All About Eve (1950)

"The dialogue is scintillating, characters...extraordinary, direction...perfect and production as fine as anything [Fox] has turned out.  Variety
"One of the smartest pictures of all time...a picture for any era.  Los Angeles Times
"Brilliantly sophisticated... witty dialogue to spare...  Leonard Maltin
"No other movie makes being smart and cynical look like more fun.  Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene
"Brilliantly sophisticated...witty dialogue to spare...  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...to be savoured for its language, performances, psychological insights and proof that all the world's a stage.  Philip French, The Observer
"...a realistic, dramatic depiction of show business and backstage life of Broadway and the New York theater.  Tim Dirks, The Greatest Films

Editor's Note Given that she throws tantrums, gets intoxicated, and pushes people away when she needs them the most, it's a wonder New York theater star Margo Channing has any true friends. But when Eve Harrington, Margo's young and innocent-seeming protégée, schemes to gain both the affection of Margo's friends and a starring role originally written for Margo, the actress discovers just who is in her corner--and who is not. Released in 1950, ALL ABOUT EVE's power radiates undimmed through the years. The role of aging stage star Margo Channing is considered by many to be the best of Bette Davis's career, as Davis reveals and conceals Margo's vulnerabilities with a skill seldom seen onscreen. Anne Baxter is also marvelous as the subtle Eve, whose glowing enthusiasm masks a cold, calculated ambition. Both actresses garnered Best Actress Oscar nominations, and the film in its entirety took 14 nominations, winning seven of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. George Sanders was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his biting portrayal of potent, nasty theater critic Addison DeWitt. Consistently listed among the best films of all time, director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE shouldn't be missed; the acting, writing, and directing are unequivocally brilliant.

	Anne Baxter
	Bette Davis
	Celeste Holm
	Gary Merrill
	George Sanders
	Hugh Marlowe
	Marilyn Monroe
	Thelma Ritter
	Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Director
	Darryl F. Zanuck - Producer
	Joseph L. Mankeiwicz - Screenplay
	Alfred Newman - Original Music By
	Barbara McLean - Editor
	George W. Davis - Art Director
	Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Screenplay
	Lyle R. Wheeler - Art Director
	Mary Orr - Based On Story By
	Milton R. Krasner - Cinematographer

An unforgettable, acerbic look behind the scenes of New York theater, ALL ABOUT EVE depicts the glory days, even as it reveals its denizens' naked ambition as they stand always-in-the-ready to topple the current talent and step into the limelight. Bette Davis mesmerizes as Margo Channing, leading dame of the New York stage until she is pushed aside by a fresh-faced fan who becomes her understudy, the duplicitous Eve (Anne Baxter). Eve's humble background and eager innocence fools all while she subtly digs in her claws, tearing Margo from her friends and colleagues as she desperately grasps her chance for stardom. Wit and sarcasm, though touched with pathos, reign supreme as the determined diva and diva-in-training duke it out. George Sanders as the viperish theater columnist is oily perfection, winning an Oscar for his portrayal. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Director and Best Screenplay prizes for director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Both Davis and Baxter were nominated for Best Actress Oscars for their superb|performances.

"Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night."----Margo Channing (Bette Davis).

"That's all television is, dear----just auditions."----Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) to Miss Casswell (Marilyn Monroe)

"That I should want you at all suddenly strikes me as the height of improbability... you're an improbable person, Eve, but so am I. We have that in common. Also a contempt for humanity, an inability to love or be loved, insatiable ambition----and talent. We deserve each other." ----DeWitt to Eve (Anne Baxter)

"The bed looks like a dead animal act."----Birdie (Thelma Ritter)| |"What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end!"----Birdie

"I have lived in the theater as a Trappist monk lives in his faith. In it I toil not, nor do I spin. I am a critic and a commentator. I am essential to the theater----as ants to a picnic, as the boll weevil to a cotton field."----DeWitt

