Initial release: August 10, 1950 (New York City)
Running time: 115 minutes
Awards: Academy Award for Original Music Score, Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Film, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score,Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Drama Film, Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Film, National Board of Review Award for Best Actress,Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama, Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Academy Award for Story and Screenplay
Description
Police cars speed down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, to a mansion where the body of a young man, Joe Gillis (Holden), floats in the swimming pool. Joe narrates the events leading up to his death. A flashback begins.
Six months earlier, Joe was out of work as a screenwriter, having only a few undistinguished B movies to his credit. Broke, he tries to persuade Paramount Pictures producer Sheldrake (Clark) to buy a script, but script reader Betty Schaefer (Olson) gives a harsh critique, unaware at first that Joe is listening.
At an intersection, Joe spots the repossession men after his car. During the ensuing chase, one of Joe's tires blows out. He pulls into the driveway of a large and seemingly deserted mansion on Sunset. Hiding the car in the garage, he looks over the decaying house. A woman inside calls to him. Mistaken for the undertaker to her deceased pet chimpanzee, he is ushered in by the butler, Max (Von Stroheim). Joe recognizes the woman as long-forgotten silent-film star Norma Desmond (Swanson). When she learns that he is a writer, she asks for his opinion on an immense script she has written for a film about Salome that she hopes will revive her acting career. Although Joe finds the script awful, he flatters Norma into hiring him as a script doctor.
Joe stays in a guest room over the garage. The next morning, he objects when he sees that Max has brought his belongings on Norma's orders. Although he hates being dependent on her, he comes to accept the situation, eventually moving into the bedroom of Norma's former husbands. As he works, he comes to see how unaware she is of how her fame has died. She refuses to hear any criticism and makes him watch her old films in the evenings. Although she still receives fan mail, Joe later learns that Max writes them. Max explains that Norma's state of mind is fragile, and she has attempted suicide in the past.
Over the next few weeks, Norma lavishes attention on Joe and buys him expensive clothing, including a tuxedo for a New Year's Eve party attended only by the two of them. Horrified to learn that she has fallen in love with him, he tries to let her down gently, but she slaps him and retreats to her room. Joe goes to see his friend, assistant director Artie Green (Webb), about staying at his place. At the party there, he meets Betty again. She turns out to be Artie's girl. While still unimpressed with most of his work, she believes a scene in one of his scripts has potential, but Joe is uninterested. When Joe phones Max to have him pack his things, Max informs him that Norma had attempted suicide. Joe returns to the mansion, apologizes to Norma and kisses her. She draws him down to her bed.
Norma sends her script to Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. Not long afterwards, Paramount executive Gordon Cole keeps calling. Norma, however, petulantly refuses to speak to anyone other than DeMille himself. Eventually, she has Max drive her and Joe to the studio in her 1929 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A luxury automobile.[1] DeMille entertains Norma, while tactfully avoiding questions about her script. Many of the older guards, technicians, and extras recognize her and welcome her back. Joe and Max, meanwhile, learn that Cole merely wants to rent her car for a film. Max insists that they say nothing to Norma. He later confesses to Joe that he was once a respected film director. It was he who discovered Norma as a teenage girl, made her a star, and became her first husband. When she quit, he abandoned his career to become her servant because he could not bear to leave her.
While Norma undergoes a rigorous series of beauty treatments to prepare for what she believes is her comeback role, Joe sneaks out at night to work with Betty on a screenplay. Although she is engaged to Artie, she falls in love with him, and he with her. When Norma finds the script with Betty's name on it, she phones Betty and insinuates what sort of man Joe really is. Joe, overhearing her, invites Betty to come see for herself. When she arrives, he pretends he is satisfied being a gigolo. After Betty leaves in tears, Joe begins packing, having decided to return to Ohio to his old newspaper job. He bluntly informs Norma of the truth — there will be no comeback, her fan letters come from Max, and she has been forgotten. He ignores Norma's threats to shoot herself. In a fit of passion, she shoots him three times as he leaves. He falls into the pool.
The flashback ends. Norma completely loses touch with reality, thinking the news cameras are there for a film shoot. Max plays along to give her what she craves so desperately. He sets up the scene for her and yells "Action!"; Norma dramatically descends her grand staircase. She gives a short speech at how happy she is to be acting again, ending with the famous final lines: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
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