All About Eve (1950)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Awesome Movie

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

ALL ABOUT EVE is a dark and cynical look at the world of theatre and those at the very top in terms of fame and fortune. It's remembered today for being one of the films featuring an inimitable Bette Davis as an ageing star who finds herself waning and facing opposition from her younger rivals. The film offers a pretty bleak world view in which everyone seems to be out for personal gain and fortune. It's finely-judged indeed and boasts some strong performances, in particular from Anne Baxter who takes ruthlessness to a new level. Davis the real star here though, performing in a more sympathetic role than usual and making the role her own.

. . . but Fox's "Best Picture" feature ALL ABOUT EVE proves that this is not the case. BEFORE President Obama was a foreign-born Muslim, BEFORE Global Warming was a Hoax, EVEN BEFORE Evolution was a Discredited Crackpot Theory, Fox's unique skill at fashioning self-fulfilling prophecies out of Thin Air is abundantly on display here in ALL ABOUT EVE. Even without the Gofundme Campaign that would be necessary for me to Encyclopedically document the dozens of Fake News Scoops in EVE (or the thousands riddling the entire Body of the Fox Film Corpus), consider these two Norma Jean moments from EVE calling out "Marilyn Monroe's" most famous co-star and spouse BY THEIR REAL LIFE NAMES!! About 56 minutes into EVE, Marilyn's character "Claudia" says that she'll sacrifice "anything" for Clark Gable, an eerie foreshadowing of the co-star she'd leave with a fatal heart attack after plaguing him through the filming of his final flick, THE MISFITS a decade AFTER this comment is made in EVE. Twelve minutes later, Fox insures that its Fake News about a false-fronted bimbo seducing and ruining America's top playwright (EVE's "Lloyd" character) is cemented into American Culture's REAL LIFE Future as Arthur Miller is mentioned BY NAME in front of Artie's Looming Femme Fatale, nee Norma Jean Mortenson. Of course, it goes without saying that EVE--nee "Gertrude Slojinski"--and her back-story dalliance with a Royal Family of American Booze is sly Fox's way of including Jack and Bobby Kennedy among Ms. Mortenson's long list of Real Life victims.

Despite the numerous reviews for this movie, I felt I had to add my own after viewing it on a big screen earlier today. This was my second viewing of this movie and seeing it on the big screen apparently made me see and hear dialogue I had missed after watching it on TV. Oh my Goodness! What a spectacular film! I basically sat there for over two hours in awe. I just couldn't believe the incredible performances from everyone associated with this movie. The writing, the acting, the story just makes you long for a Hollywood that unfortunately no longer exists. To see a movie with a real story and with real movie stars is something that has been lacking for the last thirty years in my opinion. It may sound corny but I actually got goose bumps hearing some of those lines and seeing the performances given by Bette Davis and George Sanders. I'll just say that this is a must see for anyone that likes good writing and acting.

Bette Davis is so effortless and breathes fire in her performance as Margot, an aging actress who finds herself slowly and insidiously being usurped by a young fan, Eve, played by Anne Baxter. I don't think it's in a 'best ever' type of discussion, or worthy of its 14 Academy Award nominations, but its sharp dialog, predatory manipulation, and overall bitchiness make it entertaining, even if it's hard to like the characters. There are some great lines here; in addition to the famous "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night", I loved it when Davis exclaimed "I'm not twenty-ish, I'm not thirty-ish. Three months ago I was forty years old. Forty. 4-0. That slipped out. I hadn't quite made up my mind to admit it. Now I suddenly feel as if I've taken all my clothes off." Davis herself was 42, and this line and others ring true. George Sanders (as Addison DeWitt) is also fantastic, at one point saying "You're an improbable person, Eve, and so am I. We have that in common. Also, a contempt for humanity, an inability to love and be loved, insatiable ambition, and talent. We deserve each other."These quotes capture the spirit of the movie, which to me is simply about the difficulties that aging women face, and the cold and calculating world of the theater. There is supposedly a homosexual element, a theory put forth and apparently confirmed by writer and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, but it's so subtle, perhaps because of the Hays Code, that it didn't even register with me, and I think it's irrelevant. These characters are in the best cases rough around the edges, and in the worse, simply awful people. We see Margot being slowly replaced and want to feel sympathy for her, but it's tough because she's so abrasive. We see the evil side of Eve slowly unveil itself as it becomes apparent she's far from being a starstruck fan or even who she says she is. And at the end we see that she, too, will be replaced. It's all a bit grim: time, a machine that grinds them down, and competition for glory that leads to Machiavellian backstabbing. It's ironic that Davis was such a diva that there was discord amongst the actors, and Baxter pushing her way into a 'Best Actress' nomination instead of 'Best Supporting Actress' would lead to a division of the vote and neither of them winning. I was happy to see Marilyn Monroe in a small part at age 24 and before she was big, just to bring some lightness into the film. This is certainly a good movie, don't get me wrong, but it's not one I'd watch again and again as I would my favorites.