAKE
(Amusing himself)
Now wait a minute. If we made
it a girls' softball team, put
in a few numbers. Might make a
cute musical: It Happened in
the Bull Pen -- the story of a
Woman.
GILLIS
You trying to be funny? -- because
I'm all out of laughs. I'm over a
barrel and I need a job.
SHELDRAKE
Sure, Gillis. If something should
come along -
GILLIS
Along is no good. I need it now.
SHELDRAKE
Haven't got a thing.
GILLIS
Any kind of assignment. Additional
Dialogue.
SHELDRAKE
There's nothing, Gillis. Not
even if you were a relative.
GILLIS
(Hating it)
Look, Mr. Sheldrake, could you
let me have three hundred bucks
yourself, as a personal loan?
SHELDRAKE
Could I? Gillis, last year some-
body talked me into buying a ranch
in the valley. So I borrowed money
from the bank so I could pay for
the ranch. This year I had to
mortgage the ranch so I could keep
up my life insurance so I could
borrow on the insurance so I could
pay my income tax. Now if Dewey
had been elected -
GILLIS
Goodbye, Mr. Sheldrake.
DISSOLVE TO:
A-12 EXT. SCHWAB'S DRUG STORE
(EARLY AFTERNOON ACTIVITY) GILLIS' VOICE
After that I drove down
MOVE IN toward drug store to headquarters. That's
and the way a lot of us think
about Schwab's Drug Store.
DISSOLVE TO: Actors and stock girls and
waiters. Kind of a
combination office,Kaffee-
A-13 INT. SCHWAB'S DRUG STORE Klatsch and waiting room.
Waiting, waiting for the
The usual Schwabadero gravy train.
crowd sits at the fount-
ain, gossips at the
cigar-stand, loiters by
the magazine display.
MOVE IN towards the TWO
TELEPHONE BOOTHS. In I got myself ten nickels
one of them sits Gillis, and started sending out
a stack of nickels in a general S.O.S. Couldn't
front of him. He's get hold of my agent,
doing a lot of talking naturally. So then I
into the telephone, called a pal of mine,name
hanging up, dropping of Artie Green -- an awful
another nickel, dialing, nice guy, an assistant
talking again. director. He cquld let me
have twenty, but twenty
wouldn't do.
GILLIS' VOICE (Cont.)
Then I talked to a couple of
yes men at Twentieth. To me
they said no. Finally I
located that agent of mine, the
big faker. Was he out digging
up a job for poor Joe Gillis?
Hmph! He was hard at work in
Bel Air, making with the golf
clubs.
Gillis hangs up with a curse, opens the door of the
booth, emerges, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
He walks toward the exit. He is stopped by the
voice of
SKOLSKY
Hello, Gillis.
Gillis looks around. At the fountain sits Skolsky,
drinking a cup of coffee.
GILLIS
Hello, Mr. Skolsky.
SKOLSKY
Got anything for the column?
GILLIS
Sure. Just sold an original for
a hundred grand. The Life of the
Warner Brothers. Starring the Ritz
Brothers. Playing opposite the
Andrew Sisters.
SKOLSKY
(With a sour smile)
But don't get me wrong -- I love
Hollywood.
Gillis walks out.
DISSOLVE TO:
A-14 THE BEL AIR GOLF LINKS
On a sun-dappled green edged with tall sycamores,
stands Morino, the agent, a caddy and a nondescript
opponent in the background. Gillis has evidently
stated his problem already.
MORINO
So you need three hundred dollars?
Of course, I could give you three
hundred dollars. Only I'm not
going to.
GILLIS
No?
MORINO
Gillis, get this through your
head. I'm not just your agent.
It's not the ten per cent. I'm
your friend.
He sinks his putt and walks toward the next tee,
Gillis following him.
GILLIS
How's that about your being my
friend?
MORINO
Don't you know the finest things
in the world have been written on
an empty stomach? Once a talent
like yours gets into that Mocambo-
Romanoff rut, you're through.
GILLIS
Forget Romanoff's. It's the car
I'm talking about. If I lose my
car it's like having my legs out off.
MORINO
Greatest thing that could happen
to you. Now you'll have to sit
behind that typewriter. Now
you'll have to write.
GILLIS
What do you think I've been doing?
I need three hundred dollars.
MORINO
(Icily)
Maybe what you need is another agent.
He bends down to tee up his ball. Gillis turns away.
DISSOLVE TO:
A-15 GILLIS IN HIS OPEN CAR
GILLIS' VOICE
driving down Sunset As I drove back towards town
towards Hollywood. He I took inventory of my pros-
drives slowly. His pects. They now added up to
mind is working. exactly zero. Apparently I
just didn't have what it takes,
and the time had come to wrap
up the whole Hollywood deal
and go home. Maybe if I hocked
all my junk there'd be enough
for a bus ticket back to Ohio,
back to that thirty-five-
dollar-a-week job behind the
copy desk of the Dayton Evening
Post, if it was still open.
Back to the smirking delight
of the whole office. All
Gillis stops his car at right you wise guys. why don't
a red light by the main you go out and take a crack at
entrance to Bel Air. Hollywood? Maybe you think
Suddenly his eyes fall you could -- Oh-oh!
on:
A-16 ANOTHER CAR
It is a dark-green Dodge business coupe, also waiting
for the light to change. but headed in the opposite
direction. In it are the two finance company men.
They spot Gillis in his car and exchange looks. From
across the intersection Gillis recognizes them and
pulls down the leather sunshade to screen his face.
As the light changes. Gillis gives his car the gun
and shoots away. The men narrowly avoid hitting
another car as they make a U-turn into oncoming
traffic and start after him.
A-17 THE CHASE
to
A-21 Very short, very sharp, told in FLASHES. (Use
locations on Sunset between Bel Air and Holmby Hills).
The men lose Gillis around a bend, catch sight of him
and then -- while they are trapped behind a slow-
moving truck. he disappears again.
A-22 GILLIS
He is driving as fast as he dares, keeping an eye out
for pursuit in his rear-view mirror. Suddenly his
right front tire blows out. Gillis clutches desperately
at the steering wheel and manages to turn the careening
car into
A-23 A DRIVEWAY
It is overgrown with weeds and screened from the street
by bushes and trees. Gillis stops his car about thirty
feet from the street and looks back.
GILLIS' VOICE
Was I far enough ahead?
A-24 THE OTHER CAR
shoots past the driveway, still looking for Gillis.
A-25 GILLIS
He watches his pursuers GILLIS' VOICE
shoot past and out of Yeah...
sight. He opens the
door and looks down at I had landed myself in the
the flat tire. Then he driveway of some big mansion
looks around to see that looked run-down and
where he is. deserted. At the end of the
drive was a lovely sight
A-26 DRIVEWAY WITH GARAGE indeed -- a great big empty
garage, just standing there
An enormous, five-car going to waste. If ever there
affair. neglected and was a place to stash away a
empty-looking. limping car with a hot license
number...
A-27 GILLIS
He gets back into his There was another occupant in
car and carefully pilots that garage: an enormous
the limping vehicle into foreign-built automobile. It
one of the stalls. In must have burned up ten gallons
the adjoining one is a to a mile. It had a 1932
large, dust-covered license. I figured that's
Isotta-Fraschini propped when the owners moved out...
up on blocks. He closes I also figured I couldn't go
the garage door and walks back to my apartment now that
up the driveway. In idle those bloodhounds were on to
curiosity he mounts a me. The idea was to get Artie
stone staircase which Green's and stay there till I
leads to the garden. could make that bus for Ohio.
CAMERA IN BACK OF HIM. Once back in Dayton I'd drop
At the top of the steps the credit boys a picturepost-
he sees the somber pile card telling them where to
of pick up the jallopy.
