“It was a great big white elephant of a place. The kind crazy movie people built in the crazy Twenties. A neglected house gets an unhappy look.This one had it in spades. It was like that old woman in Great Expectations–that Miss Haversham in her rotting wedding dress and her torn veil, taking it out on the world because she’d been given the go-by.”
~Screenplay, Sunset Boulevard
Kicking around Nebraska City’s Morton Mansion a couple of months ago, I couldn’t help but get the feeling of how Joe Gillis might have felt about Norma Desmond’s mansion when he laid eyes on it for the first time in the Academy Award winning movie, “Sunset Boulevard.” It is such a remarkable movie that I watched it again last night–for at least the 10th time. And whether it’s on a big screen or through the lens of a camera–old mansions are curious and extraordinary structures.
Morton Mansion at twilight, Nebraska City, NE
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