Sunset Boulevard

SEQUENCE "A"

A-l-4 START the picture with the actual street sign:

SUNSET BOULEVARD, stencilled on a curbstope.

In the gutter lie dead leaves, scraps of paper,

burnt matches and cigarette butts. It is early

morning.

Now the CAMERA leaves the sign and MOVES EAST, the

grey asphalt of the street filling the screen. As

speed accelerates to around 40 m.p.h., traffic de-

marcations, white arrows, speed-limit warnings, man-

hole covers, etc., flash by. SUPERIMPOSED on all

this are the CREDIT TITLES, in the stencilled style

of the street sign.

Over the scene we now hear MAN'S VOICE

sirens. Police squad cars Yes, this is Sunset

hurtle toward the camera, Boulevard, Los Angeles,

turn off the road into a California. It's about

driveway with squealing five o'clock in the

brakes. Dismounted motor- morning. That's the

cycle cops stand directing Homicide Squad, com-

the cars in. plete with detectives

and newspaper men.

A-5 PATIO AND POOL OF A murder has been re-

MANSION ported from one of those

great big houses in the

The policemen and news- ten thousand block.

paper reporters and You'll read all about

photographers have it in the late editions,

jumped out of the cars I'm sure. You'll get

and are running up to it over your radio,

the pool, in which a and see it on tele-

body is seen floating. vision -- because an

Photographers' bulbs old-time star is in-

flash in rapid suc- volved. one of the big-

cession. gest. But before you

hear it all distorted

and blown out of

proportion, before those

Hollywood columnists

get their hands on it,

maybe you'd like to

hear the facts, the

whole truth...

A-6 FLASH OF THE BODY

MAN'S VOICE

Angle up through the If so, you've come to the

water from the bottom right party... You see,

of the pool, as the the body of a young man

body floats face down- was found floating in the

ward. It is a well- pool of her mansion, with

dressed young man. two shots in his back and

one in his stomach. No-

body important, really.

Just a movie writer with

a couple of "B" pictures

to his credit. The poor

dope. He always wanted a

pool Well, in the end

he got himself a pool --

SLOW DISSOLVE TO: only the price turned out

to be a little high...

Let's go back about six

A-7 HOLLYWOOD, SEEN FROM months and find the day

THE HILLTOP AT IVAR when it all started.

& FRANKLIN STREETS

It is a crisp sunny I was living in an

day. The voice con- apartment house above

tinues speaking as Franklin and Ivar.

CAMERA PANS toward Things were tough

the ALTO NIDO APART- at the moment. I hadn't

MENT HOUSE, an ugly worked in a studio for

Moorish structure ofsat a long time. So I

stucco, about four there grinding

stories high. CAMERA out original stories,

MOVES TOWARD AN OPEN two a week. Only I

WINDOW on the third seemed to have lost

floor, where we look my touch. Maybe they

in on JOE GILLIS' APART- weren't original

MENT. Joe Gillis, bare- enough. Maybe they

footed and wearing no- were too original.

thing but an old bath- All I know is they

robe. is sitting on didn't sell.

the bed. In front of

him. on a straight

chair, is a portable

typewriter. Beside

him, on the bed, is a

dirty ashtray and a

scattering of type

written and pencil-

marked pages. Gillis

is typing. with a

pencil clenched bet-

ween his teeth.

A-8 JOE GILLIS' APARTMENT

It is a one-room affair with an unmade Murphy bed

pulled out of the wall at which Gillis sits typing.

There are a couple of worn-out plush chairs and a

Spanish-style, wrought-iron standing lamp. Also a

small desk littered with books and letters, and a

chest of drawers with a portable phonograph and some

records on top. On the walls are a couple of repro-

ductions of characterless paintings, with laundry

bills and snapshots stuck in the frames. Through an

archway can he seen a tiny kitchenette, complete with

unwashed coffee pot and cup, empty tin cans, orange

peels, etc. The effect is dingy and cheerless --

just another furnished apartment. The buzzer SOUNDS.

GILLIS:

Yeah.

The buzzer SOUNDS again. Gillis gets up and opens

the door. Two men wearing hats stand outside one of

them carrying a briefcase.

NO. 1

Joseph C. Gillis?

GILLIS:

That's right.

The men ease into the room. No. 1 hands Gillis a

business card.

NO. 1

We've come for the car.

GILLIS:

What car?

NO. 2

(Consulting a paper)

1946 Plymouth convertible. Calif-

ornia license 97 N 567.

NO. 1

Where are the keys?

GILLIS:

Why should I give you the keys?

NO. 1

Because the company's played ball

with you long enough. Because

you're three payments behind. And

because we've got a Court order.

Come on -- the keys.

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