All About Eve

Margo Channing is an amazing actress and Broadway star struggling to retain her popularity in a world of younger and prettier girls clawing for the same celebrity. Little does she know how much her life is about to change when she invites a young star struck fan to be her secretary and assistant. Eve Harrington is Margo’s number one fan and loves her with a devotion that is unmatched. Underneath the guise of a naïve theater fan is a smart and calculating young woman looking to get a leg up in the entertainment world. Margo begins to see Eve for who she really is, but neither her best friend nor her long time boyfriend will believe that Eve is anything but an innocent little girl. As Eve slowly begins to manipulate her way further and further into Margo’s life, people begin to see through her good girl image. Film and theater critic Addison DeWitt is one such individual, but instead of sitting back and watching the fun, he has decided to become Eve’s mentor and help her become the star she so longs to be, no matter who they have to hurt along the way. Margo finds herself battling her own demons about age and relationships while trying to protect herself from the opportunistic Eve.

If you have ever wondered why Bette Davis is considered one of the greatest actresses of all time, you simply need to watch this movie. She is marvelous as the aging Margo Channing who is not willing to go down without a fight. She is perfection in motion and action. No one could have played this part better and it wasn’t originally intended for Davis. She had just bought out the remainder of her contract with Warner Bros. Studios and had entered retirement from the world of acting. She believed she was washed up as an actress and would never find another decent role for a woman like her anywhere. At the last moment she was asked to return to the silver screen and play a woman who found herself very much in the same predicament as Davis herself. Both women were at the end of their careers and finding it hard to procure a good role. She is witty, wise, and full of the can-do spirit that made her so famous. Her co-stars, Anne Baxter, Gary Merrill, Celeste Holm, and George Sanders also deliver some of the best acting ever recorded for the screen. Most actors and actresses would be lost in a scene next to the great Bette Davis, put this group of thespians holds their own next to the screen legend.

Not many movies can be called perfection, but All About Eve practically screams it. Not only was this film nominated for fourteen Oscars (one of the highest nominated films of all time), but it won a total of six statues including best picture of 1950. The director Joseph Mankiewicz won an Oscar for best director and does a superb job of directing this dramatic and captivating movie. The screenplay also won an Oscar for best writing making it one of the best to be brought to the screen. The sly and cunning dialogue is stupendous and all-consuming. It is one of the best movies ever made. Very dramatic and full of one-liners, All About Eve is a landmark in motion picture history. The whole picture drips of fine acting and directing, making it a staple for the movie lover’s library. I dare you not to add this movie to your “greatest films of all time” list.