On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder [Paperback]

Ed Sikov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1999

From the early years of anti-Semitism and frustration in Austria to the glory of Hollywood and six Academy Awards, Billy Wilders life is as fascinating as his movies. Now, drawing on new interviews, current research, and previously inaccessible archives, Ed Sikov offers endlessly entertaining portrait of one of this centurys most influential directors and screenwriters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

German-born Billy Wilder (b. 1906) is one of the last survivors of Hollywood's Golden Age, the writer and director of seminal films like Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot and his masterpiece, Sunset Boulevard. By naming this attempt at a definitive Wilder biography after the savagely humorous 1950 classic, Sikov (Laughing Hysterically: American Screen Comedy of the 1950s) invites a risky comparisonAand pulls it off with a broad, well-documented overview of Wilder's life and work. Considering Wilder "the fastest, funniest, meanest mind in Hollywood," Sikov admires his subject without succumbing to reverence. Wilder is an infamous raconteur, and Sikov wisely lets him hold forth on his self-made legend, including his acerbic assessments of fellow Hollywood players, his outrageous and wrenching accounts of Europe before and after WWII and his steely insights into American culture. Though the preface acknowledges that the work is "unauthorized," it presents so many Wilder quotes (of Raymond Chandler, "I was all that he hated about Hollywood"; of Audrey Hepburn, "After so many drive-in waitresses...here is class") and authoritative accounts of his comings and goings that it reads almost as if Wilder's own hand were behind it. The book's film criticism works best as a tool for gleaning Wilder's sensibility from his scripts and direction. The often irascible, always witty Wilder emerges from these pages as shrewd, eminent and, especially in comparison with today's tepid Hollywood fare, daringly authentic.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Sikov's unauthorized biography of moviemaker Billy Wilder is better written than Kevin Lally's Wilder Times (1996). Otherwise, it is remarkably similar, despite Lally's greater access to Wilder (Sikov confesses he shared Wilder's reaction to the prospect of interviewing for the book: "the idea . . . made him want to throw up"). Both books concentrate on Wilder's movies and their humorous cynicism and sullied idealism about life and love. Sikov places greater emphasis on Wilder's seeming mission to confront American pretensions to virtue with the seamy truth as he saw it; the central Wilder film, then, is the bitter Ace in the Hole, in which an opportunistic reporter transforms an accident into a media circus. Sikov also stresses Wilder's obsession with sexual vulgarity and depicts him as flouting respectability because he felt--prophetically, it turned out--that greater sexual candor onscreen was inevitable as well as honest. Like Lally, Sikov doesn't visually analyze Wilder's movies, and he can't make Wilder personally appealing, either. Still, Sikov's is the better overall appreciation of the monstrously amusing filmmaker. Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 675 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1st Pbk Ed edition (November 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786885033
• ISBN-13: 978-0786885039
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #50 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Movie Directors

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars to Ed Sikov November 25, 1999

By Kosmos

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This bio is very well-written and reads like a novel, as other reviews agree, and I would add that it is even better than most novels. Often one wonders whether a story in the book has really occurred and that helps to develop the fiction aspect of the book. At first I thought that a bio with more than 600 pages would be boring, but it turned out to be very engaging and informative about the golden age of Hollywood and one of the smartest and sophisticated directors ever. Although this bio has so much infomation, the author has such a fluid writing style and such a story-telling ability that makes it very interesting and entertaining. While reading this book my attention span never sagged and it made me keep reading for a longer period at a time. English being my third language, I really appreciated Mr. Sikov's wide range of vocabulary and slang that seemed to fit perfectly into his varied style of sentence construction.

