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Rating:  -
Simply can't be beat for the intelligent and witty script, the superb acting and the flawless direction. That's why it consistently appears on everyone's list of top movies of all times. Bette Davis' good luck in getting the lead role when Claudette Colbert become ill was our win as well.
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"All About Eve" is a fascinating look behind the scenes of what it can take(and sometimes what it can do) to people who live inside show business. While it's about Broadway on the surface, it's also a film about Hollywood and what it takes to be the best in the business (And what happens when youth fades and it's time to move over). The cast is super and the dialogue! Of course,people don't really talk like that(if they ever did)but wouldn't it be fun if we could all be so clever? Davis shines a Margo Channing,the 40ish diva who's about to be stabbed in the back by the poor innocent(read wolf in sheep's clothing)she takes in and trusts. This is a must have DVD,not only because the transfer makes it sparkle,but because...well...it's a damn good movie!
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A lot has been said about ths movie, and it would be tedious to recite again how great this movie is. I rather think in fact that this movie is under-rated in today's world where good writing and acting simply do not exist. All the cast are wonderful, in particularly, magnificently, Bette Davis gives the performance not only of her career but of anyone's career. In my opinion it's the best example of sublime acting by an Actress in the 20th Century in film or theatre. Bette inhabits the role, and brings to it bitter irony, wit, sophistication and sublime bite.
I do not mean to ignore the other actors in this wonderful movie, as they are all great to a man, or woman as the case may be. In particular, George Sanders gave the performance of his life. He, like Davis, was made for this role. His Addison DeWitt is a man of supreme intelligence, world weary, urbane to the last degree, insouciant, and just plain mad. Exactly like the actor himself.
Thelma Ritter as always delivers a performance guaranteed to steal every scene she is in... Celeste Holme is perfect in her role as the long suffering friend trying to cope with a life in the world of theatre and with Margo Channing in particular.
Much has been made of some of Bette's more outrageous lines, such as "fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a Bumpy flight)(or is it night?) And indeed Ms Davis delivers those line with style and panache and exactly as Margo Channing would. But it's not those lines alone that make this performance so frightenly perfect. For me the highlight of the movie is rather the scene in the stranded car heading back to the train station... Bette Davis (Margo) and Celese Holme (Karen) sit alone stranded in the car in the country as they wait for Lloyd to return with help. Bette Davis turns on the radio and the director brilliantly uses the music from the radio to exquisitely underscore a brief and inutterably brilliant monologue by Davis.
She begins by apologizing for her behavior to a shocked and guilty Karen and then proceeds to explain Margo in tour de force performance by Ms Davis as she ends in words so poignant and self revelatory.... "in the end, you're not a woman...you're something with a box full of clippings and an office of French Provincial furniture but you're not a woman... the end". I always need a few boxes of kleenex for this scene alone. Not just because of the words, which are razor sharp, crafted jewels....but because no other actress could have made them so pertinent, real and truly beautiful.
The direction, writing, and score are all beyond belief. But if this movie were only three minutes long and contained that monologue by Bette Davis I would still adore this movie.
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While most will agree that All About Eve is a Bette Davis tour-de-force acting performance, credit most go to the entire cast, who deliver Oscar worthy performances throughout. Anne Baxter, in the title role of Eve Harrington is peerless as the seemingly stage struck aspiring actress, who in reality would step on her frail grandmother in order to further her career. Gary Merrill who plays Margo Channing's director/boyfriend is the perfect foil, as he manages to match her word for word, engaging each other in a game of callous and acerbic little digs. Hugh Marlowe plays the role of the talented playwright, Lloyd Richards who is perpetually having to deal with the difficult, insecure and aging Margo. And Celeste Holm is superlative playing Karen Richards, who remains the calm in the stormy world of these shameless, egotistical thesbians. Let us not forget George Sanders, the poison-pen critic Addison De Witt who seems to manipulate this cast of back stabbers with his usual deft hand. Sanders was well known to movie goers playing the kind of character who smuggly maintains the upper hand in his typical Maciavellian way. His terrific performance earned him an Oscar for best supporting actor. Also the young and very beautiful Marilyn Monroe in her film debut demonstrates her ability to play the wide-eyed innocent and naive young actress, who is the brunt of Sanders razor sharp tongue. With her ever present overt sexuality Monroe shows the potential she would realize in her subsaquant roles.
Finally we have Bett. And what more can we say of her performance. Mago Channing is the role she was positively born to play. Who else could have delivered the infamous "Buckle up your seatbelts" line with the same verve, the same hither-come sly grin? Who but Bette Davis could embody the independet, temperamental Margo Channing, a women not unlike her own real life persona? This was perhaps the role that defined her as the single greatest screen actress of her generation and a bonifide Hollywood Legend. Unfortunately she played brides maid to Judy Holliday who won top honors as best actress for her role in "Born Yesterday". Both were great performances, but no doubt Bette Davis gets my vote hands down.
Truly this cast examplifies what great ensamble playing is all about. They cue off each other with such skill and precision that I can't imagine anyone else fitting into these rich, juicy roles. In 1949 Joseph L. Mankiewicz deservedly won a pair of Academy Awards for best screen writer and best director for "A Letter To Three Wives". The following year he took home the Oscars again in the same catogories for All About Eve, thus becomming the only film maker in history to win these top honors in consecutive years. Working with a group of actors as brilliant and ego driven as this veteran crew must have been an incredibly demanding task. Hats off to Mr. Mankiewicz for his stunning direction and stellar script. And Bravo to this marvelous cast of stars, the likes of which we may never see again.
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This is easily my favorite film of all time. This is Bette Davis' greatest performance, and her lover in this film (Bill) is a man unparalleled. The story is bittersweet and real, the acting so good it isn't acting, and I can't get over the script: whoever wrote it, full of wit, genius and truth, deserves an Oscar.
A beautiful film, unveiling what a woman's heart really desires, and showing the scruples and vanity of other females who forget that they ARE women.
A film that should be owned, not just viewed.
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