NORMA

Joe! Joe!

JOE

Come on in.

BETTY

What's going on, Joe?

Why am I so scared?

What was that woman saying?

She sounded so weird

I don't understand...

Please, can you tell me what's happening?

You said you loved me tonight

Shall I just go?

Say something, Joe

JOE

Have some pink champage and caviar

When you go visit with a star

The hospitality is stellar

BETTY

So this is where you're living?

JOE

Yes, it's quite a place, sleeps seventeen

Eight sunken tubs, a movie screen

A bowling alley in the cellar

BETTY

I didn't come to see a house, Joe

JOE

Sunset Boulevard

Cruise the Boulevard

Win yourself a Hollywood palazzo

Sunset Boulevard

Mythic Boulevard

Valentino danced on that terrazzo

BETTY

Who's it belong to?

JOE

Just look around you

BETTY

That's Norma Desmond.

JOE

That's Norma Desmond

That's Norma Desmond

That's Norma Desmond

That's Norma Desmond

BETTY

Why did she call me?

JOE

Give you three guesses

It's the oldest story in the book

Come see the taker being took

The world is full of Joes and Normas

Older woman, very well-to-do

Meets younger man, the standard cue

For two mechanical performers

BETTY

Just pack your things and let's go.

JOE

You mean all my things?

Have you gone mad?

Leave all these things I've never had?

Leave this luxurious existence?

You want me to face that one-room hell

That murphy bed, that rancid smell

Go back to living on subsistence?

It's no time to begin a new life

Now I've finally made a perfect landing

I'm afraid there's no room for a wife

Not unless she's uniquely understanding

you should go back to Artie and marry the fool

And you'll always be welcome to swim in my pool

BETTY

I can't look at you any more, Joe.

NORMA

Thank you,

Thank you, Joe,

Thank you...

Thank you.

What are you doing, Joe?

You're not leaving me?

JOE

Yes, I am, Norma.

NORMA

You can't! Max!

JOE

It's been a bundle of laughs

And thanks for the use of the trinkets

A little ritzy for the copy desk back in Dayton

And there's something you ought to know

I want to do you this favour

They'll never shoot that hopeless script of yours

They only wanted your car

NORMA

That's a lie! They still want me!

What about all my fan-mail?

JOE

It's Max who writes you letters

Your audience has vanished

They left when you weren't looking

Nothing's wrong with being fifty

Unless you're acting twenty

NORMA

I am the greatest star of them all.

JOE

Goodbye, Norma.

NORMA

No one ever leaves a star

REPORTER

And as dawn breaks over the murder house, Norma Desmond, famed star of yesteryear,

is in a state of complete mental shock.

NORMA

This was dawn...

I don't know why I'm frightened...

Silent music starts to play!

Happy New Year, Darling...

If you're with me, next year will be,

Next year will be...

They bring in his head on a silver tray!

She kisses his mouth!

She kisses his mouth!

...Mad about the boy...

They'll say Norma's back at last!

MAX

Madame, the cameras have arrived.

NORMA

Max! Where am I?

MAX

This is the staircase of the palace. And they're waiting for your dance.

NORMA

Of course. Now I remember. I was so frightened I might fall...

MAX

You are the greatest star of all!

Lights! Cameras! Action!

NORMA

When he scorned me I

Knew he'd have to die

Let me kiss his severed head

Compromise or death

He fought to his last death

He never had in him to surrender

Just like me, he never could

Surrender

NORMA

I can't go on with the scene! I'm too happy!

May I say a few words, Mister DeMille?

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to back in this studio making a picture.

I promise you - I will never desert you again. This is my life.

It always will be. There's nothing else. Just us. And the cameras.

And all you wonderful people, out there in the dark.

And now, Mister DeMille, I am ready for my close-up

NORMA

This time I'm staying

I'm staying for good

I'll be back where I was born to be

With one look I'll be me