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| Eve (Anne Baxter) is the perfect assistant to actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis) - maybe a little too perfect. |
Release Date: Oct. 13, 1950. Running Time: 138 minutes. Screenplay: Joseph L. Mackiewicz. Based on the short story, The Wisdom of Eve, by: Mary Orr. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
THE PLOT:
Margo Channing (Bette Davis) grew up in the theatre. She is a great stage actress and a leading star. However, she is also moving into middle age, and the already temperamental Margo is becoming insecure as a result.
Enter Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). A devoted fan, Eve has taken in every performance of Margo's latest play. This catches the eye of Margo's good-hearted friend, Karen (Celeste Holm), who finally takes Eve backstage to meet her idol. Margo is all set to dismiss the "mousy" girl. Then she hears the young woman's story, and finds herself feeling unusually protective.
Soon Eve has become Margo's assistant, organizing her inventory and appointments and making sure the actress doesn't forget things like her director fiancé (Gary Merrill)'s birthday. But Margo begins worrying that Eve has taken over a little too much of her life - and when she discovers that Eve has been made her understudy, she fears that she may lose her place to this young upstart...
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| "Fasten your seatbelts!" Bette Davis, giving one of her best performances in one of her best roles. |
BETTE DAVIS AS MARGO CHANNING:
The masterstroke of the film is that it never tries to force the audience to side with Margo. From her first appearance, she is shown to be arrogant, often rude, vain, short-tempered, and jealous. She gets drunk at her fiancé, Bill's, welcome home party, seeming intent on ruining the evening for him and everyone else, and she frequently indulges in bouts of self-pity.
Bette Davis's performance leans into Margo's faults. She laps up every moment of pettiness with relish, and at the same time downplays the character's reflective or generous scenes. It's as if she's daring us to hate her - and somehow, this actually makes it easier to identify with her. Because she's so flawed, she ends up feeling human and alive in a way that the pleasant, soft-spoken Eve can't match.
Margo also has the one thing Eve never attains: a close circle of friends who, while they may get exasperated with her antics, remain consistently caring and supportive. More than anything else, this tips the audience off that, for all her faults, Margo is a basically good person... and the lack of such for Eve is a tipoff that, for all her surface pleasantness, she really isn't.
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| Eve is patient in the face of Margo's barbs. Very publicly patient, of course. |
OTHER CHARACTERS:
Eve Harrington: For the first two-thirds of the film, Anne Baxter's Eve is unfailingly proper. She is modest and agreeable, and very eager to take on any task available. There are only small hints that she isn't quite what she seems: glances that are held too long; a moment when she holds Margo's dress up to her and bows on an empty stage; a brief reverie at Bill's welcome home party when she muses about how the audience's applause is "like waves of love coming over the footlights and wrapping you up... Just that alone is worth anything." Still, she is hardworking and, in the face of Margo's barbs, is downright saintly in her patience... very publicly so, of course.
Addison DeWitt: George Sanders adds another cultured cad to his repertoire, and nabbed a Supporting Actor Oscar in the process, as the waspish theatre critic who recognizes Eve for exactly who she is. His voice is the first we hear in the film as he narrates the opening awards ceremony, mocking the long-winded speech that "it is not important that you hear." He views all with a jaundiced eye. When Margo throws her tantrum at Bill's party, he applauds her for being "maudlin and full of self-pity... magnificent." He gets a fantastic scene near the end, when Eve tries to turn her wiles on him, and he rebuffs each of her tactics in turn. "I am Addison DeWitt," he thunders. "I'm nobody's fool, least of all yours!"
Karen Richards: Celeste Holm picked up her second Supporting Actress Oscar as Margo's best friend, the most fundamentally decent character in the film. Karen's fatal flaw is that she seems all but unable to see the bad in people. Even after Eve's true colors are revealed, Karen remains willing to believe the young woman. She even offers to help in any way she can - and reacts as if bitten by a snake when that offer is immediately turned against her.
Birdie Coonan: Another friend of Margo's, one who was specifically added to the film because of how impressed screenwriter/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was with actress Thelma Ritter's work; he wanted to work with her, and so wrote her a part. Ritter proceeds to neatly swipe every scene she's in. She and Davis play marvelously off each other, and the friendship between the two characters - Birdie's bluntness a match for Margo's rudeness - is wonderful to watch. Unfortunately, the character's status as an "add-on" becomes apparent; she is last seen at about the 50-minute mark, with the character not so much as mentioned throughout the rest of the film.
Claudia Casswell: Speaking of scene stealers... Marilyn Monroe gets one of her breakthrough roles. It's a small part, as a young would-be actress who comes to Bill's party on Addison's arm and proceeds to sweet-talk a producer into an audition. Monroe makes the most of her scant screentime. When Addison points out the producer, she sighs, like a child complaining about a mildly unpleasant chore. "Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?" she asks. By the end of the evening, the producer is at her beck-and-call, delivering her drinks. One of Margo's tantrums delays a refill. When he apologizes, saying he forgot about the drink, Monroe manages to be simultaneously winsome and pointed when she replies, "I didn't."
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| Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) encourages an aspiring actress (Marilyn Monroe) to "be nice" to a producer. |
THOUGHTS:
It's easy to see why All About Eve was so rapturously received on release. Terrific actors bring to life a witty script, rich in sharp and funny moments. The story structure works beautifully, coming full circle both narratively and thematically. As a writer, Joseph L. Mankiewicz impresses with well-written dialogue that constantly reveals the characters. As a director, he is wise enough to avoid getting in the way of the wonderful cast he's assembled.
I've already mentioned how Margo's faults end up being what make her work as a character. Those same faults also fuel the story. Eve may be plotting to usurp her as a star, but most of the damage Margo suffers actually comes at her own hands. In fact, you could make a perfectly valid (ultimately more depressing) version of this story in which Eve is totally innocent, given that most of what she does amounts to exacerbating tensions and insecurities that were already there.
Margo's greatest source of insecurity is her age. In a moment of vulnerability, she declares: "I'm not twentyish, I am not thirtyish. Three months ago, I was forty... (and) I hadn't quite made up my mind to admit it."
It's this insecurity that harms her relationship with Bill. She's hyper-conscious that he is younger than she is. Karen tries to point out that the age difference is actually fairly slight; but in her self-pity, Margo sees that difference as a chasm. This brings out the worst in her. Eve doesn't drive a wedge between Margo and Bill; Margo's passive-aggressive attitude does.
In fact, for all of Eve's scheming, in the end Margo and her circle are closer than ever. When Eve shows her true colors and acts directly against Margo, that ends up being the catalyst for Bill and Margo repairing their relationship.
Refreshingly, this 1950 film does not end with the woman giving up her career for domestic bliss. It starts to move that direction, as Margo makes a long speech about how she's going to be a "foursquare, upright, downright, forthright married lady" with no more time for make believe... but even as she turns down the role that will ultimately go to Eve, she says she'll happily play "grown-up women" and ends the speech promising to "tour for a year." The indication is that Margo will still be around, her career maturing with her, long after Eve's bright new star has fallen.
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| Eve finds an ally in Addison - but his help comes at a price... |
REMAKES AND RETELLINGS:
All About Eve was released in the era when popular films were still often adapted for radio, and it saw two noteworthy audio versions: a Lux Radio Theatre production starring Ann Blyth and Claire Trevor, and an NBC radio play with Tallulah Bankhead - who was herself often rumored to be the inspiration for the original story's Margo.
There have also been multiple stage versions of All About Eve, which is not surprising. Just as Hollywood loves movies about movies, so does the theatre love plays about plays. Beyond that, All About Eve is heavily dialogue-driven, with long scenes taking place in only a few settings; in many ways, the script seems a better fit for the stage than for the screen.
OVERALL:
There is much to love about this movie. The script is well-written, with wonderful dialogue, and the performances are superb all-around. Bette Davis is particularly splendid, and it's easy to see why this ranks among her truly iconic roles.
For all the film's virtues, though, I have to admit: It's not ultimately a favorite of mine. It's definitely a good movie - even a very good one - but there are several stretches in which my interest wanes, particularly in the middle. It's a stagy movie, and I think it runs about 10 - 15 minutes longer than it needs to. There are moments in which it feels as if director Joseph L. Mankiewicz couldn't bring himself to cut any of writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz's many pithy witticisms.
Still, there's no denying the power of Bette Davis's central performance, and she's well-matched by an excellent all-around cast. It easily remains a film worth watching, even if I don't find that it quite meets its reputation.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Best Motion Picture - 1949: All the King's Men
Best Motion Picture - 1951: An American in Paris
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