23. All About Eve (1950)

This week featuring Freddie the Film Penguin as the DVD lost its case...

Plot Intro

Margot Channing (Bette Davis) is a feisty, mercurial and ageing star of the stage. Despite her nature, she is happily partnered and receives great acclaim for playing roles that are far too young for her. Her best friend Karen (Celeste Holm) introduces Margot to a young, adoring fan who has attended all of Margot’s performances - Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Margot and her circle are charmed by Eve’s silky voice, humility and determination to appease. But, when Eve becomes Margot’s personal assistant, the older actress grows increasingly uncomfortable with how much Eve is ingratiating herself to her partner and friends- and soon Eve’s true colours and ambitions begin to emerge…

Paul says...

We kick off the 1950’s with melodrama at its most succulent. All About Eve swept the Academy Awards of 1950, setting a new record for most nominations with a total of fourteen. This record has yet to be surpassed, although it has been equalised by Titanic and La La Land. Five of the cast members received acting nominations (only George Sanders won), and the film lapped up Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. 

All About Eve sways seamlessly between twist-laden, Gone-Girl-style thriller, darkly comic satire on age and beauty like Death Becomes Her, and a Dynasty-esque melodrama fraught with killer put-downs. Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz does a superb job of juggling all three genres to create something new. The film could have been a very simple melodrama- but it has enough revelations, and a sense of humour, to give it further dimensions. I can guarantee that you will laugh at Margot’s insults, gasp and shudder at Eve’s unscrupulousness, and say “Oooh” at that surprising final scene that ensures the story completes its full circle. Skilful genre-bending such as this deserves full credit.  

Let’s also discuss the acting from the two lead actresses. It’s a shame that neither won for their performances (although both were nominated), and that this is the only time we meet Bette Davis on our Oscars journey. She is evidently having a whale of a time, revelling in her snarky one-liners, mercurial temper, and her swooshy hair. A performance with such vivacity could have quite easily stolen the show, but Baxter as Eve has that blank-faced, pseudo-innocent menace that all the great villains should have. Both are outstanding, but you’ll be cheering on Margot and her sassiness by the end. 

My one criticism is that, like many melodramas, it’s a little overwritten. Margot’s husband complains to her that her party is like a funeral by simply asking when they’re going to bury the body. A drunk, miserable Margot replies that they’re still embalming it, and Davis’ delivery is sharp enough to end the dialogue there. But the script keeps the image going so that Margot’s comeback loses its snappiness. There’s a few more examples of this where the script could have been cut down ever so slightly to reduce the film to just below two hours (it nearly hits two and a half, and if there’s no historical battle scene, then that’s too long for me).

Despite this, All About Eve is ebullient, funny, unpredictable and enigmatic, and it deserved the acclaim it has maintained over the decades. I would recommend this film to anyone who has an impending landmark birthday and wants to drown their sorrows as a result. 

Highlight

“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s gonna be a bumpy night”.

Lowlight

Some overwritten moments could have been trimmed. Don’t let this put you off buying the DVD though.

Mark

9.5/10

Doug says...

A great modern singer and poet once intoned: ‘who runs the world? Girls!’ While many may agree with this sentiment, the Oscar winning films from 1927 to 1949 don’t really take this into account. Women are there to fulfil secondary roles - at worst they fetch their doting husband’s hat (Going My Way) and at best they are a main character, but are entirely motivated and driven by the men around them (Mrs Miniver). 

1950 sweeps in, takes a dustpan and brush to the past, and delivers an Oscar winner that has no less than three - THREE - central female roles that are motivated by things other than making their husbands happy. All About Eve is iconic for several reasons, one being Bette Davis turning in the performance of her life (and subsequently being robbed of the Oscar she fully deserved). But more than that, we actually get to see realistic, clever, fiery women manipulating and changing the world around them. It’s so refreshing that we are presented with scene after scene of Margot, Eve and Karen ruling their respective roosts and ultimately driving the plot forwards. 

It’s also the first real camp film we’ve had. All About Eve is firmly embraced by gay culture, and with drawn-on eyebrows like Bette’s, it’s not hard to see why. Melodrama is the name of the game, and as we see Margot battle the insiduously evil Eve, it’s gripping and thanks to a theatre-setting - actually believable. As Eve goes after Margot’s job, partner and life, and then tries to seduce Karen’s husband, she twists words and actions around her finger until you are screaming angrily at the screen. Not bad for a nearly seventy-year-old film.

You do have to be in the mood for this film, because as Paul points out, it’s not short and it certainly feels its length, revelling in reaction shots, drawled phrases, and even a short (and well-acted) cameo from Marilyn Monroe (her first picture, and apparently she was so terrified of Bette Davis that she had to leave set to throw up in between takes). I’ve watched it before and felt irritated by the slow pace, but watching it on a Sunday evening I found the languorous meandering of the plot seductive. I particularly noticed Anne Baxter, who does a fabulous job as the utterly nasty Eve, whose blank face and false concern only momentarily slips at the end when she attempts blackmail. 

It’s full of fabulous set-pieces - notably the party where Margot explodes in self-pity and anger, and the later scene (one of my personal favourites) where she lets loose at the scriptwriter and director attempting to ease her out in favour of Eve. The fact that she berates them while standing in the middle of a theatre stage only helps the drama. And what this film really achieves that a lot of its predecessors haven’t is a cracking ending. It’s meticulously managed from beginning to end and brimming with performances that haven’t dated a day. 

   

Highlight

So many moments, but for me the moment when Margot and Karen are sat in the back of a car and Margot finally lets her mask slip to reveal a hurting damaged woman is electrifying. The acting from both is phenomenal. 

Lowlight

There’s not much to say, but I do find George Sanderson’s monotone drawl distractingly dull in the opening ten minutes. 

Mark

Bette Davis: 11/10
All About Eve: 9.5/10