NORMA DESMOND'S HOUSE GILLIS' VOICE
It is a grandiose -- It was a great big white
Italianate structure, elephant of a place. The kind
mottled by the years, crazy movie people built in the
gloomy, forsaken, crazy Twenties. A neglected
little formal garden house gets an unhappy look.
completely gone to This one had it in spades. It
seed. was like that old woman in
Great Expectations -- that Miss
From somewhere above Haversham in her rotting wed-
comes ding dress and her torn veil,
taking it out on the world be-
cause she'd been given the go-
by.
A WOMAN'S VOICE
You there!
Gillls turns and looks.
A-28 UPSTAIRS LOGGIA
Behind a bamboo blind there is a movement of
a dark figure.
WOMAN'S VOICE
Wlly are you so late? Why have
you kept me waitlng so long?
A-29 GILLIS
He stands flabbergasted. A new noise attracts his
attention -- the creak of a heavy metal-and-glass
door being opened. He turns and sees
A-3O THE ENTRANCE DOOR OF THE HOUSE
Max von Mayerling stands there. He is sixty, and
all in black, except for immaculate white cotton
gloves, shirt, high, stiff collar and a white bow
tie. His coat is shiny black alpaca, his trousers
ledger-atriped. He is semi-paralyzed. The left
side of his mouth is pulled down, and he leans on a
rubber-ferruled stick.
MAX
In here!
Gillis enters the shot.
GILLIS
I just put my car in the garage.
I had a blow-out. I thought --
MAX
Go on in.
There is authority in the gesture of his white-
gloved hand as he motions Gillis inside.
GILLIS
Look, maybe I'd better take my
car --
MAX
Wipe your feet!
Automatically, Gillis wipes his feet on an enormous
shabby cocoanut mat.
MAX
You are not dressed properly.
GILLIS
Dressed for what?
THE WOMAN'S VOICE
Max! Have him come up, Max!
MAX
(Gesturing)
Up the stairs!
GILLIS
Suppose you listen just for a
minute -
MAX
Madame is waiting.
GILLIS
For me? Okay.
Gillis enters.
A-31 INT. NORMA DESMOND'S ENTRANCE HALL
It is grandiose and grim. The whole place is one of
those abortions of silent-picture days, with bowling
alleys in the cellar and a built-in pipe organ, and
beams imported from Italy, with California termites
at work on them. Portieres are drawn before all the
windows, and only thin slits or sunlight find their
way in to fight the few electric bulbs which are always
burning.
Gillis starts up the curve of the black marble
staircase. It has a wrought-iron rail and a worn
velvet rope along the wall.
MAX
(From below)
If you need help with the
coffin call me.
The oddity of the situation has caught Gillis'
imagination. He climbs the stairs with a kind of
morbid fascination. At the top he stops, undecided,
then turns to the right and is stopped by
WOMAN'S VOICE
This way!
Gillis swings around.
Norma Desmond stands down the corridor next to a
doorway from which emerges a flickering light. She
is a little woman. There is a curious style, a
great sense of high voltage about her. She is dress-
ed in black house pyjamas and black high-heeled
pumps. Around her throat there is a leopard-pat-
terned scarf, and wound around her head a turban of
the same material. Her skin is very pale, and she
is wearing dark glasses.
NORMA
In here. I put him on my massage
table in front of the fire. He
always liked fires and poking at
them with a stick.
Gillis enters the SHOT and she leads him into
A-32 NORMA DESMOND'S BEDROOM
It is a huge, gloomy room hung in white brocade which
has beconle dirty over the years and even slightly
torn in a few places. There's a great, unmade gilded
bed in the shape of a swan, from which the gold had
begun to peel. There is a disorder of clothes and
negligees and faded photographs of old-time stars
about.
In an imitation baroque fireplace some logs are burn-
ing. On the massage table before it lies a small
form shrouded under a Spanish shawl. At each end on
a baroque pedestal stands a three-branched cande-
labrum, the candles lighted.
NORMA
I've made up my mind we'll bury him in
the garden. Any city laws against that?
GILLIS
I wouldn't know.
NORMA
I don't care anyway. I want the
coffin to be white. And I want
it specially lined with satin.
White, or deep pink.
She picks up the shawl to make up her mind about the
color. From under the shawl flops down a dead arm.
Gillis stares and recoils a little. It is like a
child's arm, only black and hairy.
NORMA
Maybe red. bright flaming red.
Gay. Let's make it gay.
Gillis edges closer and glances down. Under the
shawl he sees the sad, bearded face of a dead
chimpanzee. Norma drops back the shawl.
NORMA
How much will it be? I warn you -
don't give me a fancy price just
because I'm rich.
GILLIS
Lady. you've got the wrong man.
For the first time. Norma really looks at him
through her dark glasses.
GILLIS
I had some trouble with my car.
Flat tire. I pulled into your
garage till I could get a spare.
I thought this was an empty house.
NORMA
It is not. Get out.
GILLIS
I'm sorry, and I'm sorry you lost
your friend, and I don't think red
is the right color.
NORMA
Get out.
GILLIS
Sure. Wait a minute -- haven't
I seen you -- ?
NORMA
Or shall I call my servant?
GILLIS
I know your face. You're Norma
Desmond. You used to be in
pictures. You used to be big.
NORMA
I am big. It's the pictures
that got small.
GILLIS
I knew there was something
wrong with them.
NORMA
They're dead. They're finished.
There was a time when this busi-
ness had the eyes of the whole
wide world. But that wasn't good
enough. Oh, nol They wanted the
ears of the world, too. So they
opened their big mouths, and out
came talk, talk, talk...
GILLIS
That's where the popcorn business
comes in. You buy yourself a bag
and plug up your ears.
NORMA
Look at them in the front offices --
the master minds! They took the
idols and smashed them. The
Fairbankses and the Chaplins and
the Gilberts and the Valentinos.
And who have they got now? Some
nobodies -- a lot of pale little
frogs croaking pish-poshl
GILLIS
Don't get sore at me. I'm not
an executive. I'm just a writer.
NORMA
You are! Writing words, words!
You've made a rope of words and
strangled this businessl But there
is a microphone right there to catch
the last gurgles, and Technicolor
to photograph the red, swollen tongue!
GILLIS
Ssh! You'll wake up that monkey.
NORMA
Get out!
Gillis starts down the stairs.
GILLIS
Next time I'll bring my autograph
album along, or maybe a hunk of
cement and ask for your footprints.
He is halfway down the staircase when he is
stopped by
NORMA
Just a minute, you!
GILLIS
Yeah?
NORMA
You're a writer, you said.
GILLIS
Why?
Norma starts down the stairs.
NORMA
Are you or aren't you?
GILLIS
I think that's what it says on my
driver's license.
NORMA
And you have written pictures,
haven't you?
GILLIS
Sure have. The last one I
wrote was about cattle rustlers.
Before they were through with it,
the whole thing played on a
torpedo boat.
Norma has reached him at the bottom of the staircase.
NORMA
I want to ask you something.
Come in here.
She leads him into
A-33 THE HUGE LIVING ROOM
It is dark and damp and filled with black oak and
red velvet furniture which looks like crappy props
from the Mark of Zorro set. Along the main wall,
a gigantic fireplace has been freezing for years.
On the gold piano is a galaxy of photographs of
Norma Desmond in her various roles. On one wall
is a painting -- a California Gold Rush scene,
Carthay Circle school. (We will learn later that
it hides a motion picture screen.)
One corner is filled with a large pipe organ, and
as Norma and Gillis enter, there is a grizzly
moaning sound. Gillis looks around.
NORMA
The wind gets in that blasted
pipe organ. I ought to have
it taken out.
GILLIS
Or teach it a better tune.
Norma has led him to the card tables which stand
side by side near a window. They are piled high
with papers scrawled in a large, uncertain hand.
NORMA
How long is a movie script these
days? I mean, how many pages?
GILLIS
Depends on what it is -- a Donald
Duck or Joan or Arc.
NORMA
This is to be a very important
picture. I have written it
myself. Took me years.