I agree with Mr. Sikov that screenplay writing is a vital part of a consumate and well rounded director, which other celebrated directors, such as Hitchcock, Ford, and Spielberg lacked. For this reason I consider that the two best directors of all times are Billy Wilder and Akira Kurosawa, who besides being great visual and cinematic artists, they had more input and control of their movies by also writing the scripts. Billy Wilder's use of cynicism, sarcasm and curse words in his movies, when allowed, and in his life never came across as vulgar and lewd, but rather as an effective and witty punch line or criticism about the human condition.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book on the Late & Great BILLY WILDER April 1, 2002

By Steven DeRosa, author/screenwriter

Format:Paperback

Last week marked the passing of a true Hollywood heavyweight, a man who excelled as a writer, director, and producer, who left his mark in just about every film genre, except the Western - the one and only Billy Wilder.

Wilder's death at the age of 95 will no doubt bring renewed interest in his long and varied career. It is an irony that would have brought a wry smile to Wilder, and undoubtedly one of his biting remarks. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a comprehensive study of the life and art of Billy Wilder, you should look no further than Ed Sikov's brilliant "On Sunset Boulevard."

Sure, if you're looking for an extended interview with Billy Wilder himself, there's that other book ... but like the more famous, or rather infamous Hitchcock/Truffaut sessions that inspired it ... it can only be one sided.

Ed Sikov doesn't merely tell you to take Billy Wilder at his word. He conducted original interviews with scores of Wilder's colleagues and friends, dug through production archives, scripts, notes, and film footage to assemble not only a fascinating study of a filmmaking genius, but the conclusive portrait of the man behind that genius.

Sikov's analyses of Wilder's films are fresh and exciting, and his prose leaps off the page. You know instantly that Sikov knows his stuff, and that it's a subject close to his heart.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best biography I've ever read. January 29, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I discovered this biography after seeing a rave review in the New York Times Book Review, and I must say it was entirely justified. I've always loved Wilder's movies, but this book gave me new insights into how the films were made and the man who made them. I liked the snappy style, and the biographical stuff reads like a psychological thriller. But the best part is how the behind-the-scenes details enhance my experience of movies that I thought I knew well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best film-industry bio ever. November 30, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors, but his films almost don't compare to his colorful life, and the author has captured Wilder's character in all its Technicolor glory. Wilder is a great storyteller on the screen, but he's been equally adept at spinning yarns about his life. Sikov separates fact from fiction in an entertaining read that does nothing to diminish Wilder's stature and puts the director's legendary wit out there for all to enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-Written Hollywood Bio September 1, 1999

By Thomas Stamper VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Sikov chronicles the life of Billy Wilder quite well. I especially like his chapter per film approach. There is an awful lot of behind the scenes stuff from even the more obscure movies. I couldn't believe how much was written about the Emporer Waltz and Fedora. If you like Wilder, give it a read.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reading about a remarkable character and his work January 15, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

A large book tracking Wilder from Vienna to Hollywood through most of the century. When I finished I wished there were more of it it read so well - though there probably wasn't much more to write about. A good thing about unauthorized biographies is that one has to dig and dig to come up with the material rather than kind of ghost someone's memoirs. And like all good biographies this encompasses a lot more than Wilder - Hollywood at its grandiest and gaudiest. I never cared much for his movies and, after reading the book, of him but he's a fasinating subject and Sikov does a terrific job. I gave it 4 stars because 5 star biographies always seem to blend into fiction.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the best film biography ever written February 9, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Billy Wilder is one of my favorite filmmakers, creator of three masterpieces: "Sunset Boulevard," "Double Indemnity" and "Some Like It Hot." Sikov does a remarkable job of giving us the life and mind of the man. Show people rival Southerners in their refusal to let the trivia of facts get in the way of a good story, and Wilder was a storyteller among storytellers. Most film bios are hopelessly gullible, but Sikov uses the interviews that Wilder gave throughout his career--the man would say virtually anything--to give us his full flavor, always careful to show where the facts and stories diverge, but without spoiling our pleasure in those stories. The result is the best film biography I've yet read, well-versed in the business, politics and psychology of filmmaking. And because the subject is Wilder, it is also one of the funniest books I've come across in a long, long time.