CB: For me, Sunset Boulevard is a title that immediately conjures up a rush of unforgettable images and sounds. William Holden doing the dead man's float, a monkey's midnight burial, Erich Von Stroheim's bald head, "We had faces then", wailing police sirens, "I am big! it's the pictures that got small", and of course Norma Desmond's final descent down that great staircase as she says the film's signature line, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." These are images and sounds that are burned into our collective cultural memory almost as much as the Yellow Brick Road. This is simply one of the finest motion pictures ever made.