GILLIS
(Looking at the piles
of script)
Looks like enough for six impor-
tant pictures.
NORMA
It's the story or Salome. I
think I'll have DeMille direct it.
GILLIS
Uh-huh.
NORMA
We've made a lot of pictures
together.
GILLIS
And you'll play Salome?
NORMA
Who else ?
GILLIS
Only asking. I did't know
you were planning a comeback.
NORMA
I hate that word. It is a return.
A return to the millions of people
who have never forgiven me for
deserting the screen.
GILLIS
Fair enough.
NORMA
Salome -- what a woman! What a
part! The Princess in love with
a Holy man. She dances the Dance
of the Seven Veils. He rejects
her, so she demands his head on a
golden tray, kissing his cold, dead
lips.
GILLIS
They'll love it in Pomona.
NORMA
(Taking it straight)
They will love it every place.
(She reaches for a
batch of pages from
the heap)
Read it. Read the scene just
before she has him killed!
GILLIS
Right now? Never let another
writer read your stuff. He
may steal it.
NORMA
I am not afraid. Read it!
NORMA (Cont'd)
(Calling)
Max! Max!
(To Gillis)
Sit down. Is there enough light?
GILLIS
I've got twenty-twenty vision.
Max has entered.
NORMA
Bring something to drink.
MAX
Yes. Madame.
He leaves. Norma turns to Gillis again.
NORMA
I said sit down.
There is compulsion in her voice.
Gillis looks at her GILLIS' VOICE
and starts slowly Well. I had no pressing
reading. engagement, and she'd men-
tioned something to drink..
Max comes in, wheeling Sometimes it's interesting
a wicker tea wagon on to see just how bad bad
which are two bottles o writing can be. This prom-
f champagne and two ised to go the limit. I
red Venetian glasses, wondered what a handwriting
a box of zwieback and expert would make of that
a jar of caviar. Norma childish scrawl of hers.
sits on her feet. deep Max wheeled in some champagne
in a chair, a gold ring and some caviar. Later, I
on her forefinger with found out that Max was the
a clip which holds a only other person in that
cigarette. She gets up grim Sunset castle, and I
and forces on Gillis found out a few other things
another batch of script, about him... As for her, she
goes back to her chair. sat coiled up like a watch
spring, her cigarette
clamped in a curious holder...
I could sense her eyes on me
from behind those dark
glasses, defying me not to
like what I read, or maybe
begging me in her own proud
way to like it. It meant
so much to her...
A-34 SHOT OF THE GILLIS' VOICE
CEILING It sure was a cozy set-up.
That bundle of raw nerves,and
PAN DOWN to the moan- Max, and a dead monkey upstair
ing organ. PAN OVER and the wind wheezing through
TO THE ENTRANCE DOOR. that organ once in a while.
Max opens it, and a Later on, just for comedy
solemn-faced man in relief, the real guy arrived
undertaker's clothes with a baby coffin. It was
brings in a small all done with great dignity.
white coffin. (Thru He must have been a very
these shots the room important chimp. The great
has been growing grandson of King Kong, maybe.
duskier.)
DISSOLVE TO:
A-35 GILLIS It got to be eleven. I was
feeling a little sick at my
reading. The lamp stomach, what with that sweet
beside him is now champagne and that tripe I'd
really paying its been reading -- that silly
way in the dark room. hodgepodge of melodramatic
A lot of the manu- plots. However, by then I'd
script pages are started concocting a little
piled on the floor plot of my own...
around his feet. A
half-empty champagne
glass stands on the
arm of his chair.
THE CAMERA SLOWLY DRAWS BACK to include Norma
Desmond sitting in the dusk, just as she was before.
Gillis puts down a batch of script. There is a
little pause.
NORMA
(Impatiently)
Well?
GILLIS
This is fascinating.
NORMA
Of course it is.
GILLIS
Maybe it's a little long and
maybe there are some repetitions...
but you're not a professional
writer.
NORMA
I wrote that with my heart.
GILLIS
Sure you did. That's what makes
it great. What it needs is a
little more dialogue.
NORMA
What for? I can say anything I
want with my eyes.
GILLIS
It certainly could use a pair of
shears and a blue pencil.
NORMA
I will not have it butchered.
GILLIS
Of course not. But it ought to
be organized. Just an editing
job. You can find somebody.
NORMA
Who? I'd have to have somebody
I can trust. When were you born --
I mean, what sign of the zodiac?
GILLIS
I don't know.
NORMA
What month?
GILLIS
December twenty-first.
NORMA
Sagittarius. I like Sagittarians.
You can trust them.
GILLIS
Thank you.
NORMA
I want you to do this work.
GILLIS
Me? I'm busy. Just finished
one script. I'm due on another
assignment.
NORMA
I don't care.
GILLIS
You know, I'm pretty expensive.
I get five hundred a week.
NORMA
I wouldn't worry about money.
I'll make it worth your while.
GILLIS
Maybe I'd better take the rest
of the script home and read it -
NORMA
Oh no. I couldn't let it out
of my house. You'll have to
finish it here.
GILLIS
It's getting kind of late --
NORMA
Are you married, Mr. -- ?
GILLIS
The name is Gillis. I'm single.
NORMA
Where do you live?
GILLIS
Hollywood. The Alto Nido Apart-
ments.
NORMA
There's something wrong with
your car, you said.
GILLIS
There sure is.
NORMA
You can stay here.
GILLIS
I'll come early tomorrow.
Norma takes off her glasses.
NORMA
Nonsense. There's room over the
garage. Max will take you there...Max!
THE CAMERA MOVES GILLIS' VOICE
TOWARD NORMA'S FACE, She sure could say a lot of
right up to her things with those pale eyes of
eyes. hers. They'd been her trade
mark. They'd made her the Num-
ber One Vamp of another era. I
remember a rather florid des-
cription in an old fan magazine
which said: "Her eyes are like
two moonlit waterholes, where
strange animals come to drink."
DISSOLVE TO:
A-36 SMALL STAIRCASE, LEAD- GILLIS'VOICE
ING TO ROOM OVER GARAGE I felt kind of pleased with
the way I'd handled the sit-
Max, an electric light uation. I'd dropped the hook,
bulb in his hand, is and she'd snapped at it. Now
leading Gillis up. my car would be safe down
Gillis carries a batch below, while I did a patch-
of the manuscript. up job on the script. And
there should be plenty of
money in it...
Max pushes open a door at the top of the stairs.
MAX
(Opening the door)
I made your bed this afternoon.
GILLIS
Thanks.
(On second thought)
How did you know I was going to
stay, this afternoon?
Max doesn't answer. He walks across to the bed,
screws a bulb in the open socket above it. The
light goes on, revealing:
A-37 A GABLED BEDROOM
There are dirty windows on two sides, and dingy wall-
paper on the cracked plaster walls. For furniture
there is a neatly made bed, a table and a few chairs
which might have been discarded from the main house.
MAX
This room has not been used for
a long time.
GILLIS
It will never make house Beautiful.
I guess it's O.K. for one night.
Max gives him an enigmatic look.
MAX
(Pointing)
There is the bathroom. I put in
soap and a toothbrush.
GILLIS
Thanks.
(He starts taking off
his coat)
Say, she's quite a character,
that Norma Desmond.
MAX
She was the greatest. You wouldn't
know. You are too young. In one
week she got seventeen thousand fan
letters. Men would bribe her mani-
curist to get clippings from her
fingernails. There was a Maharajah
who came all the way from Hyderabad
to get one of her stockings. Later,
he strangled himself with it.
GILLIS
I sure turned into an interesting
driveway.
MAX
You did, sir.
GILLIS' VOICE
He goes out. Gillis I pegged him as slightly
looks after him, hangs cuckoo, too. A stroke maybe.
his coat over a chair, Come to think of it, the
walks over to the win- whole place seemed to have
dow, pulls down the been stricken with a kind of
rickety Venetian blind. creeping paralysis, out of
As he does so, he looks beat with the rest of the
down at: world, crumbling apart in
slow motion ...
