Like all film noir, death is a central aspect of the plot of Sunset Boulevard (1950). We begin with the dead man in the pool, Norma Desmond and Gillis’ first meeting involves a deceased chimp, Norma herself sleeps in an elaborate boat-shaped bed with high walls and satiny coverings, highly evoking a coffin. This is all to be expected— murder is on the menu, the big sleep comprises the stakes. However, Sunset Boulevard also includes a type of death not often seen in noir film, that of suicide.
One of the first mentions of suicide comes along very early in the film, during a monologue Max has when he is showing Gillis his sleeping quarters. “She was the greatest of them all,” Max begins, going on to discuss the thousands of fan letters and how desperately men desired her, any part of her, even a lock of hair. “There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Later he strangled himself with it.” This anecdote is a rather grim way of saying goodnight to the new guest, imparting the seriousness of what Gillis is getting himself into. Considering the circumstances, Gillis’ decision to move into a creepy old mansion with a woman he just met, who is clearly mentally unwell, does seem a bit suicidal.
The theme of suicide becomes more overt when Gillis discovers, again through Max, that the reason there are no locks on any of the doors in the house is Norma’s not infrequent suicide attempts. When Gillis attempts to separate himself from Norma on New Year’s Eve, she slits her wrists, thus establishing before the audience’s eyes the seriousness of the issue. At the end of the movie, Norma threatens to use the revolver she bought, a claim that is supported by the previous incident. We know that she is serious, and surely Gillis knows this too, yet he takes his life into his own hands by attempting an emotional exit. What happens next can be considered a type of murder-suicide. When Norma shoots Gillis, she is committing a literal murder and a metaphorical suicide by ensuring that she will never return to the Hollywood life that she so desires. This reading can also be reversed: Gillis is committing suicide through Norma because he doesn’t want to go back to a crappy day job in Ohio yet he knows he can’t stay here. He also murders Norma and what is left of her sanity by telling her the truth about Cecil B. DeMille and the script, information that he knew could irreparably harm her. The film ultimately seems to be saying that by joining Norma in that old Hollywood mansion and the commercial and material world that it represents, Gillis sealed his own fate, as no one gets out of there alive.
This is part of a series of posts I wrote for a film noir class I took in graduate school. You can find the rest of my film noir posts here.