I recently watched three movies featuring William Holden. It wasn’t part of a HoldenFest; all three happened to be on TV in recent weeks. I’ve always admired his ability to convey a decent fellow wrestling with problems and doing so with facial expressions and vocal inflections rather than flamboyance and theatrics.
Paris When It Sizzles (1964)
7/10
Director: Richard Quine
Stars: William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Tony Curtis
Holden is a used-up screenwriter who needs to come up with a script – and fast. Audrey Hepburn is a temp sent to help get the job done. Together, they brainstorm, come up with scenes, and through Hollywood magic are transported into acting them out: a costume ball in the Eiffel Tour, a getaway, a shoot out. Holden and Hepburn are having great fun, the sets and costumes are great, and it makes for an enjoyable film.
Tony Curtis pops up as a bit actor who assures Holden he has talent and pleads for a more prominent role. Curtis is a hoot as he delivers his lines in an intentionally clumsy manner that justifies Holden’s refusal. Holden punches him out and Curtis does a hilarious roll across a car hood. But Tony gets his vengeance at the airport.
Holden and Hepburn come up with a romantic ending and live it out. The End.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
9/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
Holden once again plays a screenwriter and he tells much of the story through narration, despite being killed at the film’s opening. Auto trouble places him on the estate of a largely-forgotten star of silent films, played by Gloria Swanson who of course actually was a silent film star. Her mansion features architecture and furniture from the Mediterranean-Renaissance style of Hollywood’s decadent past. Cecil B DeMille, Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, and other luminaries of the Golden Era have cameos.
Swanson’s performance uses the exaggerated facial expressions and hand gestures of the old films. When someone says she used to be big, Swanson replies that she’s still big, the pictures have gotten small. She takes Holden in as a young lover and as a writer who will resurrect her career. She’s sure the DeMille will scoop up the screenplay. Her delusions and madness become increasingly clear and Holden has to choose between living in the lap of luxury and returning to just getting by. Swanson puts an end to his dilemma.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
8/10
Director: Mark Robson
Stars: William Holden, Fredric March, Grace Kelly
This film has excellent cinematography of an aircraft carrier and navy jets as they launch, fly in formation, and bomb targets. I don’t feel a need to add “for its time.” Holden is a navy pilot called to active duty amid the Korean War – a conflict that wasn’t widely supported by the American public. Holden too has his doubts and expresses them to an admiral played by Fredric March. It’s out of bounds, but Holden reminds March of his his son, a pilot killed in WW2, and lets the junior officer have his say.
Holden misses his wife and family but feels a sense of duty, especially when rescued after ditching at sea. When his carrier squadron is assigned to bomb a target with formidable air defenses, the family-duty dilemma becomes almost unbearable and he fears he will not return. There’s a powerful scene of him looking out to sea in anguish. The admiral watches from the ship’s bridge.
Holden goes on the mission. Its successful but his plane is hit and he has to struggle to make it to the coast. He doesn’t. Fredric March is distraught but has to accept what follows from the orders he was given from above and delivers to his men. He looks out from the ship’s bridge as jets launch for the next mission:
“Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere on the sea. When they find it they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?”
Sunset Boulevard is a better movie but I love this one more, in large part because of March’s closing words.
©2024 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.