But when one asks me what my favorite movie of all time is, I don't have an answer. The reason is, I just can't pick ONE favorite. I have favorites, plural. I have 5-10 films that I would say are the greatest films I've ever seen for varying reasons. However, only one of those films actually won Best Picture. That would be All About Eve, written for the screen and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and based on a 1946 short story by Mary Orr called The Wisdom of Eve that was (for whatever reason) not given a title credit. The movie set many Oscars records, some of which remain unmatched today. It's one of the finest performance ensembles I've ever laid eyes on, the dialogue is whip-smart and the story is just brilliant. I could gush about this film all day, but perhaps so I can get this done in less than 12 hours, we'd best start into the synopsis, so fasten your seat belts.
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Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is receiving the Sarah Siddons Award at a gala dinner event. It's considered the highest honor for the New York stage. As the award is being presented to her, Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) narrates with a snide tone about how amazingly fast her star rose. We see Addison observing as we hear his narration, and he's got a bit of a smirk on his face. He's not the only one. The same can be said for Margo Channing (Bette Davis), Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill), Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife Karen (Celeste Holm). None of them join the rest of the room in applauding Eve, as they know the real person. The narration switches to Karen, telling us that it's now June. Eve did indeed go very far very fast, as this all began just last October...
Karen is outside the theater where Margo stars in Aged in Wood. She finds Eve, a starstruck and seemingly-modest young girl who says she's seen every performance by Margo in the play. Karen has no doubt Eve has indeed seen every performance because she sees Eve outside every day when Margo enters and exits the building. Eve says it took all of her courage just to speak to Karen, the playwright's wife. Karen decides she's bringing Eve inside to meet Margo personally. When Karen enters Margo's dressing room and says one of her fans is outside, and that fan has seen every performance, Margo knows the exact physical description of which fan it is and permits her entry. Also inside the dressing room are Lloyd, Bill (the play's director, and also Margo's lover despite being eight years younger than she) and Margo's maid Birdie (Thelma Ritter), who is surprised to see Margo being so friendly to a fan. When asked about herself, Eve tells the group that she was born and raised in Wisconsin, dropping out of school to work in a brewery since her dad died when she was young. She met and married a man named Eddie, who went off to fight in the war. They were to reunite in San Francisco, but when she got there, she received a forwarded telegram that Eddie had been killed in action. She decided to stay in San Francisco to start a new life, and at a theater she discovered Margo performing in a play, and was entranced. When Margo and the play moved to New York, she followed suit. Everyone, especially Margo, is moved by the story. Birdie is the only one not quite sold on it. Margo invites Eve to dine with her after they drop off Bill at the airport, as he's heading to Hollywood for some movie work.
At the airport, Eve offers to take care of Bill's checking in so the other two can have some alone time. She winds up accidentally-on-purpose interrupting them before they kiss, and later looks away when they DO kiss. Margo has Eve move into the guest room upstairs at her residence. Eve assists Margo with her affairs and loves every minute of it. One night, Eve is watching Margo's performance from backstage and is moved to tears, as she says she always is from the final scene. Eve also redecorates Margo's dressing room and offers to bring her stage gown to wardrobe. When Eve leaves with the gown, Birdie says the wardrobe technicians can get pretty testy if they're not allowed to perform their union-ruled duties. Margo decides Birdie's probably right so she goes to catch Eve. She catches her indeed, as Eve is standing on the stage holding the gown in front of her and bowing as if she just performed in the play.
That night, Margo is awakened at midnight by a phone call. The operator says the call that Margo requested to Beverly Hills has now been put through. Margo has no idea what the operator is talking about but is thrilled to hear Bill's voice on the other end. He'll be home in a week, and he's touched that Margo remembered to call him on his birthday. He also says Eve told him about the surprise party and they've been discussing the guest list. Margo is a little puzzled to learn that Eve and Bill have been doing this without her knowledge.
