The 1950 film by Billy Wilder is "trenchant, satirical noir with honest-to-God grownup characters," write Kinn and Piazza. "Sure, they're selfish users beyond redemption, but they can dress and talk! Unsentimental in the extreme and all the more fascinating for it."
In an interview with the , Wilder said what he remembered most about making the film was "the remarkable access we got. We were able to use Paramount Studios and its famous gate... the one access we did not get came after Swanson shoots Holden, and the house was swarming with police and press. I wanted two gossip columnists 鈥� Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons 鈥� each on the phone, one upstairs, one down, neither of them giving up the phone and saying, 'Get off the line... I was here first!' Hedda I got easily, but Louella knew quite well she would lose that duel because Hedda was a former actress, and she would wipe the floor with her."
