The Close Up

By ajcurrie

  • Charles Brackett is Born

  • Billy Wilder is born

  • Wilder Family moves to Vienna

  • Charles Brackett graduates from Williams College

  • Charles Brackett marries Elizabeth Fletcher

  • Charles Brackett has a daughter, Alexandra Brackett

  • Charles Brackett has a daughter, Elizabeth Brackett

  • Billy Wilder becomes a Journalist

  • Billy interviews Paul Whiteman who takes him to Berlin

  • Max Wilder dies

  • Billy moves to Paris

  • Billy directs first film, Mauvaise Graine

  • Billy comes to Hollywood

  • Billy marries Judith Coppicus

    Billy Wilder

  • Brackett becomes president of the Screenwriters Guild

  • Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

  • Wilder and Brackett are introduced

  • Midnight

  • Ninotchka

    Nominated for best screenplay

  • What A Life

  • Arise, My Love

  • Ball of Fire

  • Hold Back The Dawn

    Nominated for Best Screenplay

  • Wilder and Brackett become dir/prod

  • The Major and the Minor

  • Five Graves to Cairo

  • The Lost Weekend

    Winner; Best Screenplay

  • Wilder joins the army

    As a colonel with the Psychological Warfare Division

  • Billy and Judith Divorce

  • Period: to

    Sunset Boulevard

  • The Emperor Waltz

    After a 2 year delay.
    Wilder hated it and Brackett called it a stinker

  • Charles's wife, Elizabeth, dies

    Was an alcoholic recluse

  • A Foreign Affair

  • Period: to

    The Fallout from A Foreign Affair

    • Government officials protested saying it showed the American GI forces in Berlin in poor light.
    • Wilder was denounced on the floor of the House of Reps for treating American and Nazi soldiers with equal irreverence.
    • Dept of Defense issued a statement declaring that the film had no root in reality.
    • Paramount reportedly pulled the film from quite a few theaters soon after its release.

  • Brackett gave a eulogy for D W Griffith

  • D. M. Marshman hired to develop the story

    "He was bright and we thought we might go stale, so we brought in somebody to kick ideas around"

  • First 30 pages of Sunset Boulevard

    -- Sometime between Aug 9 and Dec 21, 1948, a first act (first 30 pages) was written. Everything but the morgue scene at the top remained.
    -- They didn't want the studio to offer feedback on the concept or the title, so they named it "A Can of Beans" up until they delivered their first pages.
    -- On Dec 21st, the memo was "This is the first act of Sunset Boulevard. Due to the peculiar nature of this project, we ask all of our coworkers to regard it as top secret. Brackett and Wilder

  • Charles Brackett becomes president of the Academy

    Till 1955

  • Billy marries Audra Young

    Would remain married till his death in 2002

  • First 88 Pages turned into the Production Code office

    Luigi Luraschi worked in the censorship department at Paramount. Breen led the production office.

  • Filming Starts for Sunset Boulevard

  • Production Code office gets back

    "Inasmuch as the material is incomplete, we cannot of course, render an opinion on the acceptability of the entire story. However as far as this material goes, we are happy to report that it seems to meet the provisions of the production code."
    "Pg 12: Please eliminate Gillis's line "I'm up that creak and I need a job
    Pg 27: Please eliminate Gillis's line "and the wind goosing down that organ once in a while
    Pg 46: Please eliminate the reference to Ms. Desmond having been married three times.

  • Breen Office Writes to Paramount

    Staggs: page 34
    They crabbed about the affair between Norma and Joe, but they didn't make a judgement on it yet.

  • Filming ends for Sunset Boulevard

  • Breen office approves the picture

    "You understand, of course, that our final judgement will be based on the finished picture"

  • Sunset Boulevard

    Winner; Best Screenplay

  • Brackett marries Lillian Fletcher

    ... sister of his late ex-wife

  • Brackett gets a Lifetime Achievement Oscar