All About Eve (film)

• Release Date: 1950
• Director(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Writer(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Principal Actors and Roles: Anne Baxter (Eve Harrington); Bette Davis (Margo Channing); Bette Davis (Margo Channing); Celeste Holm (Karen Richards); George Sanders (Addison DeWitt); Gary Merrill (Bill Simpson); Marilyn Monroe (Miss Casswell); Marilyn Monroe (Miss Casswell); Gregory Ratoff (Max Fabian); Thelma Ritter (Birdie)
• Book / Story Film Based On: The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr

All About Eve is a classic 1950 film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a successful but aging Broadway actress whose career and personal life are threatened by an acolyte, Eve Harrington. Played by Ann Baxter, Harrington ingratiates herself with Channing and tries to upend her employer’s life. The film was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards—only James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) has received that many nominations—and won six, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. One of Hollywood’s most universally admired films, it also helped launch the career of Marilyn Monroe, who had a small role in it.

Plot

The film opens as Harrington is about to receive a prestigious acting award. In voice-over, a droll and witty columnist named Addison DeWitt tells the viewer that he is going to explain how Harrington rose to prominence as an actress so quickly. DeWitt also promises to explain "all about Eve"—hence the film’s title.

The film then flashes back to a year earlier, when Harrington first entered Channing’s inner circle. DeWitt is already a member of that circle, which also includes Channing’s boyfriend, Bill Sampson; a playwright, Lloyd Richards; Lloyd’s wife Karen; and Channing’s maid, Birdie. Harrington claims to be Channing’s most adoring fan. Harrington also claims that she grew up poor and that her husband was killed in World War II. Channing takes pity on the woman, and soon Harrington has been hired to be the actress’s assistant. Eventually, however, Harrington reveals her true motive, which is to supplant Channing as a Broadway star.

After Harrington becomes Channing’s understudy in a play, she manipulates Karen into helping her arrange for Channing to miss a performance. Harrington invites a group of prominent critics to that performance, and they shower her with praise. Harrington also tries to steal Sampson away from Channing and Lloyd from Karen. Both efforts are unsuccessful, and DeWitt and Karen develop suspicions about the story Harrington told when speaking of her early life. Upon investigation, they learn that her name is actually Gertrude Slojinski, that she was never married, and that she was forced to leave her hometown after she had had an affair with her married boss.

DeWitt has a sardonic view of human nature and sees Harrington as a kindred spirit. He confronts her with what he has learned about her background, then claims ownership of her.

The action then returns to the present. Harrington receives her award. In her acceptance speech, she thanks Channing, Sampson, and the Richards, who now realize the full extent of her coldness and manipulation.

When Harrington returns home, an ingénue who calls herself Phoebe begins to ingratiate herself into the new star’s life in exactly the same way that the now famous actress had infiltrated Channing’s inner circle earlier. The ingénue poses with Harrington’s award in front of a mirror. Clearly, Phoebe is taken with herself and imagines herself as a future Broadway star. The mirror has multiple planes. Her image appears in each of them as the film ends.

Significance

All About Eve is widely admired as one of Hollywood’s most witty and sophisticated films. In addition to Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, both of whom received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, the cast includes George Sanders as DeWitt, Hugh Marlowe as Lloyd, Celeste Holm as Lloyd’s wife Karen, and Thelma Ritter as Birdie. Holm and Ritter also received nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and All About Eve is the only film in history for which four actresses received nominations.

Although all of the performers are outstanding, the one most frequently singled out for praise is Bette Davis. As Channing, Davis gives what is generally considered to be her finest performance in a long and successful career. Davis endows Channing with vulnerability, capturing her fear of aging as she recognizes the effect that it will most likely have on her career. Channing becomes jealous when she senses Harrington’s attraction to Sampson. At his birthday party, she prepares to assert herself against the aggressive younger woman. Imbibing heavily, she utters the film’s most famous line: "Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night."

Marilyn Monroe has a small but memorable role in the film as an aspiring actress who lacks Harrington’s cunning. Monroe was relatively unknown at the time, but this brief appearance helped advance her career.

The film is thematically complex, but Mankiewicz seems most interested in using his scathing depiction of the Broadway theatrical scene to explore questions having to do with ambition and deception. One of the most fascinating questions is why it took so long for Channing and her friends to discover Eve’s narcissism and manipulation. The answer might be obvious if they were naïve or unsophisticated, but Mankiewicz attributes their blindness to Harrington’s craftiness as well as their own inevitable and human limitations. Mankiewicz also clearly regards the character traits that propel Harrington’s rise to fame as being endemic to human nature, reflected in the ironic ending, which suggests that she will become the next victim in a never-ending cycle.

All About Eve is ranked sixteenth on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 greatest films. It has had a wide influence on popular culture and is referenced in various media, including television. Among the series that pay homage to it are The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons. Although the film was released more than sixty years ago, audiences still respond to its sophisticated storytelling, and it seems certain that the film’s popularity will endure.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1950) Best Sound Recording
• Golden Globe (1950) Best Screenplay
• Academy Award (1950) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1950) Best Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Academy Award (1950) Best Supporting Actor (): George Sanders
• Academy Award (1950) Best Screenplay (Adapted): Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Academy Award (1950) Best Costume Design (Black-and-White): Charles Le Maire, Edith Head

Nominated

• Academy Award (1950) Best Art Direction
• Academy Award (1950) Best Cinematography
• Academy Award (1950) Best Film Editing
• Academy Award (1950) Best Music
• Academy Award (1950) Best Actress: Anne Baxter, Bette Davis, Bette Davis
• Academy Award (1950) Best Actress (): Anne Baxter, Bette Davis, Bette Davis
• Academy Award (1950) Best Supporting Actress: Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter

Bibliography

"All About Eve (1950)." Filmsite Movie Review. American Movie Classics Company, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

Crowther, Bosley. "All About Eve." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 14 Oct. 1950. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

Dauth, Brian, ed. Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers). Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2008.

Ebert, Roger. "All About Eve." RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital, 11 June 2000. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

Lower, Cheryl Bray, and R. Barton Palmer. Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Critical Essays with an Annotated Bibliography and a Filmography. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014.

Schickel, Richard, and George Perry. Bette Davis: Bigger Than Life. New York: Running Press, 2009.

Staggs, Sam. All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made! New York: St. Martin’s, 2001.