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When you think about the fact that the silent era in 1950 had been gone for a little more than twenty years, you realize just how voraciously the Hollywood beast chewed up and consumed its victims. Norma Desmond in 1950 was, I dunno, name your favorite late-1990s megastar, in 2018.
Aside from that there's two things I love to see everytime I watch that film. One is the sheer bizarreness of the dead chimp laid out in state, and the other is delightful gusto with which Jack Webb bites into his role as Gillis's buddy. He'd been playing Joe Friday on radio for just under a year when the film was released, and it was the last time he'd ever really make an impression on the screen without Friday's shadow looming over his performance. He could have been a fun little character actor if he'd chosen to go that route.
Agreed on the chimp, to me, he simply emphasizes the cracker-house crazy of everything Norma Desmond. No backstory is given and none is needed as we learn, later on, she's wizzing around earth in her completely own orbit.
Also, great point on Web. You know it's him, but he's so much more Oscar Levant than Joe Friday in this one, that you almost forget it's him. And as to his character, good luck with the marriage coming his way as his fiancee wanted to ditch him for Holden's character, literally, a day or two before the proposed wedding date.