Gloria Swanson and William Holden are supreme in this hard look into the dark side of Hollywoodland. Gloria Swanson as the insane Norma Desmond, a mad silent movie star languishing in her old mansion surrounded by reminders of her glory days, and William Holden as a bitingly cynical screenwriter playing gigolo to Swanson while carrying on an affair with nice reader Nancy Olson is great. The other scene-stealer is Erich von Stroheim, who plays Swanson's fromer husband and director, and now her butler.