Did Pola kick Billy Wilder out of the house when he offered her the starring role in Sunset Boulevard?
No; I’ve been told that it was actually Mae Murray who did that. At that time Pola considered herself to be retired from films, and she turned down many offers because she felt she had moved on. She politely did the same thing to Billy Wilder’s offer to star her as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, even though she thought it was a very nice part. Pola was originally going to do the same thing to the Madame Habib role in The Moon-spinners (which was to be her final film). But her best friend, a Texan oil heiress named Margaret West, suggested Pola do it because she thought it would be fun, so Pola accepted the part. Margaret West died unexpectedly soon afterwards, so Pola threw herself into the role to keep her mind off the death of her best friend. The emotional crisis she was going through at the time is, in my mind, at the root of why she stole that picture and made such a stir as the returning star when it was released.
