Film Focus: All About Eve (1950)...

Notable Film Fact(s):
It was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards - more than any other picture in Oscar history, until Titanic (1997). The film won six Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (George Sanders), Best Director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), Best Screenplay (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), Best Sound Recording, and Best B/W Costume Design. Four actresses in the film were nominated (and all lost). It holds the record for the film with the most female acting nominees:

• Best Actress (two) - Bette Davis and Anne Baxter
• Best Supporting Actress (two) - Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter

Film Synopsis
This film is a realistic, dramatic depiction of show business and backstage life of Broadway and the New York theater.

Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is one of the biggest stars on Broadway, but despite her unmatched success, she is beginning to show her age. After a performance one night, Margo's close friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), the wife of the play's author Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), brings in besotted fan Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) to meet Margo. Eve claims to be Margo's biggest fan who tells the group gathered in Margo's dressing room - Karen and Lloyd, Margo's lover Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill), and Margo's maid Birdie (Thelma Ritter) - that she followed Margo's theatrical tour to New York after seeing her in a play in San Francisco.

Margo quickly befriends Eve, who willingly offers to assist Margo in small ways. Margo soon offers Eve a job as assistant, leaving Birdie, who dislikes Eve, feeling put out.

Eve begins working to supplant Margo, scheming to become her understudy and taking advantage when Margo is tricked into missing a performance. Eve, knowing in advance she will go on, invites the city's theatre critics to the theatre that night. Eve makes a pass at Bill, but he rejects her. She then schemes to secure the role of Cora - despite the fact that Lloyd has written this new character for Margo - through blackmail. Eve attempts to climb higher by using theater critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders). Just before the out-of-town opening of her play Eve faces DeWitt with her next plan - to marry playwright Lloyd Richards after he divorces his wife. DeWitt is infuriated that Eve has outwitted his own plans and reveals that he knows her backstory is all lies.

Eve becomes a Broadway star and is presented with an award for her performance in the role of Cora. She arrives home and encounters Phoebe, a high-school girl who admires her immensely; who had sneaked into her apartment. The doorbell rings, and Eve, too tired to answer it, accepts Phoebe's offer of help. At the door is DeWitt, returning with Eve's forgotten award. In a glance, he takes in Phoebe and all her shallow ambition, and as he leaves he smiles sardonically, knowing that the cycle is beginning all over again.


Director:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Producers:
Darryl F. Zanuck

Screenplay:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Cast:
Bette Davis
Anne Baxter
George Sanders
Celeste Holm
Gary Merrill
Hugh Marlowe
Thelma Ritter
Gregory Ratoff
Barbara Bates
Marilyn Monroe

Distributor:
20th Century Fox

Release Date(s): October 13, 1950

Running time: 138 minutes

My View Rating: ***

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