A-38 THE TENNIS COURT OF GILLIS' VOICE
THE DESMOND HOUSE There was a tennis court, or
(MOONLIGHT) rather the ghost of a tennis
court, with faded markings
The cement surface is and sagging net ...
cracked in many places,
and weeds are growing
high.
A-39 GILLIS - IN THE WINDOW
He looks away from the court to:
A-40 THE DESMOND SWIMMING
POOL
GILLIS' VOICE
There is no water in And of course she had a pool.
it, and hunks of Who didn't then? Mabel Norm-
mosaic which lines its and and John Gilbert must
enormous basin are have swum in it ten thousand
broken away. midnights ago, and Vilma Banky
and Rod La Roque. It was
empty now....or was it?
A-41 GILLIS - IN THE WINDOW
He stares down, his stomach slowly turning.
A-42 THE SWIMMING POOL
At the bottom of the basin a great rat is eating a
decaying or,ange. From the inlet pipe crawl two
other rats, who join battle with the first rat over
the orange.
A-43 GILLIS -IN THE WINDOW
He starts away, but some- GILLIS' VOICE
thing attracts his atten- There was something
tion. He turns back and else going on below:
looks down again. the last rites for
that hairy old chimp,
performed with the
A-44 THE LAWN BELOW utmost seriousness --
as if she were laying
Norma Desmond and Max are to rest an only child.
carrying the white coffin Was her life really
towards a small grave as as empty as that?
which has been dug in the
dead turf. Norma carries
one of the candelabra, all
of its candles flickering
in the wind. They reach
the grave and lower the
coffin into it. Then,
Norma lighting his task
with the candelabrum, Max
takes a spade from the
loose earth and starts
filling in the grave.
A-45 GILLIS - IN THE WINDOW
He watches the scene be- GILLIS' VOICE
low, then turns into the It was all very queer,
room, goes to the door but queerer things
to lock it. There is no were yet to come.
key, and only a hole
where the lock has been
gouged out. Gillis moves
a heavy overstuffed chair
in front of the door, then
walks towards the bed,
throws himself on it,
picking up some of the
manuscript pages to read.
DISSOLVE
END OF SEQUENCE "A"
SEQUENCE "B"
DISSOLVE IN ON:
B-1 LONG SHOT THE DESMOND
HOUSE - (MORNING)
The day is overcast. The SOUND: (Distant organ
house is shrouded in low music - improvisations
fog. on an odd, mournful
theme - not too loud,
continuing throughout
B-2 THE TENNIS COURT, blurred the scene.)
over with fog.
B-3 THE EMPTY SWIMMING POOL
Its dark outline even more
melancholy under the misty
blanket.
B-4 THE ROOM OVER THE GARAGE
Muted daylight seeps GILLIS' VOICE
through the blinds. Gillis That night I'd had a
lies on the bed, under a mixed-up dream. In it
shabby quilt. The manu- was an organ grinder.
script is beside him, some I couldn't see his
of the pages scattered on face, but the organ
the floor. He is just was all draped in
opening his eyes. It takes black, and a chimp was
him a moment to adjust him- dancing for pennies.
self to the strange sur- When I opened my eyes,
roundings. His eyes, wander- the music was still
ing about the room. suddenly there... Where was
stop, startled. He lifts I?
himself on one elbow and
stares at -
B-5 THE DOOR
The heavy chair he had set Oh yes, in that empty
against it the night before room over her garage.
has been pushed back. The Only it wasn't empty
door is wide ajar. any more. Somebody
had brought in all my
belongings - my
B-6 GILLIS books, my typewriter,
my clothes...
He jumps out of bed. He
wears, shirt, trousers
and socks. Suddenly he
realizes that all his
possessions have GILLIS' VOICE
been brought in. In What was going on?
the closet hang his
shirts. His books and
typewriter are neatly
arranged on the table.
His phonograph-radio
combination is all
installed. Gillis looks
around startled, then
sits down and starts
putting on his moccasins
hastily.
DISSOLVE TO:
B-7 A PAIR OF HANDS IN WHITE GLOVES, PLAYING THE ORGAN
PULL BACK: They belong to Max von Mayerling. He
is sitting erect, his bull neck taut as a wrestler's
as he rights out somber chord after somber chord.
He sits in a shaft of gray light coming from an open
French window.
Through the far archway, Gillis storms into the big
room.
GILLIS
Hey, you -- Max -- whatever -your-
name-is -- what are my things doing
here?
No answer.
GILLIS
I'm talking to you. My clothes
and things are up in the room.
MAX
Naturally. I brought them myself.
GILLIS
(Furiously)
Is that so!
MAX
Why are you so upset? Is there
anything missing?
GILLIS
Who said you could? Who asked you to?
Norma Desmond's shadow moves into the shaft of
light.
NORMA'S VOICE
I did.
Gillis looks around.
On the couch by the fireplace reclines Norma Desmond,
dressed in a negligee. She rises.
NORMA
I don't know why you should be
so upset. Stop that playing,
Max.
(To Gillis again)
It seemed like a good idea --
if we are to work together.
GILLIS
Look, I'm supposed to fix up
your script. There's nothing
in the deal about my staying
here.
NORMA
You'll like it here.
GILLIS
Thanks for the invitation, but
I have my own apartment.
NORMA
You can't work in an apartment
where you owe three months' rent.
GILLIS
I'll take care of that.
NORMA
It's all taken care of. It's
all paid for.
GILLIS
I'm used to paying my own bills.
NORMA
You proud boy, why didn't you tell
me you were having difficulties.
GILLIS
Okay. We'll deduct it from my
salary.
NORMA
Now, now, don't let's be small
about such matters. We won't
keep books.
(To Max)
Go on, unpack Mr. Gillis' things.
GILLIS
Unpack nothing. I didn't say
I was staying.
NORMA
(Her glasses off again)
Suppose you make up your mind.
Do you want this job or don't you?
DISSOLVE TO:
B-8 BIG ROOM, NORMA DESMOND'S
HOUSE - (DAY) GILLIS' VOICE
Gillis sits at an impro- So I let him unpack my
vised table, his typewriter things. I wanted the
in front of him, working dough, and I wanted to
hard at the manuscript. get out of there as
Pencils, shears and a quickly as possible.
paste-pot at hand. I thought if I really
got going I could toss
Facing him at some dis- it off in a couple or
tance sits Norma,dressed weeks. But it wasn't
in another version of her so simple, getting some
favorite lounging pajamas, coherence into that wild,
the cigaette contraption scrambled melodrama
on her finger. She is she'd concocted. What
autographing large photo- made it tougher was that
graphs of herself and put- she was around all the
ting them in envelopes. time -- hovering over
me, afraid I'd do injury
to that precious brain-
child of hers.
Gillis takes two or three pages from Norma's hand-
written script, crosses them out and puts them to
one side.
Norma rises, crosses towards Gillis, looks over his
shoulder.
NORMA
What's that?
GILLIS
Just a scene I cut out.
NORMA
What scene?
GILLIS
The one where you go to the slave
market. You can cut right to the
scene where John the Baptist -
NORMA
Cut away from me?
GILLIS
Honestly, it's a little old hat.
They don't want that any more.
NORMA
They don't? Then why do they still
write me fan letters every day.
Why do they beg me for my photo-
graphs? Because they want to see
me, me, me! Norma Desmond.
GILLIS
(Resigned)
Okay.
He pulls the page from his typewriter. As he does
so he glances over towards Norma.
