One of the greatest films of all time, it is one of the 1st films entered in the “United States Library of Congress’ National Film Registry” in 1989.

Critically successful and moderately commercially successful in major cities on release, it won 3 Academy Awards which included Best Story and Screenplay, while it was nominated for a total of 11 which significantly included all 4 of the major acting awards.

Roger Ebert positively reviewed the film, considered it to be one of the all time Great Movies and claimed that Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond was “one of the all time greatest performances” and that the film is “the best drama ever made about the movies”.

Richard Corliss characterised the film in 1974 as “the definitive Hollywood horror movie”, in that everything in the script is “ghoulish”, from the dead man’s narration to the protagonist’s mistaken identity as an undertaker to the ”old, dark house that only opens its doors to the living dead” and that certain characters and performances are comparable to horror legends – with Norma similar to Dracula and her ex-husband/butler, Max, similar to Erik from The Phantom of the Opera.

Today, the film is positively reviewed by 98% of Critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus describing it as “the greatest movie about Hollywood” and a “masterpiece.. (with) a tremendously entertaining combination of noir, black comedy and character study.” American Film Institute selected the film for its ”100 Best American Films” ranking in 1998 with it at #12 and also for their “10th Anniversary List” in 2007 with it at #16.