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Silent film star Norma Desmond's magnificent luxury car, the Isotta-Fraschini, plays a pivotal role in Sunset Boulevard (1950). We'll take a look at Norma's car and the Italian company that manufactured it.
Cars are more than just transportation in Billy Wilder's film: They are important status symbols that drive the plot of this dark Hollywood satire. Hapless screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) becomes entangled with the delusional Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) while hiding from debt collectors who are trying to repossess his car. After Gillis moves in with Norma, they ride in Norma's magnificent Italian luxury car, a 1929 Isotta-Fraschini 8A. The car was specially detailed for the movie queen--Norma brags to Gillis that "It cost me $28,000"-- with leopard-skin upholstery, Norma's initials engraved on the door and a gold-plated car phone. The short clip below explains the car's history.
The Isotta-Fraschini becomes a crucial turning point in the film when the delusional Norma mistakes a call from the studio to use her car for a film as an invitation to make her comeback movie with director Cecil B. DeMille. Norma shows up at the studio, only to be treated as an object of curiosity and ridicule (clip below). Fun fact: Erich von Stroheim, who plays Norma's faithful butler Max von Mayerling, couldn't drive so the car scenes had to be filmed with the Isotta-Fraschini being towed or by using process shots. I've always thought that Holden's acute embarrassment in those scenes was more than just acting--imagine being towed up and down Sunset Boulevard in that car with Swanson and von Stroheim in costume.
Wilder's use of the Isotta-Fraschini was part of his painstaking efforts to recreate the world of silent film stars. Although the film takes place in 1950, Norma is still living as if it's 1929 where she is "the greatest star of them all" and her Isotta Fraschini is the last word in luxury and elegance. The car used in Sunset Boulevard is now displayed in Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile in Turin.
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The Isotta-Fraschini used in Sunset Boulevard has Norma Desmond's initials on the door. |
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The 1929 Isotta-Fraschini 8A used in Sunset Boulevard (1950). |
Here's more from our Sunset Boulevard series: The 1950 best picture Oscars.
What's next: A look at the career of Hedda Hopper who has a cameo role in Sunset Boulevard.
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Comments
I wonder what Carol Burnett's Nora Desmond drove? I'd have gone with the Chevy Vega used in the self-serve gas sketch if I were her.
ReplyDeleteDid this car really have leopard for its interior? (As described in the movie.)
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