GILLIS' VOICE
On the table in front I didn't argue with her.
of her are the photo- You don't yell at a
graphs which she is sign- sleepwalker-- he may fall
ing. On the long table and break his neck.That's
in the living room is a it -- she was still
gallery of photographs sleepwalking along the
in various frames -- all giddy heights of a lost
Norma Desmond. On the career --plain crazy
piano more photographs. when it came to that one
Above the piano an oil subject: her celluloid
portrait of her. On the self, the great Norma
highboy beside him still Desmond. How could She
more photographs. breathe in that house,
so crowded with Norma
DISSOLVE TO: Desmonds? More Norma
Desmond and still more
Norma Desmond.
B-9 THE BIG ROOM - (NIGHT)
GILLIS' VOICE
Shooting towards the big It wasn't all work - of
Gold Rush painting. Max, course. Two or three
white gloves and all, times a week Max would
steps into the shot, shoves haul up that enormous oil
the painting up towards painting that had been
the ceiling,revealing a presented to her by some
motion picture screen. Nevada Chamber of Com-
Max exits. merce, and we'd see a
movie,right in her
living room.
B-1O NORMA AND GILLIS
GILLIS' VOICE
They sit on a couch,facing "So much nicer than going
the screen. On a table in out," she'd say. The
front of them are champagne, plain fact was that she
cigarettes and coffee. was afraid of that world
Above their heads are the outside. Afraid it
typical openings for a pro- would remind her that
jector. The lights go off. time had passed.
From the opening above
their heads shoots the wide
beam of light.
B-11 MAX, IN THE PROJECTION They were silent movies,
BOOTH BEHIND THE ROOM and Max would run the
projection machine, which
The light of the machine was just as well -- it
flickering over his face, kept him from giving us
which is frozen, a somber an accompaniment on
enigma. that wheezing organ.
B-12 NORMA AND GILLIS
She'd sit very close to
watching the screen. me, and she'd smell of
Gillis looks down and sees tuberoses, which is not
that Norma's hand is clasp- my favorite perfume, not
ing his ann tight. He by a long shot. Sometines
doesn't like it much but as we watched, she'd c
he can't do anything about lutch my arm or my hand
it. However. when she for forgetting she was my
a second lets go his arm employer becoming just a
to pick up a glass of fan, excited about that
champagne, he gently with- actress up there on the
draws his arm, leans away screen....I guess I don't
from her and crosses his have to tell you who the
arms to discourage any star was. They were
resumption of her approach. always her pictures --
Norma puts the glass down that's all she wanted
doesn't find his arn, but to see.
is not aware of any signifi-
cance in his maneuver. They
both watch the screen.
B-13 THE OTHER END OF THE BIG ROOM. WITH THE SCREEN
On it flickers a famous scene from one of Norma's old
silent pictures. It is not to be a funny scene. It
is old-fashioned, but shows her incredible beauty
and the screen presence which made her the great star
of her day.
B-14 NORMA AND GILLIS ON THE COUCH
NORMA
Still wonderful, isn't it? And
no dialogue. We didn't need
dialogue. We had faces. There
just aren't any faces like that
any more. Well, maybe one --
Garbo.
In a sudden flareup she jumps to her feet and stands
in the flickering beam of light.
NORMA
Those idiot producers! Those
imbeciles! Haven't they got any
eyes? Have they forgotten what
a star looks like? I'll show them.
I'll be up there again. So help me!
DISSOLVE TO:
B-15 THE BIG ROOM - (NIGHT)
It is apparently empty. GILLIS' VOICE
The elaborate lamps Sometimes there'd be a
make pools of light. little bridge game in the
house, at a twentieth-of-
THE CAMERA PULLS BACK a cent a point. I'd get
AND PANS to reveal a half her winnings. Once
card table around they ran up to seventy
which sit Norma and cents, which was about
three friends - three the only cash money I
actors of her period. ever got. The others
They sit erect and play around the table would
with grim seriousness. be actor friends - dim
figures you may still
Beside Norma sits remember from the silent
Gillis, kibitzing on a days. I used to think of
game which bores him them as her Wax Works.
extremely. An ashtray
on the card table is
full and Norma holds
it out for Gillis to
take away. He crosses
the room to the fire-
place. but his eyes
fall on the entrance
door and he stops.
B-16 THE ENTRANCE HALL - (FROM GILLIS' POINT OF VIEW)
Max stands in the open door. Outside are the two
men who came to the apartment for Gillis' car.
B-17 GILLIS
He steps back so that he cannot be seen from the
door. A second later Max appears, looking for him.
MAX
(Quietly)
Some men are here. They asked
for you.
GILLIS
I'm not here.
MAX
That's what I told them.
GILLIS
Good.
MAX
They found your car in the
garage. They are going to tow
it away.
Gillis doesn't know what to do. From offstage
comes:
NORMA'S VOICE
The ashtray, Joe dear! Can we
have the ashtray?
Gillis dumps the cigarette butts into the cold fire-
place, crosses to the bridge table, puts the
ashtray down, leans over and speaks into Norma's ear.
GILLIS
I want to talk to you for a
minute.
NORMA
Not now, my dear. I'm playing
three no trump.
GILLIS
They've come for my car.
NORMA
Please. Now I've forgotten how
many spades are out.
GILLIS
I need some money right now.
NORMA
Can't you wait till I'm dummy?
3.22.49 GILLIS
No.
NORMA
(Angry by now)
Please!
Gillis stands frustrated, hideously embarrassed
by the stares of the waxworks. He turns away
and hurries to the door.
B-18 ENTRANCE DOOR TO THE HOUSE
It is half open. Gillis comes into the shot
and, taking cover, looks out.
B-19 COURTYARD (FROM GILLIS' ANGLE)
The men from the finance company are cranking up
the car. Max stands watching silently. When they
finish the cranking job, the men climb into the
front seat of the truck.
B-2O GILLIS - AT THE DOOR
Over the shot the SOUND of the truck being started
and the cars moving away. Gillis moves out into
the courtyard and stands staring after the car.
From the house comes Norma.
NORMA
Now what is it? Where's the
fire?
GILLIS
I've lost my car.
NORMA
Oh...and I thought it was a
matter of life and death.
GILLIS
It is to me. That's why I came
to this house. That's why I took
this job -- ghost writing!
NORMA
Now you're being silly. We don't
need two cars. We have a car. And
not one of thuse cheap new things
made of chromium and spit. An
Isotta-Fraschini. Have you ever
heard of Isotta-Fraschinis? All
hand-made. Cost me twenty-eight
thousand dollars.
THE CAMERA HAS PANNED over to the garage and FOCUSES
on the dirty Isotta-Fraschini on its blocks.
DISSOLVE TO:
B-21 NORMA'S ISOTTA-FRASCHINI
DRIVING IN THE HILLS
ABOVE SUNSET (DAY)
Max is at the wheel, GILLIS' VOICE
dressed as usual except So Max got that old bus
for a chauffeurfs cap. down off its blocks and
polished it up. She'd
take me for rides in the
B-22 INSIDE THE CAR hills above Sunset.
Gillis sits beside Norma, The whole thing was up-
who is wearing a smart holstered in leopard
tailleur and her eternal skin, and had one of
sun glasses. Gillis those car phones, all
wears his sport jacket- gold-plated.
flannel trousers-moccasin
combinatIon.
He sits uncomfortably. Norma is studying him.
NORMA
That's a dreadful shirt you're
wearing.
GILLIS
What's wrong with It?
NORMA
Nothing, if you work in a fill-
ing station. And I'm getting
rather bored with that sport
jacket, and those same baggy
pants.
(She picks up
the car phone)
Max, what's a good men's shop
in town? The very best...
Well, go there !
GILLIS
I don't need any clothes, and
I certainly don't want you buy-
ing them for --
NORMA
Why begrudge me a little fun?
I just want you to look nice,
my stray little boy.
By this time Max has made a U-turn.
QUICK DISSOLVE TO:
B-23 INT. MEN'S DEPARTMENT, AN ELEGANT WILSHIRE STORE
Gillis stands in front of a full-length triple mirror,
surrounded by a couple of salesmen and the tailor, who
is busily working out alterations.
