FilmJudge - All About Eve

REVIEW

All About Eve
1950
Certificate: U | Runtime: 138 | Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders

Margo Channing (Davis) is one of the most famous actresses to have ever graced the boards of Broadway. However, she is conscious of her age catching up with her. When the young and enthusiastic Eve Harrington (Baxter) confesses to being a huge fan of Margo the actress takes the girl under her wing. However, Eve isn't the ingenue she appears to be, and is actually working to supplant Margo as the darling of Broadway.

All About Eve is widely praised for having one of the best screenplays in history, and in some respects I certainly agree with that assessment. Mankiewicz's take on actors, directors and celebrities in general is acerbic and razor-sharp. The dialogue crackles constantly; the film is packed with delightful witticisms and masses of hugely memorable lines. And what's more, most of the humour still seems as fresh as the day it was written.

Davis is absolutely magnificent; her Margo is a charming but bolshy and egotistical diva haunted by the approaching twilight of her career. But, and this is a big but, I find it incredibly hard to believe that anyone, however self-absorbed they may well be, cannot see Eve for what she really is.

There are many reasons for this, one of which is Baxter's performance. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck is said to have questioned whether Baxter could pull off such a conniving and ruthless character. But in fact, Baxter goes overboard with everything. She makes Eve into such a cunning usurper that it's nigh on impossible to see her as the sweet and innocent fan everyone believes her to be. Likewise, Mankiewicz's writing makes her so devious, calculating and determined that unless Margo is secretly blind, deaf and dumb, she couldn't possibly fail to notice there is something a bit off about her new friend.

In fact, the only person who really has his suspicions is theatre critic and professional cynic, Addison DeWitt (the sublime Sanders). In fact, his performance is so mannered and controlled that Baxter's endless purring and grinning looks even worse by comparison. Celeste Holm and Hugh Marlowe also feature as Margo's friends Karen and Lloyd Richards, and Gary Merrill is Margo's boyfriend Bill Sampson. All put in good performances, particularly Holm.

The problem with all this though isn't just that it strains believability, it also makes the film a rather cold experience. The characters are so vain, driven or sinister that it's tricky to really like any of them, and a couple of rather odd subplots do get in the way of things. Then there's the final scene, which I won't spoil here, but it comes across as the sort of sequence a stupid studio executive would insist upon simply to make sure the audience went home a bit happier. Although in actuality everything came from Mankiewicz's pen.

I can see why All About Eve is so heavily admired, particularly amongst American film professionals and critics. It delivers a frightening and biting commentary on the perils of fame, and the ruthlessness that drives people to want it. And yet, for me at least, it's just too extreme and synthetic to convince entirely.

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