Within the film Sunset Boulevard there are two minor characters but they both serve a singular purpose, two laughing girls who occupy the telephone at Artie Green’s party causing lead character Joe a minor inconvenience as he waits to use it to call Max the butler back at the mansion on Sunset Boulevard. While they seem like minor inconvenience characters and that their only business is to occupy the phone. They actually serve a greater purpose that drives a plotline in the movie. We are introduced to them about forty-nine minutes into the film where they sit occupying the telephone laughing loudly with whoever is at the other end of the line. Joe wishes to use the telephone to call Max back at the mansion to check on Norma Desmond as previously he had an argument with Norma that left her very upset. They agree to let Joe use the telephone after they are done but while Joe is waiting he ends up conversing with Betty Schaefer. The telephone girls actually initiated a new plotline for the story, Joe and Betty while talking to each other begin to have romantic feelings for each other, a new major plotline that adds to the overall story of the film as their romance will come up later in the story and drive elements of the plot. Their importance is supported by Christian Keathley in their article “Pass the salt … and other bits of business” within the Small Parts, Small Players Dossier, “ Minor characters – especially those who appear only once or twice in a film but are nevertheless important to the plot – must be easily identifiable to the viewer, and giving them some business can help define their character quickly, efficiently and distinctively” (106). Immediately upon their introduction, we understand who they are, what their business is, and how they relate to the primary lead, Joe. Their business of occupying the phone while seemingly a minor inconvenience would actually create a plot line for the story and one that will create points of internal and external conflict amongst characters.
WORKS CITED
Keathley, Christian. Pass the salt … and other bits of business, Screen, Volume 52, Issue 1, Spring 2011, Pages 105–113, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq065
Sunset Boulevard. Directed by Billy Wilder, performances by Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Erich von Stroheim, Paramount Pictures Studios, 1950.
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