All About Eve (1950) - film review

The night Eve Harrington wins her award for the best stage actress of the year, the people who unwittingly brought about her success reflect on her meteoric rise to fame.  It seems only yesterday that Karen Richards, wife of the famous playwright Lloyd Richards, befriended the unknown Eve Harrington, who had been hanging around theatre exits, anxious to catch a glimpse of her idol, Margo Channing.  Taking pity on Eve, Karen introduces her to Margo, who is so moved by Eve’s story that she engages her as her personal assistant.  Neither Karen nor Margo have reckoned with Eve’s ambition and cunning. By inveigling her way into their lives, Eve ruthlessly sets about dethroning Margo, first by becoming her understudy, and then by persuading Lloyd Richards that she is far a better choice than Margo to play the leading role in his next play...

Quite possibly the best satirical treatment of the venomous, ego-saturated world of show business is this enduring Hollywood classic from acclaimed film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz.  All about Eve is the film in which the redoubtable Bette Davis gives the performance of her career, as she faces up to a formidable adversary, in the guise of Anne Baxter, in one of cinema’s most memorable, and most enjoyably vicious, cat fights.  (Those polished teeth and razor-sharp fingernails aren’t just for show, you know.)   Based on a short story, "The Wisdom of Eve", by Mary Orr, the film shows us the unseen, nastier side of Broadway – the backstage backbiting and Machiavellian scheming upon which so many careers are made and broken.  It could equally be about the American film industry, where similar practices were (and still are) pretty rife, as is made apparent in Mankiewicz’s later film, The Barefoot Contessa (1954).

All about Eve has everything you could possibly expect in a Hollywood classic, and then several crate-loads more just for the Hell of it.  Slick direction, a pacy narrative, superlative attention-grabbing performances, stylish cinematography and art design, and an absolutely brilliant screenplay by Mankiewicz, which includes such memorable one-liners as Bette Davis’s: "Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy night".  Whilst the charismatic duo Bette Davis and Anne Baxter dominate the film – Baxter’s sham ingenue innocence perfectly complementing Davis’s overly self-conscious middle-aged vamp – it is still possible to appreciate the contributions from their co-stars – particularly Georges Sanders, Celeste Holm and Gary Merrill (the latter of whom Bette Davis married soon after making this film).  The then virtually unknown Marilyn Monroe also appears in a small but hard to miss supporting role.

An instant hit with the public, All about Eve also proved to be an immense critical success, and its reputation as one of the triumphs of Hollywood still holds good today.  It was nominated for 14 Oscars, of which it won six, in the following categories:  Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Georges Sanders), Best Costume Design (B&W) and Best Sound Recording.  Bette Davis was cruelly deprived of the Best Actress award, thanks largely to Anne Baxter’s insistence on being nominated in the same category rather than for the Supporting Actress Award.  As things went, the Best Actress award that year went to newcomer Judy Holliday for her part in Born Yesterday, beating not just Bette Davis but also Gloria Swanson for her legendary performance in Sunset Boulevard.  To quote Margo Channing, "Funny business, a woman’s career..."

© James Travers 2008

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