This is one of the great 1950s film noir classics. It is difficult to rate as it is visually stunning and eerily atmospheric, and yet it feels a little too dated at times. Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is a long-forgotten diva of the silent screen who has been condemned to a life of luxurious loneliness, fraying at the edges, as a forgotten relic of the past. Joe Gillis (William Holden) is an aspiring screenwriter who, debt after debt, is on the verge of giving it all up until a flat tyre draws him to Norma's house and life. Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim) the strange and unnerving butler. And then there is the well-wishing, clean-cut and "normal" Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson). The perfect set-up for the creation of the precursors to the Munster Family.

The narrative is full of complex characters pushed into becoming strange and distorted versions of their prior selves, full of uncanny under-the-surface obsessions, and yet the twisted narrative full of out-dated sexual tension does not feel as fresh as it must once have done. Saying much more would be to remove the twists and tensions inherent to the film.

The film boasts of a memorable opening shot, unforgettable images of the inside of Hollywood's filming studios and myriad atmospheric scenes revolving around the dilapidated but once majestic house on Sunset Boulevard. It is a tale of decadence and self-destruction, desperation and manipulation, which shows the flip side of the glamour associated with one of Hollywood's first golden ages. The characters taste the highs and lows of success and once discarded are taken to a place from which there is no coming back.