All About Eve

"All About Eve"

Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950

"All About Eve" has a boring aesthetic. The characters are always indoors, and we tend to view their interactions from a distance; it as though we are watching a play. But looks can be deceiving, because underneath this film's plain appearance is a fascinating story about a collection of fascinating characters who are involved in the theater business. There is the prolific playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), his outgoing wife Karen (Celeste Holm), Lloyd's excellent actress Margo (Bette Davis), and her boyfriend, the director Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill). And then there is our unofficial narrator, the wonderfully sardonic critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) who everybody simultaneously despises and respects.

One day, Karen introduces a reticent woman, named Eve (Anne Baxter), who has watched all of Margo's performances in Lloyd and Bill's most recent play, to the group. Eve is basically a stalker, but her enthusiasm and modest nature win them over. Soon enough, Eve becomes Margo's assistant, but she's also a very good actress who sells herself as someonewho can replace the aging Margo. The first half of the film is viewed from the perspective of Margo, who is so distraught about the limitations of her age that she almost breaks down. This narrative is beautifully and patiently constructed so that we are not sure who to blame. Margo is very selfish about her own career, and she treats Eve cruelly, but we know that there has to be a more nefarious side under Eve's incessantly modest veneer.

All the while, we have the privilege of listening to some of the finest banter ever written. ("There comes a time that a piano realizes that it has not written a concerto," Lloyd says to Margo, who fires back, "And you, I take it, are the Paderewski who plays his concerto on me, the piano?") We witness many terrific performances, and we even see a young Marilyn Monroe playing the brainless opposite to Sanders's cynical critic. But it is during the final fifteen minutes that the film really comes together. Eve wins an award for giving a great performance, but when the audience applauds, Mankiewicz refuses to cut away to a shot of people clapping and keeps his camera on her. In using this very subtle technique, we come to realize that in winning everything, Eve has lost everything - all of the potential friends that she alienated in her rise to the top. "All About Eve" is really a rise-and-fall tale, and in the final shot, in which a younger version of Eve twirls in front of many mirrors that make it seem like she is surrounded by images of herself, it is apparent that the quest for success ends in nothing but misery for the person who works at it alone.

Rating: 9

First Viewed: 8/3/08, on a DVD with a lovely transfer - IMDb