All About Eve

It’s hard to imagine a more conniving woman on stage or screen than that of Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). She slips in, looking as innocent as can be, and slowly manipulates and schemes her way into getting what she wants and it doesn’t matter who she steps on to get there. The character of Eve originally came from an anecdote by actress Elisabeth Bergner about “the terrible girl,” a young fan she allowed to become part of her household only to have her attempt to undermine her. Elisabeth told this anecdote to fellow actress Mary Orr who used it for the basis of her short story The Wisdom of Eve. In the story version, Orr makes the girl even more sinister and ruthless, conniving to steal the older actress’s career and the husband of the female narrator. This story was then optioned for a radio adaptation and later became the Best Picture Academy Award winner for 1950 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time.

The story follows two women. The first is broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis), a star of the stage who has just turned 40 and worries what her advancing age will mean for her career. After her latest performance she is in her dressing room when her friend, and wife of the play’s author, Karen (Celeste Holm) brings in a shy young woman named Eve Harrington who has seen every single performance of the play just to see her idol Margo acting. Eve shares with the aged star her story about being widowed when her husband fought in the war and how seeing Margo on stage back in San Francisco inspired her to meet the actress in person. Margo is moved by her story and invites the younger woman into her home to be her assistant. Eve quickly manipulates her way into Margo’s life acting as both her assistant and her adoring fan. Margo’s relationship with Bill (Gary Merrill) further cements her feelings of aging as he is several years her junior. When Eve takes the initiative of sending him birthday wishes on Margo’s behalf when she forgets, this exposes Margo for forgetting the event. On top of that, Eve sent her own birthday wishes, irritating Margo.

Margo’s frustrations with Eve intensify when she catches her posing in front  of a mirror holding one of Margo’s costumes in front of herself. She suggests that Eve be hired by her producer for an office position but he casts her as Margo’s understudy instead without telling her. On her way to the theater, Margo, Karen and Karen’s husband Lloyd (Hugh Marlowe) run out of fuel in their car despite being fueled up the previous day. This causes them to miss the performance and Eve going on stage instead. Eve invites the city’s theater critics to the performance including the acerbic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders), whom she met earlier. Addison finds her intriguing and invites her to dinner while mining her for an article he is writing that is designed to incense Margo. He also sees right through Eve and bristles at how she thinks he is as gullible as everyone else around her.

What makes Eve such a wonderful, nasty villainous character is just how good she is at appearing innocent and incapable of malice…at first. Her sob story in the opening scene is a convincing one that all but Margo’s assistant Birdie takes at face value. She looks like the perfect wide-eyed fan meeting her matinee idol for the first time and plays that role to a hilt. She’s catching Margo at the perfect time, too, when she is at her most vulnerable and gullible. The aging actress is feeling her age creeping up on her and relishes in the adoration Eve is throwing at her. This phony façade only slips briefly when Eve interrupts Margo and Bill at the airport as he’s flying out to California, just before the two can kiss goodbye. It could be an accident but it’s quite obviously not. 

At first it feels like Eve is just a little too eager to please and that Margo is being too waspish when she finds out Eve is her new understudy. That’s the position Karen takes at first, even going as far as contriving the situation that leaves Margo unable to make it to her performance setting up Eve to perform instead. Eventually even Karen will start to see the manipulation going on. Bill does, too, when Eve tries to seduce him away from Margo. He has worked with actresses for a long time and sees through her little act. He and Margo announce their engagement instead, putting a damper in Eve’s plans. 

She shifts gears and confesses to Addison that she will get Lloyd away from Karen so he can write parts for her, instead, despite all the help Karen has been for her career. This leads to perhaps the best scene of the entire film. Addison DeWitt comes to her room and confronts her with everything he knows about her, all her little lies and secrets that he has dug up. Her fictional persona is all exposed and she bursts into tears, upset that she has been found out. It is a brutal personal takedown and one a long time coming. Anne Baxter was nominated for the Oscar for this role but so was Bette Davis. With the two leads splitting the vote neither ended up taking home the statue. It’s unfortunate because both women were deserving for this.

The film ends on the same note it began on. Eve, after giving the performance of her life - not on the stage but in front of a group of admirers, as well as those she has trampled on to get there, presenting her with an award. Afterwards, tired and preparing to leave for Hollywood and the beginnings of a movie career, she comes face to face with another young girl who just adores her. This girl, purportedly another one just like herself, immediately starts manipulating the situation and ends the movie by holding one of Eve’s dresses in front of herself in the mirror. What comes around goes around. 

This film is an acting tour de force. Not only did Bette Davis and Anne Baxter compete for the Oscar, so too did Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for the supporting actress award. George Sanders was the sole actor nominated for this film and thus was the only one to win an Oscar for it. It’s really no surprise how many acting nominations came out of this film. There isn’t a false note amongst the leads and Davis and Baxter are both particularly good. But it’s not just the acting that makes All About Eve so great. This is a carefully crafted story with thematic elements that pitted the stage against Hollywood and tackled the subject of the aging actress effectively. It drew comparisons to another 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard, that also took a hard look at actresses aging out of their careers. Sadly things haven’t changed much since then and a lot of actresses struggle to find work later in life. 

All About Eve is a near perfect example of a film that manages to be both entertaining and thought provoking. It also merits repeat viewings so that little clues early on can be picked up, identified and understood. Eve drops little hints to her deceitful nature right there in the opening scene yet those clues are easily missed on the first viewing. New things are picked up on each viewing and enrich the entire experience. When Addison is quizzing Eve on her past it is obvious what he is doing but the little clues he ascertains from that conversation have further meaning when you already know the later revelations. It is a well written, taught screenplay with so many layers that it takes those repeat viewings to peel them all back and expose all that Eve has done. This makes it one of the greatest films of all time and an acting showcase for the two leads, both of whom are at the absolute top of their game.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Motion Picture: Darryl F. Zanuck (won)

Best Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (won)

Best Actress: Bette Davis

Best Actress: Anne Baxter

Best Supporting Actor: George Sanders (won)

Best Supporting Actress: Celeste Holm

Best Supporting Actress: Thelma Ritter

Best Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (won)

Best Art Direction - Set Decoration - Black and White: Lyle R. Wheeler, George Davis, Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott

Best Cinematography - Black and White: Milton R. Krasner

Best Costume Design - Black and White: Edith Head 

and Charles LeMaire (won)

Best Film Editing: Barbara McLean

Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Alfred Newman

Best Sound Recording: Thomas T. Moulton (won)

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Release Date: October 13, 1950

Running Time: 138 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, 

Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, and Walter Hampden

Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz