‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950)

In 1950, Paramount released Billy Wilder’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’. The film combined fact with fiction and is full of references to real people and places associated with Hollywood in the 1920s, starting with Gloria Swanson, a legendary actress of the silent-movie era.

The film’s infusion of fact into fiction extended to the beauty treatment montage that followed Norma Desmond’s trip to Paramount to meet with Cecil B. DeMille [1881-1959]. The sequence led to a falling out between Billy Wilder [1906-2002] and Charles Brackett [1892-1969]. Brackett thought it was too cruel.

Beauty montage

The sequence depicts a series of beauty treatments undertaken by Norma Desmond in preparation for her supposed comeback. The original script had the montage starting with a closeup of Norma Desmond’s face being examined with a flashlight but this was moved to the end of the sequence in the completed picture.

DISSOLVE IN ON:
1. CLOSEUP OF NORMA'S FACE
Absolutely no makeup. A hand with a strong small flashlight comes into the picture. The beam of the flashlight travels over the face, exploring it mercilessly. While the light is still on it, two pairs of creamed hands come into the shot and start to massage it.

DISSOLVE TO:
2. A SHORT MONTAGE of various beauty treatments applied to Norma.

(Wilder, 1999, p. 89)

The original script also called for a voice-over, spoken in the film by William Holden [1918-1981], listing the treatments.

After that, an army of beauty experts invaded her house on Sunset Boulevard. She went through a merciless series of treatments, massages, sweat cabinets, mud baths, ice compresses, electrical devices. She lived on vegetable juices and went to bed at nine. She was determined to be ready – ready for those cameras that would never turn.

(Wilder, 1999, p. 89)

The treatment list was dropped from the final script leaving the images to do the talking.

After that, an army of beauty experts invaded her house on Sunset Boulevard. She went through a merciless series of treatments. Like an athlete training for the Olympic Games, she counted every calorie, went to bed every night at nine. She was absolutely determined to be ready – ready for those cameras that would never turn.

(Brackett & Wilder, 1950)

1950 Sunset Boulevard beauty treatment montage.

Real beauty practices, equipment and therapists were used in the montage, some adjusted from normal practice due to the limitations of filming.

Above: Treatment 1: Sweat Cabinet to help Norma lose weight using what looks like a portable cabinet. She later comments “You know I’ve lost half a pound since Tuesday.”

Above: Treatment 2: Electro-passive facial using electrical impulses to contract and firm the facial muscles. If you look closely at the film you can see the cheek muscles twitching.

See also: Faradic Treatments

Above: Treatment 3: Applying electrically-heated gloves and headwear. A CIDESCO therapist from Canada who uses electrically-heated gloves, booties, and headwear similar to these, has informed me that the heated gloves help magnify the effect of a paraffin wax treatment, while the heated headwear is used in a deep, hair-conditioning treatment.

See also: Paraffin Wax Treatments

Above: Treatment 4: An electrically-heated mask; a cheaper alternative to a diathermic treatment. Normally, I would expect this to be applied over a face cream, lotion or mask but these were not depicted here.

See also: Diathermy

Above: Treatment 4: Throat-firming treatment with massage and contouring cream. Norma later remarks: “I’m a little worried about the line in my throat. This woman has done wonders with it.”

Above: Treatment 6: Another electro-passive treatment this time on the lower part of the body – hidden under the sheets – to help firm and reduce the legs, thighs or waist depending on where the pads were applied. It is combined with an upper-body massage. The therapist appears to be holding a bottle of oil or lotion in her left hand.

Above: Treatment 7: Norma Desmond sitting in what looks like a hip bath wearing a full facial mask similar to Helena Rubinstein’s Beautilift Masque. Made from pink silk, it was dipped in Beautilift Lotion before it was strapped on. Norma is also having mud massaged into her chest and shoulder area, a filmic replacement for the full mud bath mentioned in the original script.

See also: Helena Rubinstein (1930-1945)

Above: Facial examination with light and magnifying glass which completes the sequence.

Other treatments

Following the beauty montage we find Norma Desmond in her bedroom getting ready to retire. She has taped over her expression lines around her eyes, is wearing a chin strap, and her face is showing the sheen of a heavy night cream. She has also donned a pair of cotton gloves, normally worn over a hand-softening cream.

See also: Straps, Bandages and Tapes

Make-up

An examination of the skin creams and other cosmetics on the dressing table in Norma Desmond’s bedroom reveals that many of them are from the House of Westmore. These props were probably supplied by Wally Westmore [1906-1973] who supervised the make-up for the film.

See also: House of Westmore

The script calls for no make-up during the beauty treatment montage. Clearly this has not been taken too seriously. Gloria Swanson is never filmed without false eyelashes and years of eyebrow plucking also require much of them to be drawn in. Swanson also has lipstick applied outside the normal lip line, using a style that became known as ‘The Huntsman’s Bow’ or ‘The Smear’ after it was first used on Joan Crawford [1904-1977] by Max Factor [1877-1938]. In some treatment sequences the lipstick appears to have been all or partially removed with only a trace remaining, suggesting that an indelible may have been used.

Cosmetic postscript

Most of the scripts offered to Gloria Swanson after ‘Sunset Boulevard’ had her playing some sort of ageing eccentric actress and, although she made some appearances in films after 1950, ‘Sunset Boulevard’ was not the start of a renewed movie career. Amongst other things, she got into the fashion business, did endorsements and, in 1966, created a line of skin-care cosmetics – Essence of Nature.

First Posted: 10th June 2021
Last update: 8th April 2024

Sources

Brackett, C. (Producer), & Wilder, B. (Director). (1950). Sunset boulevard [Motion Picture] United States: Paramount Pictures.

Swanson, G. (1980). Swanson on Swanson. New York: Random House.

Welsch, T. (2013). Gloria Swanson: Ready for her close-up. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.

Wilder, B., Brackett, C., & Meyers, J. (1999). Sunset boulevard. Berkeley: University of California Press.

1950 ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Poster.

1950 Gloria Swanson [c.1899-1983].

Filming a beauty treatment during the making of Sunset Boulevard.

Gloria Swanson in ‘Sadie Thompson’ (Gloria Swanson Productions, 1928)

Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond (Paramount Pictures, 1950).

Early Joan Crawford with Huntsman’s Bow lips.

Norma Desmond getting ready for bed with tapes and a chinstrap, still wearing false eyelashes.

Walter ‘Wally” Westmore [1906-1973], make-up supervisor on ‘Sunset Boulevard’.

Westmore cosmetics on Norma Desmond’s dresser including Overglo Face Powder (circled).

Gloria Swanson Essence of Nature Cosmetics.