east215 (September 2, 2008 at 3:37 am)

She's was great. I heard that Mary Pickford left the theatre in tears. Too close to home.

uggoz (July 27, 2008 at 10:19 pm)

Norma Talmadge left the movies because of her voice since she was a very bad actress, not at all suitable for the talkies, but in fact, the reason why many silent actresses and actors could not find parts during the advent of the talikes was because the way they acted was often considered old fashioned. And Studios were eager to sign stage players in NY since they knew how to talk to an audience and were often new names and new faces.

uggoz (July 27, 2008 at 10:08 pm)

Swanson wasn't a first choice for Sunset Boulevard. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett had written the story for Mae West (can't understand why since West never made a single silent movie). But West felt outraged since she maintened she was only 32 years old for the remainding of her life, so they tried to convince Mary Pickford, then Pola Negri to play the part. When all actresses vehemently refused, Wilder met Swanson who was too happy to get a part and the 33000 dollars which went with it.

uggoz (July 27, 2008 at 10:06 pm)

You're welcome. In fact, Swanson did only a few talkies because she was really stereotyped as a silent queen and the talkies she made were not really box office successes so she later made some TV and worked on the stage. Even Sunset Boulevard, a huge triomph, didn't help to revive her carreer. Worse, it typecasted her as a crazy old silent star, so she turned down most of the subsequent acting offers, saying they tended to be pale imitations of Norma Desmond.

johndcorr (July 27, 2008 at 9:21 pm)

Merci for correcting my shaky film history: I made some assumptions based on the small number of films she made in the talking pictures era (1932-1949: 3 films). I know that many silent film actors couldn't make the transition to sound.

uggoz (July 26, 2008 at 7:54 pm)

Swanson had not really a problem with her voice during the talkies so the talkies didn't kill her like Norma Talmadge for example. The problem was elsewhere. People were just tired to see silent stars for a long time and when talkies came in, studios built new stars, younger and more fashionnable, like Jean Harlow or Sylvia Sidney.

uggoz (July 26, 2008 at 12:32 pm)

Many many many... though differently, sometimes even worse (suicide, bankrupticy, poverty...). Mae Murray, Kay Laurell, Florence Lawrence, Karl Dane, Lou Tellegen, Mary Fuller, Alma Rubens, Buster Keaton, Florence Turner, Nita Naldi, Charles Ray, Kate Bruce, Valeska Suratt, Clara Kimball Young, Dot Farley, Virginia Pearson, Sheldon Lewis, Marie Prevost, Mary MacLaren, Madge Kennedy, Olive Borden, Mary Nolan, Flora Finch, Gladys Frazin, and many others....

JohnHess65 (July 14, 2008 at 3:27 am)

number 1 in my favourite top 100 movies of all time.

emlodik (June 4, 2008 at 7:59 am)

But Norma's NOT that old! She's barely fifty... Which makes her all the more pathetic...

AlefBetTenchi (March 25, 2008 at 1:50 pm)

I knew there was something wrong with them!