Days pass. Margo is all dressed for Bill's birthday party that night. He'll be arriving soon. She goes downstairs and is surprised to see Bill and Eve cavorting. Margo gets a bit possessive and it turns into an argument between Bill and Margo about Eve. Margo says there are some things she would appreciate sole rights and privileges on, specifically Bill. Margo has come to agree with Birdie about how Eve seems to be studying her and trying to take over her life and all she has in it. Later, the party is in full swing. Lloyd and Karen arrive with the play's producer, Max Fabian (Gregory Ratoff). Margo is in quite a mood, warning everyone to fasten their seat belts as "It's going to be a bumpy night." Addison arrives with a young starlet named Miss Casswell (Marilyn Monroe). As the party goes on, Margo drinks a few cocktails and insists that the pianist continue playing somber music. Bill finally goes to Margo and says that several of the guests are starting to wonder when they can view the casket. Max asks Margo if she has any bicarbonate of soda. They go into the kitchen and continue to converse, with Margo ultimately asking Max to hire Eve away from her since Eve has done all she can do here. Max seems to accept the idea. Margo also begins to discuss with Lloyd the idea of younger girls taking the roles she takes in Lloyd's plays, which always feature the main character (played by Margo) as a younger girl.
Karen and Eve chat upstairs. Eve continues to gush about Margo, and Karen continues to gush about Eve. Eve casually asks Karen to put in a word for her to become Margo's new understudy. Karen likes the idea and they head downstairs, where many are chatting on the stairs about the stage world. Miss Casswell sweet-talks Max and Addison says she's showing that she could go places. Bill talks about the work ethic in stage and Eve agrees obsessively, seemingly going into a trance as she speaks. Margo strolls over and continues to be rude to Eve and smarmy about the whole evening. Bill and Margo argue a bit with Margo saying Bill is the director on stage, not here at the house. Karen tells her in that case, stop acting like "the star". Margo has had enough and heads upstairs. Bill follows her. Eve acts upset that she may have angered Margo but Karen tells her not to worry, that's just Margo sometimes.
Lloyd's next play is Footsteps on the Ceiling and auditions have started for all of the roles beyond the lead, which is set to be played by Margo. Miss Casswell is one of those auditioning. Margo arrives at the theater and is stunned to learn from Addison, who came with Casswell, that not only have auditions concluded, but her new understudy, Eve, read the Margo lines during those auditions. Margo is incensed, having had no idea Eve was made her new understudy, and blows right onto the stage, ignoring Max and others who say hello to her. Eve says thank goodness Margo wasn't here as she never could have done it around her. Bill and Lloyd and the others all rave about how well Eve read, even though Eve pretends she was awful. Margo rails at Lloyd and then tells Max he can fire her whenever he wants if he wants another actress so badly in the leads. Later, Margo and Bill are the only two still on stage. Bill lets her vent but eventually says he's heard enough of Margo's paranoia that Eve is trying to take over her life. They discuss marriage and how Margo has turned down his proposals, and maybe it's time they put the relationship behind them. As he leaves, Margo asks Bill if he's going to see Eve. Bill says that makes the whole thing believable, as if to verify his belief that Margo is paranoid.
Lloyd arrives home and tells Karen of the aggravation with Margo at the theater. This could make the weekend tricky as all four of them had planned on a countryside drive. Karen's narration thinks out loud of an idea she comes up with to give Margo the proverbial boot in the rear she sometimes needs, and it's a harmless joke with no actual evil intentions, so why not? Karen phones Eve.
So we've now figured out Karen's "joke". Since the car had no gas, they got stranded and Margo was unavailable, so Eve as the understudy got to play the main role on stage. Addison narrates, telling us he got a special invitation to attend this particular evening, and oddly enough so did many other stage critics, and as luck would have it, this is the one time that Margo actually missed a show and the understudy had to fill in. What a coincidence. After the show concludes, Addison heads to see Eve backstage, and he overhears a conversation in her dressing room between her and Bill. She's in full vamp/femme fatale/diva mode here, putting the moves on Bill quite blatantly. He rebukes her, saying he's in love with Margo. Bill leaves, and Eve angrily takes off her stage wig and hurls it. Addison then walks in and Eve snaps back to being the nice and modest girl when she sees who it is. Addison praises the performance and tells her she should drop the always-modest act, and he can help her do that with his next column. They decide to have dinner later and conduct an interview. While Eve changes in the next room, Addison asks her questions about where she came from, such as stuff about San Francisco. He names the Schubert Theater as where she saw Margo perform, and Eve concurs that was the one. She vaguely answers the questions affirmatively until while being asked about Eddie, she tells him she's going into the shower now and they can continue the rest over dinner.
