One of Hollywood's finest backstage dramas. If nothing else Davis should have been rewarded for services to the tobacco industry.
All About Eve (1950)
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Reviews Counted:51
Fresh:51
Rotten:0
Average Rating:9/10
Consensus: Perfectly cast and solidly scripted, this dark Hollywood satire contains a brilliantly self-deprecating performance from Bette Davis. Smart, cynical, terrifically entertaining, and one of the greatest films ever released about the movie industry, All About Eve has retained its edge, and remains a sharp, beautifully-written gem.
Theatrical Release:30-11-2007
Synopsis: Given that she throws tantrums, gets intoxicated, and pushes people away when she needs them the most, it's a wonder New York theater star Margo Channing has any true friends. But when Eve... Given that she throws tantrums, gets intoxicated, and pushes people away when she needs them the most, it's a wonder New York theater star Margo Channing has any true friends. But when Eve Harrington, Margo's young and innocent-seeming protégée, schemes to gain both the affection of Margo's friends and a starring role originally written for Margo, the actress discovers just who is in her corner--and who is not. Released in 1950, ALL ABOUT EVE's power radiates undimmed through the years. The role of aging stage star Margo Channing is considered by many to be the best of Bette Davis's career, as Davis reveals and conceals Margo's vulnerabilities with a skill seldom seen onscreen. Anne Baxter is also marvelous as the subtle Eve, whose glowing enthusiasm masks a cold, calculated ambition. Both actresses garnered Best Actress Oscar nominations, and the film in its entirety took 14 nominations, winning seven of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. George Sanders was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his biting portrayal of potent, nasty theater critic Addison DeWitt. Consistently listed among the best films of all time, director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE shouldn't be missed; the acting, writing, and directing are unequivocally brilliant. [More]
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, Walter Hampden, Randy Stuart, Craig Hill, Eddie Fisher, Eugene Borden, Steven Geray
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenwriter: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Composer: Alfred Newman
Reviews for All About Eve
Forget Foreman vs. Ali, this is Baxter vs. Davis in one of Hollywood's greatest showdowns.
For old-school Hollywood movie-making at its most polished, literate and sophisticated there is really nothing to match it.
Here is a real Christmas treat: a restored version of Joseph L Mankiewicz's jet-black 1950 comedy about Margo Channing, elegant leading lady of the theatre, superbly played by Bette Davis.
Joseph L Mankiewicz's wonderfully literate 1950 classic drama of the theatrical life, All About Eve, is back in the cinema, to be savoured for its language, performances, psychological insights and proof that all the world's a stage.
Apart from the monochrome photography, all that dates the film is the chain-smoking and the fact that these are theatre folk rather than movie stars (frequent in-jokes about the low art of Hollywood pepper the script).
The peerless tale of two rival drama queens, playing as the central attraction in the BFI Southbank's Joseph L Mankiewicz season, and rightly so.
[Features] more quotable dialogue in one movie than most screenwriters manage in a lifetime.
The screenplay ... may be the most biting example of hard-boiled wit ever to come out of Hollywood, and it is stylishly performed at a breakneck pace by a uniformly expert cast.
There is so much to admire in All About Eve, even for those too young to be drenched in nostalgia for the spectacle of Bette Davis unleashing her sharp tongue.
While its attitudes toward women are dated, its wit and perceptiveness are as fresh today as they were in 1950.
Mankiewicz's 1950 gem is a wickedly cynical cocktail of laughter and deceit in which everyone has an angle to play.
Latest News for All About Eve
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
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