All About Eve (1950), Cinematic Perfection

The picture's main drama lies in the conflict between an aging star, Margo Channing (Bette Davis), and an ambitious, much younger upstart, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter).

The story is told in flashback from an awards ceremony for Eve where we are told by various participants about the guest of honor and how she entered and affected their lives. We soon learn a great deal about Eve - none of it very flattering.

The movie opens with an acceptance speech given by gracious young Eve Harrington and, as the camera pans over the audience Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) begins a narration which goes back in time to the real tale of how such success was achieved.


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We soon learn that Eve has shamelessly and cruelly manipulated her friends and colleagues to suit her own selfish ambition, while ruthlessly climbing to the top of her profession. The woman she chooses as her mentor, and whom she later double-crosses, is Margo Channing (Davis), a neurotically successful stage actress who has recently entered her forties and has become concerned about her advancing age.

Eve intially presents herself to Margo as a devoted fan who insinuates herself into the lives of the theater people she meets and soon becomes Margo's personal assistant, then her understudy. But its plain from the outset that she's not all that she seems to be. Margo's dresser, Birdie (Thelma ritter) is the first to see through Eve's sob story. Eve wins Margo's trust and repays it by worming her way into every aspect of Margo's life, both personal and professional. She goes on to deceive Margo's best friend (Celeste Holm), beguile her loyal but devious critic (Sanders) and vainly attempt to steal away her fiance Bill (Gary Merrill, Davis's real-life husband.)

Unaware of the depth of Eve's deviousness and the extent of her machinations, DeWitt and the wife of playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), Karen (Celeste Holm) unwittingly assist in the young girl's rise to the top. Eventually, everyone wises up to Eve's duplicity, but not before she's left a web of betrayal and cold-hearted deceitfulness behind her.

Bette Davis - Margo Channing

Sometimes a film performance is so compelling, so brilliantly executed that it becomes iconic and it is impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Bette Davis' performance as Margo Channing in All About Eve is one such performance. She puts all her talent to good use and is the hub around which the whole movie revolves.

She was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1908 and her early interest was dancing but then she discovered the stage. She studied drama in New York City and made her debut on Broadway in 1929. The following year she moved to Hollywood and after a short spell with Universal she signed with Warner Brothers. They soon realised they had a genuine star on their hands.

She was the first person to secure 10 Academy Award nominations for acting. She won 2, in 1935 and 1938.

Independent off-screen as well as on, her battles with studio moguls and other actresses, were legendary. With a career spanning six decades, few in the history of film can match her longevity and appeal.

She was married four times. Her death in 1989 made front-page news throughout the world.

Anne Baxter - Eve Harrington

Anne Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1923, and was the granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-famous architect.

By the time she was 13 she had already appeared in a stage production and had garnered rave reviews from the tough Broadway critics which helped her gain entrance to an exclusive acting school.

After learning her trade in a number of smaller movies, she was chosen by director Orson Welles to appear in The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942, and she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1946's The Razor's Edge. As well as All About Eve she is also remembered for her portrayal in 1956 of the Egyptian princess Nefertiri in Cecil B. DeMille's award winning The Ten Commandments.
On December 12, 1985, Anne died of a stroke in New York. She was 62.

George Sanders - Addison DeWitt

Born in 1906 into an affluent English family in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Sanders fled to the UK during the Russian Revolution.

After an unsuccessful South American tobacco venture, Sanders entered show business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio and theatrical understudy. He made his film debut as the god 'Indifference' in the Alexander Korda production The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936).

He became established among the Hollywood acting elite with a n unforgettable performance in The Moon and Sixpence in 1943. Sanders was married four times. He continued to play mostly villains and cads until his suicide in 1972.

Celeste Holm - Karen Richards

Celeste Holm was born in 1919 in New York City. Theatrically inclined from a very early age, Celeste made her Broadway debut in 1938 and appeared in many successful plays including Oklahoma! in which she sang the show stopper "I Cain't Say No". She was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1946 and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe in 1947 with Gentlemen's Agreement. In the 70's and 80's she appeared on regularly on television. Celeste currently resides in New York and is still actively involved with a number of charitable causes.

Gary Merrill - Bill Simpson
Hugh Marlowe - Lloyd Richards
Gregory Ratoff - Max Fabian
Barbara Bates - Phoebe
Marilyn Monroe - Miss Caswell
Thelma Ritter - Birdie

All About Eve
(Two-Disc Special Edition)

This review is from: All About Eve (DVD)
I managed to find this a few days before its official release date and am happy to report that it finally gives this classic film the treatment it deserves. The video and audio have been restored from orignal source material with noticeable improvements over the previous DVD transfer. The picture has none of the scratches and dust that were present on the earlier version, and there is a Dolby stereo option as well as the original mono. The stereo soundtrack offers greater clarity and depth and there's no low-level hum or hiss.

Besides offering a major improvement in the quality of the image and sound, the new DVD also includes a good selection of extras. There's a 25 minute "Backstory" from AMC that is very informative and entertaining. There are two separate commentary tracks, one with Celeste Holm, Christopher Mankiewicz (Joseph's son), and Kenneth Geist, the other with Sam Staggs, author of "All About 'All About Eve'". There are
promotional interviews with Davis and Baxter, four newsreels, a trailer, and a restoration comparison.

The restoration comparison is one of the strangest that I've seen. Instead of an audio track explaining the problems and processes involved in the transfer, there's a series of screens with text printed on them. There then follows a series of comparisons from various versions of the film. There's nothing really wrong with any of this, but considering the huge amount of time and effort that goes into a restoration of this magnitude, I expected something a bit more dynamic.

For any "All About Eve" fan, old or new, this is the DVD we have been waiting for, and at five dollars less than the original DVD, a real bargain.

Highly recommended!