Karen is meeting Margo at the 21 Club the next day for lunch. Margo's late but Karen runs into Addison and Eve. Addison says Karen should read his new column while she waits since Margo may be later than she expects. Karen starts reading and then leaves, heading to Margo's place. Margo already has seen the review and reads it aloud with Karen. The review and interview glow about Eve's performance and also contain statements from Eve inferring that it's time for the older actresses to make way for younger ingenues such as herself. Now even Karen is angry with Eve, and Margo says if her lawyers don't do something about this, she will. Suddenly, Bill runs in, saying he literally ran from his apartment straight here once he read the review. Bill and Margo reconcile.
Karen goes home, and Lloyd says that Eve had stopped by claiming that Addison twisted her words around in this article. He then suddenly starts wondering about casting Eve in his new play instead of Margo. Karen objects, saying it's convenient she came by while she knew Karen would be out, and Eve is now poisoning his mind too. Lloyd says it was just a thought. Later, the couple have dinner with Bill and Margo, all four back together once again. Margo announces that she and Bill are getting married, and they want Lloyd and Karen to be their witnesses, which they of course agree to. Karen then gets a note from the waiter. She shows it to Margo. It's from Eve, begging to see Karen in the ladies room. For more fun, then they see Addison sitting at another table. Karen doesn't want to talk to Eve but the others are all dying to hear what her ploy is this time, so Karen goes. She blows right by Addison on her way.
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| ...glug, glug, glug, glug... |
Karen finds Eve in the ladies' room. Eve says she feels horrible, and if it's any consolation, she's been told off all over town by the loyal throngs of Margo Channing fans. As Eve pleads her case, claiming innocence, Karen softens up and says if there's anything she can do... She doesn't get to finish because Eve immediately goes into Obsessed mode and says there IS something. Karen can get her the Cora role in Footsteps on the Ceiling. She then speaks exactly in the style of the article she just claimed wasn't actually her speaking. Karen starts to leave but then Eve drops mention of how she's been spending a lot of time with Lloyd lately, and she'll keep that quiet as well as the "joke" Karen played on Margo with the car running out of gas if Karen pushes Lloyd to cast her instead of Margo. Eve leaves and Karen sits to think it all over.
Eve joins Addison back at his table, claiming she and Karen had a very nice talk with Karen thinking that Eve would indeed be right for the Cora role. Addison is quite surprised. Karen then returns to her table, saying all went fine and that Eve apologized. Margo decides it's time to make a decision. With her impending nuptials and things going well in her life, she's accepted the fact that as a fortysomething, not all stage roles are right for her, so she tells Lloyd she does not want to play Cora as was originally intended. It should go to a younger actress. Karen bursts out laughing at how this has all played out and feels instantly and completely better about everything.
The rehearsals are ongoing for Footsteps. Bill and Lloyd seem to fight often, and it's almost always about Eve. Eve does her best to keep them calm. Karen, meanwhile, sees how Lloyd and Eve are working closely and frequently on the new play, and she seems resigned to the fact that the playwright falling in love with his lead actress was bound to happen at some point. Late one night, Karen is awakened by a phone call from a woman who lives across from Eve's apartment. Eve is ill and with Lloyd being there often, she assumes they're good friends and would like him to come see her to help her out. Lloyd hears this and goes to check on Eve. The woman, meanwhile, hangs up and Eve is right there, having set up the whole thing.
