All About Eve is the consummate backstage story, a film that exposes all the egos, tempers, conspiracies and backstage back-biting that make up the world of Broadway. The screenplay, written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also directed, may be the wittiest ever to come out of Hollywood, and it is stylishly performed at a breakneck pace by a uniformly expert cast. Eve is a once in a lifetime film experience. When you watch, you want to pay close attention so as to not miss a single line.

"You're not much of a bargain, ya know.
You're conceited and thoughtless and messy."


Based on the story "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr, All About Eve is an elegantly bitchy backstage story revolving around aspiring actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Tattered and forlorn, Eve shows up in the dressing room of Broadway mega-star Margo Channing (Bette Davis), weaving a melancholy life story to Margo and her friends. Taking pity on the girl, Margo takes Eve under her wing and tries to help her get ahead in show business.

"I don't think that's funny!"


Before long it is obvious that the seemingly sweet and naive Ms. Harrington has her own selfish agenda. We see her cold-bloodedly using Margot, her director Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe) and Lloyd's wife Karen (Celeste Holm), and the poison-tongued critic Addison De Witt (George Sanders) to rise to the top of the theatrical heap. Eve feverishly works everyone around her to land the lead role on Lloyd's new play, which has of course been promised to Margo. Fate has it that Eve plays the part when Margo refuses it in favor of marriage with faithful Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill).

"Fasten your seatbelts.
It's going to be a bumpy night!"


Eve achieves her goal, but at the price of becoming the mistress of Addison De Witt, who has seen through her charade from the beginning. In the film's climax, Eve Harrington, fresh from winning the coveted Sarah Siddons award, finds a breathless young fan (Barbara Bates) in her dressing room. Flattered by the fan's attention, Eve allows the girl to stick around for awhile; when Eve leaves the room, the girl picks up the award... and, with a familiar glint in her eye, poses before a mirror, acknowledging imaginary applause.

"I hate men!"


Also appearing in All About Eve is Marilyn Monroe as a so-called actress, introduced by Addison De Witt as "a graduate of the Copacabana school of dramatic art." This is but one of the hundreds of unforgettable Eve lines penned by writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. There are so may vivid and well-crafted scenes in this film, but my favorite is the scene when Margo arrives late for Marilyn Monroe's audition to find that her new understudy, Eve, has read Margo's lines, and has bowled everyone over with her performance. Davis jumps out of the screen at you, making every second crackle with intensity. This is what acting is all about.

"As it happens, there are particular aspects of my life to which
I would like to maintain sole and exclusive rights and privileges!"


All About Eve was the recipient of six Academy Awards, including the "best picture" prize. Bette Davis won the part of vain, temperamental Margo Channing by default when Claudette Colbert, who Mankiewicz had specifically in mind for the part, sustained a serious back injury. It is hard now, to imagine anyone else playing the part. This role single-handedly revived Davis' career after recently having left Warner Brothers, and wondering aimlessly with her future uncertain.

Though Mankiewicz and Davis always claimed the character was based on Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner, Davis enacted her role as a mirror twin of then-fabled Broadway rival Tallulah Bankhead, thus fanning the flames of an already existing feud. Anne Baxter almost matches Davis in her silky, dangerous portrayal of Eve. The two women were in competition with each other come Oscar time having both been nominated for Best Actress.





These two are supported by a dream cast, including Gary Merrill (whom Davis would fall in love with during filming and later marry), George Sanders (as a poisonous critic), the biting Thelma Ritter, Celeste Holm, and a young Marilyn Monroe as a cynical, dreamy starlet. EVE won six Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Sanders), Costume Design (Edith Head), and Sound Recording. It also was nominated for Cinematography, Art Direction, Score, Editing, and Supporting Actress (Holm and Ritter).





Although she was most deserving to win of all the nominees, in my opinion, Bette Davis was doomed to lose the Best Actress Oscar, being canceled out by Baxter's shared nomination, and by Gloria Swanson's nomination for her portrayal of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Strangely, they all lost to rookie Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. The musical Applause, a Broadway success with Lauren Bacall, and later Anne Baxter (who had the opportunity to play the part of Margo Channing), was based on All About Eve.