Holden really adds something to this part, particularly in comparison to the far less dimensional performance of Chester Morris in the 1939 original version BLIND ALLEY.

Holden's voiceover in SUNSET BOULEVARD is something that often gets overlooked in terms of how it helps pull everything together.

Lee J. Cobb could go over-the-top (imagine him in that mode in a film with Shelley Winters!) but he could also button it up, and he does so here. But I have to say that Ralph Bellamy is surprisingly good in his version of the psychiatrist in BLIND ALLEY...

Apparently the only person who wasn't taken with Holden was his wife, Brenda Marshall, who seemed to enjoy chipping away at his self-confidence. Given the stories that have emerged regarding that marriage, it's amazing it lasted as long as it did...who knows, maybe it made him a better actor!