In 1950, the careers of two great icons of Golden Age Hollywood converged to create All About Eve, a biting take on American show business. Bette Davis delivered one of the great performances of this era, dripping with self-aware sardonicism. Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote the screenplay, crafting witty repartee and stirring monologues that balance the narrative’s dramatic and satirical elements. Both are key to the success of this film that holds the record for most number of Oscar nominations (tied at 14 with Titanic and La La Land), and is currently ranked at #28 on the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.
When ageing Broadway star Margo Channing befriends an ambitious young woman who goes by the name of Eve, she finds her success gradually being sapped away while Eve continues on an upward trajectory. When we first meet Eve she is lurking by the stage door of a theatre which is housing a play starring Margo, her idol. Eve ingratiates herself with Margo and her associates with a tragic backstory, and she soon becomes an assistant for the actress. Davis has an unconventional beauty as Margo, capturing the hardened spirit of a woman who has worked hard to get to where she is now. She is torn between her mistrust of Eve and her acceptance of her descending stardom, fully understanding the cruelty and unfairness inherent in her industry.
Acting as the foil to Margo, Anne Baxter’s Eve is initially quiet and timid, though cracks start to appear in her veneer as she works her way closer to the heart of the Broadway community. She proves herself to be a talented actress after she takes the stage as Margo’s understudy, though we eventually realise that her greatest performance is actually the deceptive role of the unassuming ingenue she has been playing all along to steal her idol’s career. Eve eventually reveals herself to be cut-throat, sabotaging and blackmailing her associates until she attracts the attention and adoration of audiences and critics.
Yet even as Eve reaches the heights of stardom that Margo previously occupied, a stark contrast is notable in their lives. Margo’s tight group of friends have stayed with her throughout her rise and fall, yet Eve’s thirst for the applause from crowds of strangers has left her lonely and unfulfilled. While the scenes we spend in Margo’s circle are loaded with friendly barbs aimed at each other and themselves, the final scene of Eve and newcomer Phoebe feels strangely stilted, lacking the good-natured banter and trust that can only be found between close friends.
Hollywood’s occupation with the cyclical nature of show business is also evident in Sunset Boulevard, released in the same year as All About Eve. The most striking difference between the two comes down to their visual styles. Where Sunset Boulevard takes a dark trip into film noir, All About Eve is often held back by a certain visual blandness that doesn’t quite match its lavish screenplay, submitting more to its stagey theatrical influences than its cinematic. It isn’t until the final shot of the movie that its cinematography reaches the heights of its writing, as Eve’s soon-to-be replacement rehearses her award acceptance surrounded by mirrors reflecting her own vanity back at her.
Yet the enduring qualities of All About Eve have helped it outlast so many other films of this era, allowing it to become one of the greatest movies about show business. It maintains the virtues of kindness and sincerity in a line of work where betrayal and spite will take you far, cynically asserting that those who claw their way to the top will eventually have the same cruelties done to them that they inflicted upon on others. All About Eve isn’t quite an all-out masterpiece, but those areas it focuses its talent into have become shining beacons of artistic excellence in Hollywood.
