Country: United States Language: EnglishPresented as part of Some Like It Hot: The Films of Billy WilderA Hollywood Story. Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, an aging silent-film queen, and William Holden, as the struggling young screenwriter who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen’s most memorable characters. Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder’s powerful orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic.