All About Eve

  Here we are on the fifth Monday of the month, which means that we’re stepping out of the horror lane to discuss a different genre. This week we’re discussing the 1950 show biz comedy All About Eve.

All About Eve was written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (The Philadelphia Story) and based on the short story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr (Diamonds in the Sky). All About Eve was made on a budget of $1.4 million and grossed $8.4 million. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews and was nominated for fourteen academy awards, winning six.

All About Eve is the story of Margo Channing (Bette Davis, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?), a beloved and talented actress who meets her biggest fan, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter, The Razor’s Edge). She takes in Eve as her protégé, but Eve soon takes over every aspect of Margo’s life, using her to rise to fame.

All About Eve is a nearly perfect film. The cast is uniformly excellent, Davis is (no surprise) a powerhouse and Baxter layers Eve with a surface naivete that masks a calculating interior. The rest of the ensemble cast more than holds their own against these two powerhouses. 

The true star of All About Eve is Mankiewicz’s screenplay. It’s breezy, witty, and full of hilarious one-liners while providing a biting satire of stardom and show business. The likes of Heathers, Clueless, and Mean Girls will all find some All About Eve in their DNA.

All About Eve also features one of the most iconic endings in film history. Due to the Hays Code, which was in full force at the time, Eve’s treachery couldn’t be left unpunished at the end (she gets away with everything in the short story). While I generally detest “Hays-Code-endings”, Mankiewicz wisely ends the film by introducing Phoebe (Barbara Bates, It’s A Great Life) and implying that Eve will suffer the same inginities from her that she inflicted on Margo. It’s a poetic end and the final shot of Phoebe posing with Eve’s award in the mirror is one for the ages.

All About Eve is excellent. It’s funny and insightful and just a great time. If you’ve never seen it, you really need to check it out. If you have seen it, maybe it’s time for a rewatch. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Rating: 5 touchy wardrobe women out of 5

Other Observations:

• Does the Dog Die? No!

• Harrison’s Favorite Zinger: “All playwrights should be dead for 300 years!”

• Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot) shows up in one of her first film roles. Fun!

Next Week: We’re visiting my favorite X-Men movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.