Sunset Boulevard
(Video)

Director of photography, John F. Seitz ; edited by Arthur Schmidt ; music score, Franz Waxman.

William Holden (Joe Gillis), Gloria Swanson (Norma Desmond), Erich von Stroheim (Max von Mayerling), Nancy Olson (Betty Schaefer), Fred Clark.

Joe Gillis is found floating face down in the swimming pool of Norma Desmond. The dead Gillis narrates his story. Pursued by creditors, he swerves into a driveway of a seemingly abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. He finds Norma Desmond, an ex-screen queen dreaming of a dramatic comeback, and Max von Mayerling, her former director and husband and now her servant, living there. She takes a fancy to Gillis and, learning that he is a scriptwriter, persuades him to help her with her comeback screenplay. Being broke he accepts. He falls in love with young script reader Betty Schaefer, but Norma breaks up their romance. Thinking she is mad, he tries to leave, but Norma kills him. Max, hoping to coax Norma into police custody, directs the big staircase scene which she believes is the highlight of her comeback movie.