"Everybody has a heart----except for some people."----Channing

Entertainment Weekly
"...One of Hollywood's ultimate valentines to the Great White Way --...a valentine laced with poison..." -- Rating: A 05/12/1995 pp.68-70

Chicago Sun-Times
"...Davis was a character, an icon with a grand style..." 01/19/2001 p.32

Entertainment Weekly
"...Line for quotable line, quite simply the best-written Hollywood movie ever..." 01/24/2003 p.80

Premiere
"This acid-tongued grande dame of the theatah gave us our first glimpse of malignant narcissism and neediness run amok..." 04/01/2004 p.71

Uncut
"[I]t's witty, literate, cruel, devastating." 05/01/2005 p.139

Sight and Sound
"It's hard to think of a more celebrated backstage drama in Hollywood history, and the script bristles with acerbic wit." 04/01/2006 p.86

Empire
5 stars out of 5 -- "[R]ousing and endlessly amusing....Acutely relevant in these days of transient celebrity." 12/01/2007 p.93

Nashville Scene 10 of 10
...All About Eve isn't just a great movie about the theater, it's a great movie about talent. Talent has nothing to do with being a nice person; if it did, Celeste Holm's long-suffering wife would be center stage, not catty Margo Channing. Even if you've seen All About Eve a dozen times, there's always something new to catch in Mankiewicz's sumptuous, spiked plum pudding of a script... No other movie makes being smart and cynical look like more fun. - Jim Ridley

Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 10 of 10
Brilliantly sophisticated (and cynical) look at life in and around the theater, with a heaven-sent script by director Mankiewicz... Davis is absolutely perfect as an aging star who takes in an adoring fan (Baxter) and soon discovers that the young woman is taking over her life. Witty dialogue to spare, especially great when spoken by Sanders and Ritter. - Leonard Maltin

ReelViews 10 of 10
All About Eve possesses one of the best screenplays ever to grace the silver screen. It also has one of the best performances by an actress in the history of Hollywood features...For a number of reasons, some intentional and some coincidental, All About Eve stands out as one of the best small-scale dramas ever produced under the Hollywood system. In fact, the movie relies so strongly on dialogue and has such a limited number of sets, that it could easily be mistaken for a movie adaptation of a stage play. The fact that the film deals with the behind-the-scenes goings-on in theater serves only to strengthen this erroneous assumption...For nearly everyone involved in All About Eve (Marilyn Monroe excepted), this movie represented a career pinnacle. Mankiewicz never came close to attaining this level again, and, while this was far from the final hurrah for Bette Davis, it was her last truly great role. However, considering how few people in Hollywood have been involved in a production this good, it's no shame to say they never again attained this kind of success. All About Eve is one of the '50s gems -- a worthy holder of the 1951 Best Picture Oscar and a motion picture that, because of its priceless dialogue and unforgettable lead performance, will never lose its luster. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
Growing older was a smart career move for Bette Davis, whose personality was adult, hard-edged and knowing. Never entirely comfortable as an ingenue, she was glorious as a professional woman, a survivor, or a bitchy predator. Her veteran actress Margo Channing in "All About Eve" (1950) was her greatest role; it seems to show her defeated by the wiles of a younger actress, but in fact marks a victory: the triumph of personality and will over the superficial power of beauty. She never played a more autobiographical role...The movie's strength and weakness is Anne Baxter, whose Eve lacks the presence to be a plausible rival to Margo, but is convincing as the scheming fan. When Eve understudies for Margo and gets great reviews, Mankiewicz wisely never shows us her performance; better to imagine it, and focus on the girl whose look is a little too intense, whose eyes a little too focused, whose modesty is somehow suspect...Mankiewicz (1909-1993) came from a family of writers; his brother Herman wrote "Citizen Kane." He won back-to-back Oscars for writing and directing "A Letter to Three Wives" in 1949 and "All About Eve" in 1950, and is also remembered for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947), "The Barefoot Contessa" (1954) and "Guys and Dolls" (1955). He remained sharp-tongued all of his days. - Roger Ebert