The play has opened, and one afternoon Addison and Eve are walking from lunch to her apartment. Eve is going to nap before tonight's performance but she first invites Addison inside to hear some news she wants to share. Eve talks about Lloyd very casually and matter-of-factly as if the two of them are always spending time together. Addison notices this. Eve says that Lloyd is leaving Karen and marrying her. Addison sees right through this, knowing full well that Eve is doing this just to further her career, not because she loves Lloyd. Eve drops the act and excitedly says this is fantastic for her. She says that Lloyd came banging on her door at 3AM begging her to marry him. She expects Addison to be happy for her but that doesn't happen. He angrily gets up and says he's nobody's fool, least of all hers. Lloyd might leave Karen at some point but it won't be for Eve, if for no other reason than he forbids it. Eve is now ready for her nap but Addison continues. He says after tonight, Eve belongs to him. He talks about the two of them and in time, Eve starts laughing at the thought. He slaps her across the face and tells her to never laugh at him again as if he's one of her pandering, starstruck suckers falling for her act. She opens the door and tells him to get out. He says she's too short for that gesture. It is then that Addison strips away every layer of Eve's false life and reveals the truth. All of it.
ADDISON: Your name is not Eve Harrington. It is Gertrude Slescynski.
EVE (in low, angry voice): What of it?
ADDISON: It is true that your parents were poor. They still are. And they would like to know how you are, and where. They haven't heard from you for three years.
EVE (in lower, angrier voice): What of it?
Addison continues, saying she did indeed work in a brewery, but she left town with the $500 her boss gave her to leave town when their affair was discovered. Eve's eyes grow large and she runs into the bedroom and slams the door. Addison calmly follows, opening the door and continuing. Eve yells the woman was a liar and starts crying face-down on the bed. Addison isn't done. There was no marriage to Eddie. There was no Eddie, period. Her claim especially sickened him because it's an insult to real heroes who died in combat and the women who loved them. She also never was in San Francisco. There's no Schubert Theater there. Eve looks at him and says she HAD to meet Margo and get close to her. Addison says she did that indeed, and she repaid Margo's kindness by trying to take Bill away from her. Eve screams that's not true but Addison tells her that he was there and heard the entire conversation from outside her dressing room. Eve falls back down crying again. Addison scolds Eve for using him and his column to blackmail Karen into getting the Cora role, and finally says there is zero doubt that nothing is going on between her and Lloyd.
ADDISON: That I should want you at all suddenly strikes me as the height of improbability. But that, in itself, is probably the reason. You're an improbable person, Eve, and so am I. We have that in common. Also a contempt for humanity, an inability to love or be loved, insatiable emotion...and talent. We deserve each other.
He asks her if she's listening to him. She replies, "Yes, Addison." He then asks her if she now understands why and how she belongs to him, and she again replies, "Yes, Addison." He says for her to take her nap now. She says she can't possibly go on tonight after all this. Addison sneers that she'll wind up giving the performance of her life.
That brings us back to where we were in the start of the film as Eve is receiving her Sarah Siddons Award. Eve gives her speech, thanking everyone individually who got her to where she is today. As she names each person--Karen, Bill, Margo and Lloyd--none of them applaud with the rest of the room. Eve is heading to Hollywood for a movie soon, but she says her heart will always be in the theater. This ends the dinner event. Addison and Eve are heading to a party thrown by Max. Eve doesn't want to go. She tells Addison to go with the award instead of her. Margo congratulates Eve on the way out, telling her she can always put that award where her heart should be.
