Daily Dialogue — July 26, 2019

“Don’t blame me. I’m not an executive, just a writer.”

— Sunset Blvd. (1950), written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder & D.M. Marshman Jr.

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Screenwriter. Today’s suggestion by @EISteele.

Trivia: Eugene Walter was a prolific Hollywood screenwriter of the 1920s and 1930s. 1851 Ivar Street was the address of the Alto Nido Apartments, where Walter lived, sometimes worked, and, ultimately died in 1941. As Sunset Blvd. (1950) opens, William Holden’s character Joe Gillis describes himself as a Hollywood screenwriter “living in an apartment house above Ivar Street.” As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it’s the Alto Nido. The apartments, and the “Alto Nido” sign out front that is glimpsed briefly in the film, are still there today.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) gets tangled up with a washed-up silent movie star with dire consequences, but not before he offers several snarky comments throughout the film.