Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector’s Edition)

Paramount Home Video ($24.99)

Norma Desmond would be pleased with this museum-quality DVD edition of Billy Wilder’s Tinseltown masterpiece. The goodies include “Sunset Boulevard: A Look Back,” a fine making-of featurette with comments from Andrew Sarris, star Nancy Olson, and film historian Ed Sikov, who explains the photographic sleight of hand required to pull off Bill Holden’s famous dip in the Getty Mansion’s pool. Sikov also provides the feature-length audio commentary, which sounds a little stiff, like he’s reading an abstract from the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, but is informative. The edition also salutes composer Franz Waxman and costume designer Edith Head (though Bob Mackie’s backhanded compliments don’t do her any favors) and includes an interactive map of the film’s locations that is interesting enough the first time around. The big score is footage of the film’s original prologue, jettisoned after a disastrous test screening in Evanston, Ill.

This article appears in December 13 • 2002.

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