All About Eve (1950)

20th Century-Fox
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm

Honors:
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Director
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Black and White)
Academy Award for Best Sound Recording
BAFTA for Best Film
New York Film Critics Circle- Best Film
#16 on AFI Top 100 (1998)
#28 on AFI Top 100 (2007)
National Film Registry

Considered to be one of the greatest motion pictures depicting show business All About Eve sits amongst the pantheon of American cinema for its writing, acting, place in history, and all-around production value. Capturing the cutthroat competitive nature of the business with sophistication and sardonic humor about mature relationships while suggesting more profound rooted meanings the picture resonated with critics and audiences leading to near universally praise. In a year that also witnessed Sunset Boulevard premiering a mere two months before hand, this feature would critically take the cinematic world by storm duly noted by its record number of Academy Award nominations.

 

All About Eve is a drama of an aging star Broadway actress and the young assistant who uses her to achieve her own ambitions. It all begins when Margo Channing (Bette Davis), one of Broadway’s prominent name actresses, is introduced to Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), a young adoring fan, and out of sympathy hires her as an assistant. Performing her tasks dutifully Eve serves the middle-aged star actress at the point in Margo’s career where she is aging out of younger leading roles towards a foreseen transitional period as an performer. Having entangled herself into Margo’s theatrical inner circle Eve begins to manipulate Margo’s life with aspirations to eventually occupying her status as the leading star of the stage. Only cunning theatrical critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) is able to piece together Eve’s plans and uncovers her back story as a con artist, choosing to blackmail her for his own will. The film is bookended with Eve having attained her status being awarded the greatest prize for any stage actress with plans for Hollywood with all those she manipulated in Margo’s life detesting her for how they were used. Secretly Eve is unable to find joy in her ascension, poetically meeting and hiring her own young fan, Phoebe (Barbara Bates), who dreams of becoming an actress acting in a similar manner when she first met Margo.

 

Perfect performances by veteran actress Bette Davis from Hollywood’s old guard and the rising young star in Anne Baxter as the unassuming antagonist along with a wonderful supporting cast and a fine script come together into an all-time great motion picture. Captured is the drama and plight of show business and the delicately fragile nature in which it operates with its leading ladies, creating a compelling story beautifully constructed in a serendipitous manner. With moments of sharp dialogue, dream casting that proved ever better with the passage of time, and simply a captivating production, this film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz is easily observed as one of the great American works of cinema.

 

The film’s script came from an story idea of Mankiewicz’s about an aging actress which he expanded upon with acquiring the rights to a story originally published in Cosmopolitan entitled “The Wisdom of Eve.” Maneuvering ideas and characters from the short story Mankiewicz add further drama to the plot, but the best change came from notes of producer Darryl Zanuck that had Eve be far more unassuming at the onset of the story, generating the drama as it is revealed Eve is a conspirator. Not only do we get the show business story, but a compelling drama where the sweet lady at the opening of the picture is the true villain by its close.

 

Casting was an absolute dream for All About Eve, but not by design. Susan Hayward was long intended to portray Margo Channing in Mankiewicz’s mind, but Zanuck would veto the idea, deeming her too young for such a role. After considerations of such older Hollywood names as Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwych, and Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis was hired coming off a series of disastrous pictures that made many in Hollywood consider her possible poison for any project. Davis adored the script, considering it the best she ever read when she accepted the role, which turned out to revitalize her entire career in the form of an Oscar nominated performance and an on-screen image she would be best remembered.

 

Davis may have won the Academy Award that year if not for her co-star Anne Baxter who too was nominated for the same category which perhaps split the votes for the two. Baxter was brought aboard when Claudette Colbert was attached to the project and Baxter shares similar features to Colbert. The idea of growing physical similarities as the picture moved forward was a planned device to add to the drama. The unassuming portrayal of Baxter was the key to her role as Eve which would unveil into the more conspiring character that we discover her to be. Her performance, said to be inspired by an old understudy Baxter once worked with on the stage, elevated her ability to hide the antagonist of the picture to good degree, slowly revealing as other characters discover what Eve is doing.

 

Eve begins as such a sweet character that when Margo’s stage assistant Birdie, played by character actress Thelma Ritter, takes an instant dislike to Eve it is off-putting. Eve pushes her way into Margo’s relationship with her boyfriend Bill Sampson, portrayed by Gary Merrill who fell in love with Davis on set and eventually married. She manipulates one of Margo’s best friends in Karen, played Celeste Holm, to get her Margo to miss a performance so that Eve can perform as her understudy creating her big break on stage. She even gets revered critic Addison DeWitt, played wonderfully by George Sanders with a fresh-faced Marylyn Monroe as his arm candy for a number of scenes, to write a favorable review of her, but this proves to be her undoing as DeWitt is as cunning as she is.

 

The relationship between Eve and DeWitt would come to have an underlying connection for a certain portion of quiet viewers over the years. Eve is obviously the manipulating young lady that uses her beauty and appeal to attempt to seduce the men that could help her get to where she wants to go. The fact that she is never seen attracted by men belays the idea that the character is homosexual. So too is seen in DeWitt that although he shares company with a stunningly beautiful, albeit not too sharp blond in Monroe, he is more amused by women’s use of beauty to manipulate than be manipulated himself, pointing to an underlying homosexual character that can see through Eve’s ruse. These characters and their causal homosexual connotations, as well as the glorious over-the-top “bitchy” portrayal of Margo Channing character have lent to connection with movie fans in homosexual communities in the years that followed.

 

All About Eve premiered to overwhelming positive reviews, taking in good box office receipts while being critically acclaimed all over the entertainment world. Its similarities in theme would see it commonly compared to Sunset Boulevard as both films competed for 1950 honors that award season. Perhaps it was because of Sunset Boulevard’s focus on the negativity of Hollywood that gained All About Eve more award attention as All About Eve took home top honors at the Academy Awards while being nominated a record number 14 times, a mark unmatched for 47 years and continues to be the most nominations for one film. Four different actress received nominations for their performances, while Sanders received the statue for Best Supporting Actor. The big winner though proved to be Joseph Mankiewicz winning Best Screenplay, Best Director, and seeing his project take home the year’s top prize.

 

The Legacy of All About Eve continues as it is still seen as one of the greatest films about show business with its drama with all of its sharp dialogue and wonderful writing. Since its release it has been considered one of the finest American films ever made and to this day remains on many top lists stating such. Its finest achievement is perhaps its timing. The film brought Bette Davis back to the top of the acting world by revitalizing her career and image, praised George Sanders for his smooth performance, introduced briefly many to Marilyn Monroe before she became a sex symbol, and left a film that delivers a sense of agelessness. People continue to watch and study the picture to this day for its writing, acting, and structure making it an all-time cherished film, revered as one of the best.