At a mansion on Sunset Boulevard, a group of police officers and photographers discover the body of Joe Gillis, floating face down in the swimming pool. In a flashback, Joe relates the events leading to his death.
Six months earlier, down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe, tries selling Paramount Pictures producer Sheldrake on a story he submitted. Script reader Betty Schaefer harshly critiques it, unaware that Joe is listening. Later, while fleeing from repossession men seeking his car, Joe turns into the driveway of a seemingly deserted mansion. After concealing the car, he hears a woman inside call out to him, mistaking him for a man bringing a coffin for her deceased chimpanzee. Ushered in by Max, the butler, Joe recognizes the woman as a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond. Learning that Joe is a writer, Norma asks his opinion of a script she has written for a film about Salome. She plans to play the role herself in her return to the screen. Joe finds her script abysmal but flatters her into hiring him as a script doctor.
Moved into Norma's mansion at her insistence, Joe resents but gradually accepts his dependent situation. He sees that Norma refuses to accept that her fame has evaporated, and learns that Max secretly writes the fan letters she receives. Max explains that Norma is emotionally fragile and has attempted suicide. Norma lavishes attention on Joe and buys him expensive clothes. At her New Year's Eve party, he discovers that he is the only guest and realizes she has fallen in love with him. Joe tries to let her down gently, but Norma slaps him and retreats to her room. Joe visits his friend Artie Green to ask about staying at his place. He again meets Betty, who is Artie's girlfriend. Betty thinks a scene in one of Joe's scripts has potential, but Joe is uninterested. When he phones Max to have him pack his things, Max tells him Norma cut her wrists with his razor. Joe returns to Norma....
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by
Charles Brackett
Billy Wilder
D. M. Marshman Jr.
Produced by Charles Brackett
Starring
William Holden
Gloria Swanson
Erich von Stroheim
Nancy Olson
Fred Clark
Lloyd Gough
Jack Webb
Cinematography John F. Seitz
Edited by
Doane Harrison
Arthur Schmidt
Music by Franz Waxman
William Holden as Joe Gillis
Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond
Erich von Stroheim as Max von Mayerling
Nancy Olson as Betty Schaefer
Fred Clark as Sheldrake, film producer
Lloyd Gough as Morino, Joe's agent
Jack Webb as Artie Green
Franklyn Farnum as undertaker
Larry J. Blake as finance man
#1
Charles Dayton as finance man
#2
Cecil B. DeMille as himself
Hedda Hopper as herself
Sidney Skolsky as himself
Buster Keaton as himself (bridge player)
Anna Q. Nilsson as herself (bridge player)
H. B. Warner as himself (bridge player)
Ray Evans (pianist at Artie's party)
Jay Livingston (pianist at Artie's party)
Robert Emmett O'Connor as Jonesy (older guard at Paramount gate)
Henry Wilcoxon as actor on DeMille's Samson and Delilah set (uncredited)