Sunset Boulevard (1950)

[salus]

How come nobody has assumed that Corinne Griffith who was worth millions and did own oil wells in Bakersfield was the actress that Norma Desmond came from. She sure was acting weird in the 1960s claiming in court she was her sister, i think it took actress Betty Blythe to come to court to prove Corinne was Corinne. I always thought that Norma was someone with a part of Corinne Griffith, part Mary Miles Minter, part Gladys Hulette, part Clara Bow and part the Talmadge Sisters.

[drednm]

How come nobody has assumed that Corinne Griffith who was worth millions and did own oil wells in Bakersfield was the actress that Norma Desmond came from. She sure was acting weird in the 1960s claiming in court she was her sister, i think it took actress Betty Blythe to come to court to prove Corinne was Corinne. I always thought that Norma was someone with a part of Corinne Griffith, part Mary Miles Minter, part Gladys Hulette, part Clara Bow and part the Talmadge Sisters.

Shes more Mae Murray than anyone else, IMO.

[R Michael Pyle]

You've both just defined why people love to read (or watch) fiction. It's about people, individuals composed of composites of many the author has invented from ideas based in the realities of many. Right?

[Jim Roots]

You've both just defined why people love to read (or watch) fiction. It's about people, individuals composed of composites of many the author has invented from ideas based in the realities of many. Right?

Right, just like Citizen Kane.

Jim

[R Michael Pyle]

You've both just defined why people love to read (or watch) fiction. It's about people, individuals composed of composites of many the author has invented from ideas based in the realities of many. Right?

Right, just like Citizen Kane.

Jim

Rosebud, baby, thorns in the crown of lit.

[boblipton]

Last year there was a movie, Gold, which it, said, was based on a true story. As I noted on Nitrateville at the time, the only true part of it was that there is a nation called Indonesia. Some how this turned into the story about how Matthew Maconnaghy (sp?) was bum's-rushed by evil Wall Street out of a gold mine which turned out to have no gold iin it; he wound up with a hundred megabucks or so, and it's all the fault of Evil (as said by Brits) Wall Street. In the end, the movie was a pathetic attempt to cluelessly clone Wall Street
.
There's nothing new in this. Melies and Robert Paul stole from the Lumiere catalogues and had their stuff stolen as well. So when someone comes up with something new, isn't it better to celebrate their achievement than to worry about who was their sole inspiration? Since it seems likeliest that they stuck together a lot of craziness from a variety of sources?

The reason Sturgeon's Law -- 95% of everything is crud -- works is because 95% of everyone who gets something accomplished is a hack. Let us celebrate Brackett & Wilder, whose careers, although not crud-free, shows they were trying not to be hacks.

Bob

[Donald Binks]

I have learned from past experience over the years that "This is a true story" or "Based on a true story" is a horse of an entirely different colour in Hollywood. This can be evidenced particularly in some of the biographical features which are as far away from any truth as is possible.

Some films nowadays add "based on a true story but some scenes have been changed for dramatic effect" which is another way of getting away with a total distortion I suppose.

[Lamar]

My favorite is "suggested by actual events."