Gillis wears a double-breasted gray flannel coat with
chalk stripes. His trousers belong to another suit
of glen plaid. Norma is running the show.
NORMA
There's nothing like gray flannel
with a chalk stripe.
(she points at
the trousers)
This one single-breasted, of course.
(to another salesman)
Now we need a topcoat. Let's see
what you have in camel's hair.
The salesman leaves.
NORMA
How about some evening clothes?
GILLIS
I don't need a tuxedo.
NORMA
Of course you do. A tuxedo and
tails.
GILLIS
Tails. That's ridiculous.
NORMA
You'll need them for parties.
You'll need them for New Year's
Eve.
(to a salesman)
Where are your evening clothes?
SALESMAN
This way, Madame.
He leads her off. The other salesman arrives with a
selection of topcoats.
SALESMAN
Here are some camel hairs, but
I'd like you just to feel this
one. It's Vicuna. Of course,
it's a little more expensive.
GILLIS
A camel's hair will do.
SALESMAN
(With an insulting
inflection)
As long as the lady is paying
for it, why not take the Vicuna?
DISSOLVE:
END OF SEQUENCE "B"
SEQUENCE "C"
DISSOLVE IN:
C-1 LONG SHOT DESMOND HOUSE
A day in December. Rain.
QUICK DISSOLVE TO:
C-2 INT. ROOM OVER GARAGE
Water is drizzling from GILLIS' VOICE
two or three spots in the The last week in December
ceiling into pans and the rains came -- a great
bowls set to catch it, big package of rain.
one bowl right on the Over-sized, like every-
bed. The room is almost thing else in California.
emptied of Gillis' be-
longings by now. Max It came right through
is carrying out a hand- the old roof of my room
full of new suits on above the garage. She
hangers. He has a had Max move me to the
dressing gown over his main house. I didn't
shoulder. Gillis holds much like the idea -- the
a stack of shirts, his only time I could have
typewriter, and some to myself was in that
manuscript. He surveys room -- but it was better
the room for the last than sleeping in a rain-
time, to see whether coat and galoshes.
he's forgotten any-
thing. He has. He
puts down the typewriter
and picks up from under
the bed a pair of very
smart red leather bedroom
slippers. He tucks them
under his arm, picks up
the typewriter and leaves.
QUICK DISSOLVE TO:
C-3 A BEDROOM IN TIiE MAIN HOUSE
It is obviously a man's room -- heavy Spanish
furniture -- one wall nothing but a closet with
shelves and drawers for shirts and shoes. Max is
hanging up the suits. Gillis throws the shirts on
a big chair, tosses the slippers at the foot of the
bed, places the typewriter and manuscript on a desk
at the window.
GILLIS
Whose room was this?
MAX
It was the room of the husband.
Or of the husbands, I should say.
Madame has been married three
times.
Slightly embarrassed, Gillis picks up his toilet
kit with razor, toothbrushes, soap, etc., and starts
towards the bathroom, pausing en route at a rain-
splattered window.
GILLIS
I guess this is the one you
can see Catalina from. Only
this isn't the day.
He proceeds towards the half-opened door leading
to the bathroom. Something strikes his attention
and he stops. As in the door to the room above
the garage, this lock, too, has been gouged out.
GILLIS
Hey, what's this with the
door? There isn't any lock.
MAX
There are no locks anywhere
in this house.
He points to the entrance door of the room, and to
another door.
GILLIS
How come?
MAX
The doctor suggested it.
GILLIS
What doctor?
MAX
Madame's doctor. She has moments
of melancholy. There have been
some suicide attempts.
GILLIS
Uh-huh?
MAX
We have to be very careful. No
sleeping pills, no razor blades.
We shut off the gas in her bed-
room.
GILLIS
Why? Her career? She got enough
out of it. She's not forgotten.
She still gets those fan letters.
MAX
I wouldn't look too closely at the
postmarks.
GILLIS
You send them. Is that it, Max?
MAX
I'd better press your evening
clothes, sir. You have not for-
gotten Madame's New Year's party.
GILLIS
No, I haven't. I suppose all
the waxworks are coming?
MAX
I don't know, sir. Madame made
the arrangements.
Max leaves. Gillis comes out of the bathroom, picks
up his shirts, goes over to a closet, opens it. As
he does so one of the doors without a lock swings
slightly open. Gillis looks through the half-open
door and sees.
C-4 NORMA DESMOND'S ROOM
It is empty. The rainy GILLIS' VOICE
day does nothing to There it was again - that
help its gloom. room of hers, all satin and
ruffles, and that bed like
a gilded rowboat. The per-
fect setting for a silent
movie queen. Poor devil,
still waving proudly to a
parade which had long since
passed her by.
He pushes the door shut
and walks back into the
room.
DISSOLVE TO:
C-5 STAIRCASE OF DESMOND
HOUSE (NIGHT)
Gillis is coming down the GILLIS' VOICE
stairs in his tailcoat It was at her New Year's
adjusting the handkerchief party that I found out
in his pocket. He obviously how she felt about me.
feels a little uneasy in Maybe I'd been an idiot
this outfit. From below not to have sensed it
comes a tango of the Twen- was coming - that sad,
ties. played by a small embarrassing revelation.
orchestra. Gillis stops
in the archway leading to
the big room and looks
around.
C-6 THE BIG ROOM has been deco-
rated for the occasion with
laurel garlands. Dozens of
candles in all the sconces
and candelabra are ablaze.
Their flickering flames are
reflected in the waxed sur=
face of the tile floor.
There is a buffet, with
buckets of champagne and
caviar on ice. In one corner
on a little platform banked
with palms. a four-piece
orchestra is playing.
At the buffet are Max and Norma. She is drinking
a glass of champagne. She is wearing a diamonte
evening dress. very high style. with long black
gloves and a headdress of paradise feathers. Her
eyes fall on Gillis. She puts down the glass of
champagne. picks up a gardenia boutonniere and
moves toward him.
NORMA
Joe, you look absolutely
divine. Turn around!
GILLIS
(Embarrassed}
Please.
NORMA
Come on!
Gillis makes a slow 36O-degree turn.
NORMA
Perfect. Wonderful shoulders.
And I love that line.
She indicates the V from his shoulders to his hips.
GILLIS
All padding. Don't let it fool
you.
NORMA
Come here!
She puts the gardenia on his lapel.
GILLIS
You know, to me dressing up
was always just putting on
my dark blue suit.
NORMA
I don't like those studs they've
sent. I want you to have pearls.
Nice big pearls.
GILLIS
Now, I'm not going to wear ear-
rings, I can tell you that.
NORMA
Cute. Let's have some drinks.
She leads him over to the buffet.
GILLIS
Shouldn't we wait for the others?
NORMA
(Pointing at the floor)
Careful, it's slippery. I
had it waxed.
They reach the buffet. Max is ready with two
glasses of champagne. Norma hands Gillis a glass.
NORMA
Here's to us.
They drink.
NORMA
You know, this floor used to
be wood but I had it changed.
Valentino said there is nothing
like tiles for a tango.
She opens her arms.
GILLIS
Not on the same floor with
Valentino!
NORMA
Just follow me.
They start to tango. After a moment --
NORMA
Don't bend back like that.
GILLIS
It's those feathers. They tickle.
Norma pulls the paradise feathers from her hair
and tosses them away.
C-7 THE ORCHESTRA
As they play the tango, the musicians eye the danc-
ing couple, take in the situation, exchange glances
and turn away with professional discretion.
C-8 NORMA AND GILLIS, TANGOING
Gillis glances at his wrist watch.
GILLIS
It's a quarter past ten. What
time are they supposed to get
here?
NORMA
Who?
GILLIS
The other guests?
NORMA
There are no other guests. We
don't want to share this night
with other people. This is for
you and me.
