OVERLAY REPORT

In Billy Wilder’s *Sunset Boulevard* (1950), the dead chimpanzee is a grotesque and heavy piece of symbolism that sets the tone for the entire film. It appears in the opening act when Joe Gillis (William Holden) first stumbles upon Norma Desmond’s (Gloria Swanson) decaying mansion while trying to hide his car from repossession men. The significance of the dead chimp can be broken down into several key areas: ### 1. Joe Gillis as the "Replacement" The most immediate narrative significance is that Joe Gillis is hired to replace the chimpanzee. When Joe first enters the house, Norma mistakes him for the undertaker arriving to prepare the chimp's funeral. The chimp was Norma’s companion and "performer." By taking the room and the "job" of editing her script, Joe unknowingly steps into the vacancy left by a literal animal. This dehumanizes Joe from the start, signaling that to Norma, he is not a romantic partner or a professional peer, but a "pet"—something she owns, feeds, dresses, and expects to perform on command. ### 2. The Macabre and the Gothic The funeral scene—featuring a tiny, white, satin-lined coffin and Norma's intense mourning for an ape—immediately establishes the "Gothic" atmosphere of the house. It signals to the audience that Norma is untethered from reality. The fact that she holds a midnight funeral for a primate in her backyard tells the viewer that the world inside the mansion operates on its own bizarre, delusional logic, far removed from the 1950s Hollywood reality outside the gates. ### 3. A Mirror of Norma’s Career The chimp is a relic of Norma’s past. During the silent film era, it was not uncommon for eccentric stars to keep exotic pets as status symbols. The death of the chimp symbolizes the final expiration of Norma’s "Golden Age." Just as the chimp has died and is being buried, Norma’s career is dead, though she refuses to acknowledge it. The house itself is a mausoleum, and the chimp is the first corpse we see in a film that begins and ends with death. ### 4. The "Organ Grinder" Metaphor The chimp serves as a precursor to a specific line of dialogue later in the film. When Joe becomes frustrated with his life as a "kept man," he realizes he is merely a performer for Norma. There is a metaphorical connection to the "organ grinder’s monkey"—a creature that dances for coins. By establishing that Norma’s previous companion was an actual monkey, Wilder emphasizes that Norma is the one turning the crank, and Joe is the new animal on her leash. ### 5. Foreshadowing Joe’s Fate The film is famously narrated by a dead man (Joe, floating in the pool). The chimp’s funeral foreshadows Joe’s own end. The chimp dies, is treated with a strange, performative reverence by Norma, and is discarded in the grounds of the estate. By the end of the film, Joe suffers a similar fate: he is "disposable" once he ceases to fulfill Norma's fantasy, and his death becomes just another scene in the grand, tragic movie playing inside her head. ### Specific Detail to Note: In the scene where the chimp is being buried, Max (the butler) is seen assisting with the coffin. This highlights Max’s role as the enabler of Norma's delusions. The solemnity with which they treat the dead animal underscores the "religion of celebrity" that exists within the house—even the pet of a star is treated as royalty, despite the absurdity of the situation.