Eve goes home and pours herself a drink. She glances at the mirror and sees a young girl named Phoebe (Barbara Bates) asleep in the armchair. Eve gasps and drops her drink, which wakes Phoebe. Phoebe apologizes, saying she must have fallen asleep. She snuck in when the maid left the door unlocked, just to look around. The lights were still on so she turned them off and fell asleep in the chair. She's in high school and is writing an essay for the drama club she's President of on Eve, her favorite stage performer. Phoebe gets Eve a new drink and offers to clean up the dropped one before it stains. The doorbell rings. Eve infers Phoebe can get it, as Eve seems to like the idea of having someone wait on her. Phoebe answers the door, and it's Addison, who gives the award to her that Eve left in the taxi. The two chat and Addison immediately realizes that the tone of Phoebe's statements, how she speaks and what she says, reminds him a lot of how Eve started out. Eve asks who that was. Phoebe says just the taxi driver bringing up the award. Eve tells her to put it in the bedroom. Phoebe brings it into the bedroom, puts it down, then sees Eve's dressy coat on the bed. She picks up the coat and drapes it over her shoulders, then picks the award back up and walks towards the multi-sided mirrors, bowing as if she is the great stage star who's just won this award.
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Marilyn Monroe hadn't yet "arrived" in Hollywood when she filmed her part here, and she had some butterflies working around Bette Davis. After Marilyn finished shooting her scenes, she went offstage to vomit.....Davis could be hard to chat with on the set, as both Marilyn and Celeste Holm found out. Apparently on the first day, Holm said "Good morning" to Davis, and the reply was, "Oh, shit. Good manners." Holm claims that she never said another word to Davis on or off the set beyond when they were shooting. Davis apparently felt the same way as years later, she said she loved making this film but found Holm to be a bitch....Gary Merrill apparently got along with Davis just fine. They got married after filming.....In what would have been an incredible coincidence, initial casting ideas for Bill Simpson and Eve Harrington were Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis (who later married Ronald).....When the film premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, the
neighboring Hotel Roosevelt blanked out most of its neon letters to
simply spell out "EVE".....It was believed that the Margo Channing character was modeled after actress Tallulah Bankhead, but this has been refuted by the original story author Mary Orr.....The Sarah Siddons Award as portrayed in the film was fictional, but it inspired the Chicago theater industry to found such an annual honor beginning in 1952. It is presented to actresses who have appeared on the Chicago stage, and its most recent winners include Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald. Celeste Holm won it in 1968, and Bette Davis received an honorary one in 1973.
Critics raved about All About Eve from Day One. There are so many superlatives from so many people that I couldn't possibly list them all, but one review states that this is a classic that should be in everyone's DVD collection. The AMPAS loved it too, making history by giving the film a record 14 nominations. This record still holds today, although 1997's Titanic has since tied it. This is also the only film in history to receive four female acting nominations, two in Lead Actress (Davis and Baxter) and two in Supporting Actress (Holm and Ritter). Unfortunately, the vote-splitting occurred as it usually does and none of them won. Regarding the other 10 nominations, there were four other categories that saw awards go elsewhere: Original Score (Alfred Newman), Film Editing (Barbara McLean), black-and-white Cinematography (Milton R. Krasner) and black-and-white Art/Set Direction (George W. Davis, Lyle R. Wheeler and Thomas Little; Walter M. Scott). However, Eve did bring home 6 Oscars for Sound Mixing (Thomas Moulton), Adapted Screenplay (Mankiewicz), Director (ditto), black-and-white Costume Design (Charles LeMaire, Edith Head), Supporting Actor (Sanders) and Picture. That top prize was won over Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines and Sunset Blvd., which amazingly enough, is another film that is amongst my all-time favorites.
I was tempted to place a lot of quotes from the movie within this blog, but I did my best to limit that. The reason I wanted to though is just because the lines are so fantastic and so fun. This may be the single best screenplay, dialogue-wise, I've ever seen and heard in my life. The verbal bullets fly so fast, and from so many sources. Thelma Ritter, as always, is dynamite. George Sanders is absolutely tremendous. Bette Davis zings with the best of them. And Anne Baxter as Eve? I've only ever seen one other "ice queen" role done that well, and that was Tilda Swinton in 2007's Michael Clayton. Marilyn Monroe doesn't sling insults, but she delivers her lines hilariously, as do the others when the moment calls for it. The story works. Everything is logical and it's a thrill watching it all unfold. This film is just an absolute treasure, a gem, a true classic that will still 100 years from now be rightfully ranked among the greatest motion pictures of all time.
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