GILLIS
I understand some rich guy bought
up all the tickets for a perfor-
mance at the Metropolitan and sat
there listening to La Traviata,
all by himself. He was afraid of
catching cold.
NORMA
Hold me tighter.
GILLIS
Come midnight, how about blind-
folding the orchestra and smash-
ing champagne glasses on Max's
head?
NORMA
You think this is all very funny.
GILLIS
A little.
NORMA
Is it funny that I'm in love
with you?
GILLIS
What's that?
NORMA
I'm in love with you. Don't you
know that? I've been in love
with you all along.
They dance on. Gillis is acutely embarrassed.
THE CAMERA SLOWLY PULLS BACK, PANS past the faces
of the musicians, who play on with a rather overe-
mphasized lack of interest. Finally it winds up
on Max, behind the buffet. He stands watching Gillis,
a faint trace of pity in his eyes.
DISSOLVE TO:
C-9 NORMA'S FINGER, WITH THE
CIGARETTE GADGET, as she GILLIS' VOICE
inserts a cigarette. I'm sure a lot of you will
laugh about this. Ridicu-
lous situation, wasn't it?
-- a woman almost twice my
age ... It got to be about
a quarter of eleven. I
felt caught, like a cig-
arette in the prongs of
that contraption on her
finger.
PULL BACK TO:
NORMA AND GILLIS sitting on a couch in front of the
cavernous fireplace. Norma holds out her cigarette
to Gillis, who lights it.
NORMA.
What a wonderful next year it's
going to be. What fun we're going
to have. I'II fill the pool for
you. Or I'll open my house in
Malibu, and you can have the whole
ocean. Or I'll buy you a boat
and we'll sail to Hawaii.
GILLIS
Stop it. You aren't going to buy
me anything more.
NORMA
Don't be silly.
(She reaches under a
pillow of the couch
and brings out a
leather box)
Here. I was going to give it to
you at midniglht.
Gillis opens the box. It contains a matched gold
cigarette case and lighter.
NORMA
Read what's inside.
Gillis snaps open the case. Engraved inside the
cover is: TO JOE FROM NORMA, and two bars of
music.
GILLIS
What are the notes?
NORMA
"Mad about the boy."
GILLIS
Norma, I can't take it. You've
bought me enough.
NORMA
Shut up. I'm rich. I'm richer
than all this new Hollywood trash.
I've got a million dollars.
GILLIS
Keep it.
NORMA
I own three blocks downtown.
I have oil in Bakersfield --
pumping, pumping, pumping.
What's it for but to buy us
anything we want.
GILLIS
Cut out that us business.
He rises.
NORMA
What's the matter with you?
GILLIS
What right do you have to take
me for granted?
NORMA
What right? Do you want me to
tell you?
GILLIS
Has it ever occurred that I may
have a life of my own? That there
may be some girl I'm crazy about?
NORMA
Who? Some car hop, or a dress
extra?
GILLIS
Why not? What I'm trying to say
is that I'm all wrong for you.
You want a Valentino -- somebody
with polo ponies -- a big shot --
NORMA
(Getting up slowly)
What you're trying to say is
that you don't want me to love
you. Is that it?
Gillis doesn't answer. Norma slaps his face and
rushes from the room and upstairs.
Gillis stands paralyzed, the slap burning his cheek.
C-1O THE TOP OF THE STAIRCASE AND CORRIDOR
Norma rushes up the last few steps, down the corridor
and into her bedroom, banging the door. MOVE THE
CAMERA toward the closed door, centering on the
gouged-out lock.
C-11 GILLIS, IN THE BIG ROOM
He still stands motionless. He glances around fur-
tively, to see if his humiliation has been observed.
C-12 THE ORCHESTRA
The musicians are playing away. They have turned
their eyes away from Gillis rather too ostentatious-
ly for comfort.
C-13 GILLIS
His eyes move over toward
C-14 MAX
He is subtler than the musicians. He appears very
busy at the buffet, putting empty bottles and used
glasses on a tray. He walks across the room with
them.
C-15 GILLIS
He starts slowly out. As he does so his long gold
key chain catches on a carved ornament of the sofa
and holds him for a second of additional embarrass-
ment. He yanks it loose and walks with as much
nonchalance as he can muster to
C-16 THE HALL
Crossing towards the coat closet, Gillis throws a
look upstairs. Then he pulls the Vicuna coat from
its hangar and slips into it as he crosses to the
entrance door. He opens the door on the darkness
of the courtyard.
C-17 EXT. DESMOND HOUSE
(NIGHT - RAIN)
Gillis shuts the door. GILLIS'VOICE
He takes a few steps I didn't know where I was
forward, then stands going. I just had to get
for a while breathing out of there. I had to be
deep. The rain is with people my own age. I
balm to that cheek had to hear somebody laugh
where the slap still a again. I thought of Artie
burns. He walks for- Green. There was bound to
ward with a great be a New Year's shindig
sense of relief. going on in his apartment
down on Las Palmas -- the
hock shop set -- not a job
C-18 DRIVEWAY LEADING TO in the room. but lots of
fun on the cuff.
Gillis walks to the
street, which is dark
and empty. He starts
down Sunset in an
Easterly direction.
A car passes. He
tries to thumb a
ride, without success.
However, the second
car, a florist's
delivery wagon, stops.
Gillis jumps in and the
car drives off.
DISSOLVE TO:
C-19 ARTIE GREEN'S APARTMENT
It is the most modest one-room affair, jam packed
with young people flowing over into the miniature
bathroom and the microscopic kitchenette. The only
drink being served is punch from a pressed-glass
bowl -- but everybody is having a hell of a time.
Most of the men are in slacks and sweaters, and only
a few of the girls in something that vaguely suggests
party dress.
Abe Burroughs sits at a small, guest-festooned piano
and sings Tokio Rose. By the door, a group of young
men and girls respond to the song by sing1ng Rinso
White or Dentyne Chewing Gum or something similar,
in the manner of a Bach choral. Artie Green, a dark
haired, pleasant-looking guy in his late twenties,
is conducting with the ladle from the punch bowl.
The door behind some of the singers is pushed open,
jostling them out of their places. In comes Gillis,
his hair and face wet, the collar of his Vicuna coat
turned up. Artie stops conducting, but the commer-
cial goes right on.
ARTIE
Well, what do you know ! Joe
Gillis !
GILLIS
Hi, Artie.
ARTIE
Where have you been keeping that
gorgeous face of yours?
GILLIS
In a deep freeze.
ARTIE
I almost reported you to the Bureau
of Missing Persons.
(To the company)
Fans, you all know Joe Gillis, the
well-known screen writer, opium
smuggler and Black Dahlia suspect.
Gillis greets some of the kids by name as he and
Artie push their way into the room.
ARTIE
Give me your coat.
GILLIS
Let it ride for a while.
ARTIE
You're going to stay, aren't you?
GILLIS
That was the general idea.
ARTIE
Come on.
Artie starts peeling the coat off Gillis. Its
texture takes his breath away.
ARTIE
What is this - mink?
He has taken the coat. He looks at Gillis standing
there in tails.
ARTIE
Judas E. Priest, who did you
borrow that from? Adolphe
Menjou?
GILLIS
Close, but no cigar.
Gillis stands embarrassed While Artie rolls up the
Vicuna coat and tucks it above the books on a book-
shelf.
ARTIE
Say, you're not really smuggling
opium these days, are you?
GILLIS
Where's the bar?
The two make their way toward the punch bowl. It's
a little like running the gauntlet for Gillis. There
are whistles and 'stares of astonishlnent at his tails.
When they reach the punch bowl, Artie picks up a
half-filled glass and fills it.
GILLIS
Good party.
ARTIE
The greatest. They call me the Elsa
Maxwell of the assistant directors.
(To some guests who are
dipping their empty cups
into the punch bowl)
Hey, easy on the punch bowl. Budget
only calls for three drinks per extra.
Fake the rest.
