Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Nancy Olson: Betty Schaefer

Photos 

Quotes 

• Betty Schaefer : Don't you sometimes hate yourself?

  Joe Gillis : Constantly.

• Betty Schaefer : Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Gillis, but I just didn't think it was any good. I found it flat and trite.

  Joe Gillis : Exactly what kind of material do you recommend? James Joyce? Dostoyevsky?

  Betty Schaefer : I just think that pictures should say a little something.

  Joe Gillis : Oh, one of the message kids. Just a story won't do. You'd have turned down Gone With the Wind.

  Sheldrake : No, that was me. I said, "Who wants to see a Civil War picture?"

• Betty Schaefer : Oh, the old familiar story. You help a timid little soul cross a crowded street, she turns out to be a multimillionaire and leaves you all her money.

  Joe Gillis : That's the trouble with you readers. You know all the plots.

• Betty Schaefer : Perhaps the reason I hated "Bases Loaded" is that I knew your name. I'd always heard you had some talent.

  Joe Gillis : That was last year. This year I'm trying to earn a living.

• Betty Schaefer : I've been hoping to run into you.

  Joe Gillis : What for? To recover that knife you stuck in my back?

• Betty Schaefer : Where have you been keeping yourself? I've got the most wonderful news for you.

  Joe Gillis : I haven't been keeping myself at all, lately.

• Betty Schaefer : I had ten years of dramatic lessons, diction, dancing. Then, the studio made a test. Well, they didn't like my nose - slanted, this way a little. So, I went to a doctor and had it fixed. They made more tests and they were crazy about my nose. Only, they didn't like my acting.

• Betty Schaefer : I think you should throw out all that psychological mess - exploring the killer's sick mind.

  Joe Gillis : Psychopaths sell like hotcakes!

• Joe Gillis : May I say that you smell really special?

  Betty Schaefer : It must be my new shampoo.

  Joe Gillis : That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile. How old are you anyway?

  Betty Schaefer : Twenty-two.

  Joe Gillis : Smart girl. Nothing like being twenty-two.

• Betty Schaefer : Are you hungry?

  Joe Gillis : Hungry? After 12 years in a Burmese jungle, I'm starving, Lady Agatha, starving for a white shoulder.

  Betty Schaefer : Philip you're mad.

  Joe Gillis : Thirsting for the coolness of your lips.

• Betty Schaefer : So, you take plot 27A, make it glossy, make it slick?

  Sheldrake : Eh-eh-eh-eh. Those are dirty words. You sound like a bunch of New York critics.

• Joe Gillis : [Betty is softly crying, facing away from Joe]  Stop crying, will you? You're getting married. That's what you wanted.

  Betty Schaefer : I don't want it now.

  Joe Gillis : Why not? Don't you love Artie?

  Betty Schaefer : Of course I love him. I always will. I... I'm not in love with him anymore, that's all.

  Joe Gillis : What happened?

  Betty Schaefer : [She turns and meets his eyes]  You did.

  [They kiss] 

• Betty Schaefer : Now, get your things together and let's get out of here.

  Joe Gillis : All my things? All my 18 suits, all my custom-made shoes, and the six dozen shirts, and the cuff links and the platinum key chains and the cigarette cases?

  Betty Schaefer : Come on, Joe.

  Joe Gillis : Come on where? Back to a one-room apartment I can't pay for? Back to a story that may sell and very possibly will not?

  Betty Schaefer : If you love me, Joe.

  Joe Gillis : Look, sweetie, be practical. I've got a good deal here. A long-term contract with no options. I like it that way. Maybe it's not very admirable.

  [She looks away from Joe and softly begins to cry] 

  Joe Gillis : Well, you and Artie can be admirable.

  Betty Schaefer : [He reaches to lift her chin, but she turns the other way]  I can't look at you anymore, Joe.

  Joe Gillis : How about looking for the exit?

  [He gently takes her arm and walks her towards the door] 

  Joe Gillis : This way, Betty.

• Betty Schaefer : I'll get us a refill of this horrible liquid.

  Joe Gillis : You'll be waiting for me?

  Betty Schaefer : With a wildly beating heart!

  Joe Gillis : Life can be beautiful.

• Sheldrake : That'll be all Miss Kramer... Schaefer.

  Betty Schaefer : Goodbye, Mr. Gillis.

  Joe Gillis : Next time I'll write you "The Naked and the Dead".

• Joe Gillis : Just so you don't think I'm a complete swine, if there's anything in 'Dark Windows' you can use - take it, it's all yours.

  Betty Schaefer : Well, for heavens sake. Come on in, have a chair.

  Joe Gillis : I mean it. Its no good to me anyway. Help yourself.

  Betty Schaefer : Now, why should you do that?

  Joe Gillis : If you get a hundred thousand for it, you buy me a box of chocolate creams. If you get an Oscar, I get the left foot.

• Betty Schaefer : I got a telegram from Artie.

  Joe Gillis : From Artie? What's wrong?

  Betty Schaefer : He wants me to come out to Arizona. He says it only costs two dollars to get married there. It would kinda save us a honeymoon.

• Norma Desmond : You must forgive me for calling you so late, but I really feel it's my duty. It's about Mr. Gillis. You do know Mr. Gillis? Exactly how much do you know about him? Do you know where he lives? Do you know how he lives? Do you know what he lives on?

  Betty Schaefer : Who are you? What do you want? What business is it of yours anyway?

  Norma Desmond : Miss Schaefer, I'm trying to do you a favor. I'm trying to spare you a great deal of misery. Of course you may be too young to even suspect there are men of his sort. I don't know what he's told you, but he does not live with relatives. Nor with friends in the usual sense of the word. Well, ask him. Ask him again.

  Joe Gillis : [grabbing the phone from Norma]  That's right, Betty. Ask me again. This is Joe.

  Betty Schaefer : Joe, where are you? What is this all about?

  Joe Gillis : Well, better yet, why don't you come out and see for yourself? The address is 10086 Sunset Boulevard.

• Joe Gillis : Ever been in one of these old Hollywood palazzos? That's from when they were making $18 thousand a week and no taxes. Careful of these tiles, they're slippery. Valentino used to dance here.

  Betty Schaefer : This is where you live?

  Joe Gillis : You bet.

  Betty Schaefer : Whose house is it?

  Joe Gillis : Hers.

  Betty Schaefer : Whose?

  Joe Gillis : [with a sweeping gesture of his arm]  Just look around, there's a lot of her spread about. If you don't remember the face, you must have heard the name: Norma Desmond.

  Betty Schaefer : That was Norma Desmond on the phone?

  Joe Gillis : Would you like something to drink? There's always champagne on ice. And plenty of caviar.

• Betty Schaefer : Why did she call me?

  Joe Gillis : Jealous. Did you ever see so much junk? She had the ceiling brought from Portugal.

  Joe Gillis : [scrolling up the wall painting]  And look at this: her own movie theatre!

  Betty Schaefer : I didn't come here to see a house. What about Norma Desmond?

  Joe Gillis : That's what I'm trying to tell you. This is an enormous place: 8 master bedrooms, a sunken tub in every bathroom, there's a bowling alley in the cellar. It's lonely here, so she got herself a companion. Very simple setup. Older woman who's well-to-do, a younger man who's not doing too well. Can you figure it out yourself?

  Betty Schaefer : No.

  Joe Gillis : Alright, I'll give you a few more clues...

  Betty Schaefer : No! I haven't heard any of this! I never got those telephone calls and I've never been in this house! Now get your things together and let's get out of here.