What film is this picture from?

December 8, 2005 3:53 PM

Does anyone know the name of the film that this picture is from?

My wife's doing a Christmas quiz at work and has got all of her answers except for this one. Yes, I know you could call it cheating but...maybe you can help!

posted by adoran2 to media & arts (11 comments total)

Well, it's definitely William Holden there on the ground. That should help, as a start.
posted by Dr. Wu at 4:00 PM on December 8, 2005

Maybe it's from Sunset Boulevard? (Haven't seen it in a long time, but I think this might be it.)
posted by Dr. Wu at 4:00 PM on December 8, 2005

No, wait. If it were Sunset Boulevard, Holden would be sopping wet in that picture. Sorry. In any case, by the looks of Holden, the film is pre-1960, I'd say.
posted by Dr. Wu at 4:05 PM on December 8, 2005

I don't remeber him lying on the ground like that in Sunset Blvd either, but it is in the IMDb photo gallery for the movie.
posted by SoftRain at 4:08 PM on December 8, 2005

Many thanks to both of you. I've now got one happy wife!
posted by adoran2 at 4:16 PM on December 8, 2005

SoftRain: Damn. I didn't even know about Imdb's photo galleries, and I look at that site every day.
Could be a publicity still, which were often not taken from the films themselves but from still photographers who were sometimes near the movie camera. It could well even be a recreation of a scene, staged specifically for the still photographer.

In any case, Sunset Boulevard seems to be the movie yer lookin' for.
posted by Dr. Wu at 4:16 PM on December 8, 2005

Maybe it's at Mann's Chinese Theater?
posted by kirkaracha at 4:42 PM on December 8, 2005

Could it be from the scene where they pull him out of the pool?
posted by m@ at 5:52 PM on December 8, 2005

m@, that's what I thought, initially, but, as I suggested, Holden oughta be, in that case, sopping wet; he ain't. I've seen the film dozens of times but can't remember the scene in the photo, unless, again, it's a publicity still, which to me seems fairly likely -- many of the familiar still images from films are publicity shots.
posted by Dr. Wu at 6:40 PM on December 8, 2005

The swimming pool thing was a last minute change. Originally, they scripted and shot a different opening sequence. Now, I'm probably remembering this from something I read in The Book of Lists and it's kind of fuzzy, but as I recall, the original opening sequence involved a morgue and, for some reason, when test audiences saw it, they started laughing. So they actually went back and shot the pool scene, put it in instead.

I assume the still is from the original, excised sequence.
posted by Clay201 at 10:03 PM on December 8, 2005

Audiences were laughing because the morgue scene involved the bodies talking to each other, and when Holden was brought in, they asked him how he got there, and then he tells his story, which is the movie.

Anyway, that doesn't explain why there would be an image of him lying unconscious or dead on the ground and dry. I seriously doubt that this image is from Sunset Boulevard.
posted by bingo at 2:59 PM on December 9, 2005