Tonight I watched "All About Eve" (1950), one of those movies where you say, "C'mon, Ad - how could you never have seen it before"? It's one of the most famous films ever to come out of Hollywood, winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) and Best Screenplay (Joseph L. again). It features a towering performance from Bette Davis, in fact I'd call it The Most "Bette Davis" Movie of All Time. It's the one in which she utters her most well-known line : "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night". It has an amazing cast : Davis, Ann Baxter as "Eve", Celeste Holm, George Sanders, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, and even Marilyn Monroe in a brief role when she was still an unknown.
So how could I never have seen it? I guess I have no answer for you, except to say that - as you know - there are several legendary pictures I have yet to see, "Casablanca" and "Gone With The Wind" included. But I am beginning to cross some of them off my list, and tonight I finally did watch "Eve", so we can't ask that question of me anymore, at least concerning this movie.
Before I became a fan of old movies, I used to get it mixed up with "The Three Faces of Eve", so that might have had something to do with it : "Hmmm, 'Three Faces of Eve'.......'All About Eve' - which is which? Or are they the same movie? Well, forget it. I won't watch either one of them".
It's similar to when I was a kid, and I got The Who mixed up with The Guess Who. I thought they were the same band, and that "The Who" was the nickname for The Guess Who, like Joe is short for Joseph or Ad is short for Adam.
Well anyway, "All About Eve" is a paean to acting, and to The Theatre (pronounced thee-a-tah). Bette Davis plays "Margo Channing", a popular but aging Broadway star who has just turned 40 but is still playing ingenue roles. Her favorite playwright (Marlowe) constructs his plays around Davis; they are a Hit Factory, but she is feeling the age difference between her characters and herself. As the movie opens, a fan is waiting in the wings, literally speaking. Celeste Holm, who plays Marlowe's wife, is walking toward the stage door and out steps Ann Baxter (Eve) from behind a staircase. Holm recognises her because she's attended every performance of the current play. Eve obviously wants to meet Margo Channing, but is too shy to say so. Instead she tells Holm how great the play is, and how marvelous Margo is in the lead. Holm sees right through her modesty, and takes her backstage to meet her idol. Davis also is aware that Eve has been to every performance of her play, so instead of acting like a diva she receives her graciously.
Holm and Marlowe are also in the dressing room, and they ask Eve about how she came to be such a devoted fan. She tells a tale of growing up in Wisconsin, going to work in a Milwaukee brewery, meeting a guy and losing him to the war, and ending up in San Francisco. There, while mourning her man, she happened to catch a play in which Margo was the star. Eve was blown away and has followed Margo ever since, even relocating to New York to be present for the current run.
Margo, and I am just gonna call her Davis, is so moved by Eve's story that she offers her a job on the spot, as her assistant. Eve is a natural in her new role as Margo's Girl Friday. She does everything from making appointments to reading scripts to dressing Margo backstage. One day Hugh Marlowe, the playwright, hears Eve reading with Margo. He is impressed. Shy as always, Eve mentions that she did a little acting in high school, but nothing to write home about. "Nonsense"!, says Marlowe. "You are very good". He gets an idea to rewrite his next play, which was meant for Margo, around a younger actress, namely Eve. This is where everything starts to go wrong.
Margo had grown fond of Eve and came to depend on her. Now she is beginning to resent her proficiency. A friend tells Margo that it looks like Eve has been studying her, emulating her walk, her style of dress. It's as if Eve wants to be Margo. Of course, Eve denies all of this. "I could never be half as good as she is", she offers, eyes cast to the floor. Eve can't help it if Marlowe is re-writing his play. She didn't ask him to do it.
There is a famous and lengthy sequence in the movie that takes place during Gary Merrill's birthday party. This is the "bumpy night" that Margo has warned of, and here, Davis gets to do her thing. The party turns into a drunken bitch-fest with Bette chewing scenery throughout. Merrill pleads with her to stop, but she won't - or can't - and you get a feeling that this was what their real-life marriage was like, lol. I'm not making light of the scene, because it's one of great onscreen meltdowns, but it's just so Mega and Over The Top that, had anyone but Davis tried to pull it off, it could have become camp.
I guess that's why this movie is such a classic. It's filled with histrionics (and it's about Thee-a-tah Ac-tors after all) and it's got the wordiest script you've ever heard, but the drama never dissolves into self-parody. Mankiewicz lets his actors run free but reigns them in right at the borderline.
Celeste Holm is so upset with Margo's behavior at the party that she decides to play a prank on her as payback. This will turn out to have a major effect on the lives of Margo and Eve. There is also a Theatre Critic (George Sanders) who will enter the picture. He can be ruthless, and his reviews can make or break a play. He's always played fair with Margo because she's as merciless as he is and he respects that. But now that Eve's star is on the rise, will he pit them against one another? And who is Eve, anyway? Is she really Miss Goody Two Shoes as she comes off to everyone?
You'll find out everything you want to know - in fact, you'll learn "All About Eve", and when you do, you'll see why it's ranked 16th on AFI's list of The Top 100 Greatest Hollywood Films. I loved it, though I'd add a small caveat that you have to be in the mood for lots and lots of words and dramatics. Don't watch it on a sleepy night, cause you'll need all your energy to keep up. Having said that, it is indeed a Hollywood Classic, and worthy of it's Best Picture Oscar and it's AFI ranking. I concur with the Academy and the American Film Institute in giving it Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, and my highest recommendation. ////
See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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