User Reviews

ROBERT MONTYGOMERY PRESENTS – Sunset Boulevard – 1956

This is the 293rd episode of the anthology series, ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS. This series ran for 321 episodes between 1950 and 1957. The series was a ratings winner and boasted guest appearances by many Hollywood types. Among these were, Grace Kelly, Eddie Albert, Jack Lemmon, Angela Lansbury, James Cagney, Vincent Price, David Niven and Roger Moore.

This episode is an adaptation of the 1950 movie hit, SUNSET BLVD. The earlier film starred Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Nancy Olson and Erich Von Stroheim. In this television version, the roles are now played by Mary Astor, Darren McGavin, Gloria DeHaven and Walter Kohler.

The story starts out like the film, with a body floating in a pool as the Police try to fish it out. Then we go into flashback mode to explain how the body got there.

Darren McGavin is a down on his luck Hollywood screenwriter trying to stay one step ahead of his creditors. While trying to evade some men out to repossess his car, McGavin blows a tire and pulls off the road onto a rundown Hollywood estate.

He figures the place is abandoned and hides his car in the garage. He is taking a stroll around the grounds, when he is surprised by a man exiting the mansion. The fellow, Fred Kohler, invites him inside. McGavin begins to explain about his car, but the Kohler insists he enter the house. Inside he finds a woman, Mary Astor, going on about a coffin for her dead monkey. McGavin again tries to explain his presence on the property. Kohler is the man servant of Miss Astor.

McGavin now recognizes Astor as the big time silent film star, Norma Desmond. McGavin is soon in a talk about old time films etc with the woman. He mentions that he is in the business as a screenwriter. Astor shows McGavin a huge stack of hand written notes. It is a screenplay that Astor has written. Would McGavin read it and tidy it up.

This he does and soon decides it is an unfilmable mish-mash. He of course tells Astor it is decent, but needs to be trimmed a bit. Astor offers him a job and a place to stay while he works on the script. McGavin accepts.

McGavin is soon a kept man as Astor buys him suits, fancy watches and gold cigarette cases. The slightly mad Astor is a also a tad on the possessive side, and this soon grates on McGavin's nerves. It is New Year's Eve and McGavin decides he needs a night on the town. He hits a party where he runs into fellow writer, Gloria DeHaven. They hit it off and McGavin decides he wants out of Astor's grip.

He calls the mansion to have Kohler pack his bags. Kohler informs McGavin that Astor has attempted to kill herself. It seems that Astor has fallen for McGavin and is afraid he is leaving her. Back to the mansion he goes. Soon everything is running the way Astor wants.

Astor has Kohler take her massive script to drop off at Paramount Studios. She gets a call several days later from the studio. Astor figures it is about her screenplay. The call is really about the studio wanting to rent her classic Italian limousine for a Bing Crosby film.

Miss DeHaven now comes looking for McGavin because she wants him to co-write a script with her. McGavin blows her off explaining that he is quite happy as the toy of the wealthy Astor. McGavin however has had enough, he gives back all the suits and expensive gifts, packs his bag and heads out.

Astor is not the least amused with this idea of McGavin's. She pulls out a handy revolver and plugs McGavin as he exits. McGavin collapses and falls into the pool. The Police are called and the now completely loonie Astor is led away as she calls for another close-up.

Given the constraints of being a live presentation, this is a decent stab at compressing the story down to an hour runtime. They skip all the outdoor scenes of the big screen production, and keep the cast down to the basic four leads. Not the best live television work I've seen, but quite watchable. It was rather interesting to see Mary Astor doing the Gloria Swanson bit.

The director of the episode was Ted Danielwiski.

While film is great and certainly cinematic, there is something about the old fashioned video tape that made TV plays more intimate and thus giving the viewer an ability to really see into the character's souls. For old time movie star Norma Desmond and down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis, this gives a new look at characters the audience was familiar with in the 1950 classic movie. Mary Esther, one of my favorite actresses because of her ability to play a variety of parts, is terrific as Norma Desmond, perhaps even a bit more pathetic in scope than Gloria Swanson's version of her and yet not as insane looking as the musical drama version played by Patti LuPone, Glenn Close, Betty Buckley and others. And watching the teleplay, it is obvious that lyricist Don Black took lines directly from the script to add to Andrew Lloyd Webber's music. When the writing is good, you can do that.

Darren McGavin, another one of my favorites from his roles as Bannacheck in "The Night Stalker" and the father in "A Christmas Story", gives a new aspect on the role of the cenacle Gillis who hides out in Desmond's Mansion while on the run from people trying to repossess his car. He ends up looking at her script for an epic about Salome and becomes her kept man. He's more desperate than opportunistic, so that adds some sympathy to what happened to him. Walter Koehler puts a completely different take on the Erich von Stroheim character of Max, and while Stern, he is certainly less severe. Musical comedy actress Gloria De Haven doesn't sing as Betty Schaefer, but she is very good, particularly funny in the scene where she criticizes mcgavin's writing, not knowing that he is in the room.

Today we asked why classics like this were remade on such low budgets, and it's a necessity to remember that other than the Late Late Show on television channels there were, the opportunity to see old movies was rare. It is also obvious that these classic kinescopes are works of art in their own right, and once you get past the familiarity of the story, you can view televised live programs in a different life. All eyes are on Aster who could have easily gone over the top, but she is commanding, not demanding, and is a perfect choice to play such a vital part. Fortunately, it is also less camp although a few moments are of course over the top.