THE ASTOR REVIEW

Enthralling melodrama about a forgotten silent Movie Queen, played brilliantly by Gloria Swanson, who ensnares a down and out writer to share her bizarre life based on decaying memories. With Erich Von Stroheim, (Real life director of the silent film, Queen Kelly, which Swanson stars in and watches in her living room!) Hedda Hopper, Jack Webb and Buster Keaton. Based on the story “A Can of Beans” by Brackett and Wilder. GF

IMDB SYNOPSIS

The story, set in '50s Hollywood, focuses on Norma Desmond, a silent-screen goddess whose pathetic belief in her own indestructibility has turned her into a demented recluse. The crumbling Sunset Boulevard mansion where she lives with only her butler, Max who was once her director and husband has become her self-contained world. Norma dreams of a comeback to pictures and she begins a relationship with Joe Gillis, a small-time writer who becomes her lover, that will soon end with murder and total madness.