GILLIS
Listen, Artie, can I stick around
here for a while?
ARTIE
Sure, this'll go on all night.
GILLIS
I mean, could you put me up for
a couple of weeks?
ARTIE
It just so happens we have a
vacancy on the couch.
GILLIS
I'll take it.
ARTIE
I'll have the bell-hop take care
of your luggage.
He runs his finger across the decollete back of a
girl standing in a group next them.
ARTIE
Just register here.
The girl turns around. She is Betty Schaefer.
BETTY
Hello, Mr. Gillis.
ARTIE
You know each other?
Gillis looks at her a little puzzled.
BETTY
Let me help you. Betty Schaeter,
Sheldrake's office.
GILLIS
Sure. Bases Loaded.
ARTIE
Wait a minute. This is the woman
I love. What's going on? Who
was loaded?
GILLIS
Don't worry. She's just a fan
for my literary output.
BETTY
(to Artie)
Hurt feelings department.
GILLIS
About that luggage. Where's
the phone?
ARTIE
Over by the Rainbow Room.
Gillis squeezes his way through groups of people
to the telephone, which is next to an open door
leading to the bathroom. The phone is busy. A
girl sits listening to it, giggling wildly. Another
girl beside her is laughing too. They are apparently
sharing a conversation with some man on the other end
of the wire. The telephone passes from hand to hand.
Gillis watches impatiently, then
GILLIS
When youlre through with that
thing, can I have it?
The girl just nods, going on with her chattering.
Gillis stands waiting, and Betty Schaefer comes up
with his glass.
BETTY
You forgot this.
GILLIS
Thanks.
BETTY
I've been hoping to run into you.
GILLIS
What for? To recover that knife
you stuck in my back?
BETTY
I felt a little guilty, so I got
out some of your old stories.
GILLIS
Why, you sweet kid.
BETTY
There's one called....Window...
something with a window.
GILLIS
Dark Windows. How did you
like it?
BETTY
I didn't.
GILLIS
Thank you.
BETTY
Except for about six pages.
You've got a flashback there ...
There is too much racket for her.
BETTY
Is there someplace we can talk?
GILLIS
How about the Rainbow Room?
They squeeze their way towards the bathroom, past
Artie.
ARTIE
I said you could have my couch.
I didn't say you could have my
girl.
BETTY
This is shop talk.
She and Gillis go through the open door into
C-20 ARTIE'S BATHROOM
It's a little less noisy, although there are some
guests there, chatting and having fun. Betty and
Gillis sit down on the edge of the tub.
GILLIS
Now if I got you correctly, there
was a short stretch of my fiction
you found worthy of notice.
BETTY
The flashback in the courtroom,
when she tells about being a
school teacher.
GILLIS
I had a teacher like that once.
BETTY
Maybe that's why it's good.
It's true, it's moving. Now
why don't you use that character...
GILLIS
Who wants true? Who wants moving?
BETTY
Drop that attitude. Here's some-
thing really worth while.
GILLIS
Want me to start right now?
Maybe there's some paper around.
BETTY
I'm serious. I've got a few ideas.
GILLIS
I've got some ideas myself. One
of them being this is New Year's
Eve. How about living it up a
little?
BETTY
As for instance?
GILLIS
Well....
BETTY
We could make some paper boats
and have a regatta. Or should
we just turn on the shower?
GILLIS
How about capturing the kitchen
and barricading the door?
BETTY
Are you hungry?
GILLIS
Hungry? After twelve years in
the Burmese jungle. I am starving,
Lady Agatha -- starving for a
white shoulder --
BETTY
Phillip, you're mad!
One of the girls who was on the phone comes to
the door.
GIRL
You can have the phone now.
GILLIS
(Paying no attention)
Thirsting for the coolness of
your lips -
BETTY
No, Phillip, no. We must be
strong. You're still wearing
the uniform of the Coldstream
Guards! Furthermore, you can
have the phone now.
GILLIS
O.K.
(He gets up, starts
out, turns)
I find I'm terribly afraid of
losing you.
BETTY
You won't.
(She takes the glass
out of his hand)
I'll get us a refill of
this awful stuff.
GILLIS
You'll be waiting for me?
BETTY
With a wildly beating heart.
GILLIS
Life can be beautiful!
He leaves.
C-21 THE MAIN ROOM
Gillis squeezes himself through some guests to
the phone. He has to stand in a cramped position,
holding the instrument close to him as he dials
a number.
GILLIS
Max? This is Mr. Gillis.
I want you to do me a favor.
C-22 NORMA DESMOND HOUSE
Max is at the phone, in the lower hall.
MAX
I am sorry, Mr. Gillis.
I cannot talk now.
C-23 GILLIS ON THE PHONE
GILLIS
Yes you can. I want you to get
my old suitcase and I want you
to throw in my old clothes --
the ones I came with, and my
typewriter. I'll have somebody
pick them up.
C-24 MAX AT THE PHONE
MAX
I have no time to talk. The
doctor is here.
C-25 GILLIS ON THE PHONE
GILLIS
What doctor? What's going on?
C-26 MAX AT THE PHONE
MAX
She got the razor from your
room. She cut her wrists.
Max hangs up, moves toward the staircase.
C-27 GILLIS AT THE PHONE
GILLIS
Max ! Max !
He hangs up the dead receiver, stands numb with
shock. Betty elbows her way up to him, carrying
the two punch glasses filled again.
BETTY
I just got the recipe: take
two packages of cough drops,
dissolve in one gallon of
lukewarm grape juice --
Gillis looks up at her. Without a word he pushes
her aside so that she spills the drink. He makes
his way through the guests to the Vicuna coat, pulls
it from the shelf, some books tumbling with it, and
rushes towards the door and out. Betty stands look-
ing after him, completely bewildered.
DISSOLVE TO:
C-28 EXT. DESMOND HOUSE - (NIGHT, RAIN)
The doctor's car is parked in the driveway. A taxi
pulls up. Gillis, in his Vicuna coat now, jumps
out, throws a couple of dollars to the rdriver and
runs toward the house.
C-28a DOORWAY, NORMA DESMOND HOUSE>
Max is opening the door to let out the doctor, a
professional looking man carrying a black bag.
Gillis runs into the SHOT.
GILLIS
How is she?
MAX
She is upstairs.
Gillis starts to push past Max. Max grabs his arm.
MAX
Be careful. Do not race up the
stairs. The musicians must not
know what has happened.
Gillis goes into the house.
C-29 ENRANCE HALL AND STAIRCASE
Gillis crosses the hall and starts up the stairs.
C-3O INT. NORMA DESMOND'S ROOM
Only one alabaster lamp lights the big, cold room.
On the bed lies Norma in her evening dress. She is
white as a sheet. Her wrists are bandaged. Her eyes
are wide open, staring at the ceiling. One of her
shoes has halt slipped off her foot. The other is
on. Gillis opens the door and stands there tor a
second. Then he slowly moves to the toot of the bed.
He takes the shoes from her feet and puts them on
the floor.
NORMA
Go away.
GILLIS
What kind of a silly thing was
that to do?
NORMA
To fall in love with you -- that
was the idiotic thing.
GILLIS
It sure would have made attractive
headlines: Great Star Kills Her-
self for Unknown Writer.
NORMA
Great stars have great pride.
She puts one bandaged forearm over her eyes, sobbing.
Gillis walks slowly over to the mantelpiece, stands
there for awhile.
NORMA
Go away. Go to that girl of yours.
GILLIS
Look, I was making that up because
I thought the whole thing was a
mistake. I didn't want to hurt you.
You've been good to me. You're the
only person in this stinking town
that has been good to me.
NORMA
Why don't you just say thank you
and go, go, go --
GILLIS
Not until you promise to act like
a sensible human being.
NORMA
I'll do it again, I'll do it again,
I'll do it again!
Gillis stands looking at her helplessly.
C-31 LIVING ROOM, THE DESM