Rating: 
Summary: Killer to Killer, Champion to Champion
Review: When it was made, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "All About Eve" was the cinematic equivalent of a turn by the Flying Wallendas: audacious, impossibly daring, and exhilarating. It's still all those things, fifty-two years after its premiere.The story of an aging stage star who befriends a fan, only to have the fan use the relationship as a springboard to her own stardom, would have been interesting in almost anyone's hands, but Mankiewicz got more from it than anyone else could have imagined. He began with his star, Bette Davis, whose career was floundering. Davis's recent vehicles had been marred by her tendency to do too much onscreen; Mankiewicz not only capitalised on the quality, but persuaded Davis to show what she had always carefully hidden from audiences- fear. Bette's turn as Margo Channing is full of the star's usual bluster, but for once, it's possible to see that bluster for what it was: an attempt to keep people at enough distance to keep them from hurting her. Mank's use of his other actors was equally on-target. Anne Baxter was more a stage actress than a movie performer; the camera tended to expose her technique and make her look a little less than credible. The resulting slightly insincere quality was perfect for Eve Harrington, and it's no surprise that Baxter never had a better role in all the long years of her career. Celeste Holm's ladylike side was exploited as Karen Richards, wife of the playwright responsible for the play Margo is starring in. Although Davis is tempestuous to the point of resembling a hurricane, Holm is the eye of that hurricane, spreading calm wherever she happens to be, yet inseparably joined to the storm. The lesser actors were deployed with equal effectiveness; George Sanders' urbane, effete quality was perfect for the scheming theatre critic Addison DeWitt, whose machinations propel Eve to stardom. Thelma Ritter's turn as Margo's maid, Birdie Coonan, gave her another opportunity to utilise her astringent style in a Mankiewicz movie. The director took a long chance with a new kid- one Marilyn Monroe- giving her a first real chance to shine as Miss Caswell, a showgirl who is, briefly, DeWitt's mistress and who cannot be turned into an actress, no matter how hard the powerful critic tries. Other actors, such as Gary Merrill and Hugh Marlowe, were given better work to do than they ever got again, and acquitted themselves most ably. The detail in the movie is astonishing, and it's all there for a reason. Again and again, Mankiewicz sets up a joke, and waits, most patiently, to deliver the payoff. The film begins with a ceremony to bestow a theatrical honour, the Sarah Siddons Award. The award was fictitious at the time "Eve" was filmed, but Sarah Siddons was real- an Eighteenth Century actress who was the major star of her time, and who posed for many artists, including Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Lawrence. The punch line of the setup doesn't come until after Margo's disastrous cocktail party and the temper tantrum that ends it: the scene ends with Margo fleeing the wreckage she's caused, and a brief exchange between Baxter and Holm. Over Holm's left shoulder, there's an engraving on the wall, and it's Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Sarah Siddons overacting her heart out as "The Tragic Muse". Another example comes when Addison DeWitt is referred to as a "venomous fishwife". Not content with one reference to the character's effete quality, Mankiewicz waits, and finishes off DeWitt's masculinity later in the movie, when DeWitt and Eve are at one table in a nightclub, and Margo Channing and friends are at another. By this point in the story, DeWitt's plot against her has become apparent to Margo, who signals her defiance to DeWitt by picking up a stalk of celery and biting off its end. Ouch. There's plenty more, including the brilliant use of music in the party scene. Viewers who know the songs being played will know the titles, and Mank uses them as sly commentary on the disaster as it unfolds, including snatches of "Stormy Weather" as Margo's final tirade alienates her friends. The director wastes nothing, not even the physical stature of his cast, as in the scene where Baxter dramatically defies DeWitt when he threatens to expose her as the fraud he knows she is. DeWitt deflates her instantly with a vicious critique: "You're too short for that gesture." "All About Eve" is more than a comedy built around the backbiting we all expect in a movie about theatre people. It's a metaphor for the struggles we all have in getting what we want out of life, how hard some of us work at taking happiness from others, and the fear we all have of having our happiness taken. The corruscating, glittering surface of this film is only a wrapping; the real present is underneath, in the hearts that Mankiewicz reveals to us, despite the best efforts of the characters to conceal them.
Rating:
Summary: An Acid-Etched Classic
Review: Most film buffs know that Claudette Colbert was originally slated for the leading role of Margo Channing--but following a back-injury was replaced at the last minute by Bette Davis, whose career had been in the trash can since her departure from Warner Brothers. By most accounts the set was unusually explosive, with Davis proving as tempermental as the role she played and directing most of her fury at co-star Celeste Holm. But as they say, what counts is what you see on the screen, and ALL ABOUT EVE emerged as one of the most honored films of all time, racking up an unheard-of number of awards with its poisonously witty tale of an insecure, aging Broadway star (Davis) whose life and career are slowly consumed by a seemingly devoted but secretly calculating stage struck fan (Anne Baxter.) In some ways the film has not worn as well as you might expect: seen today, the construction seems a bit clunky, the plot is improbable, and the film as a whole feels overlong--not to mention a scene in which Davis delivers a "what is a woman without a man" monologue sure to give every feminist viewer an extreme case of acid indigestion! But the razor sharp script offers a showcase for a cast of brilliant artists at the height of their talents, and they skate across the screen with such exceptional skill that all criticism seems negligable. Although actors Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, and a superlative George Sanders give the performances of their career, the emphasis is on the ladies, and in them ALL ABOUT EVE is remarkably blessed. After seeing the film it is completely impossible to imagine any one except Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, and Celeste Holm in the roles of Margo, Eve, and Karen, and even the small parts of the backstage attendant Birdie and the showgirl Claudia are played to perfection by Thelma Ritter and Marilyn Monroe with such brilliance that they become as memorable as the leads. The result is like acid-etched crystal: hard, sharp, and brilliant from top to bottom. One of the great classics. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: All About Eve
Review: Sporting one of the wittiest, most sophisticated scripts ever created for the cinema, writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's elegantly cynical portrait of life in "the thea-ta" is fully realized through a career performance by Bette Davis, who, in her return to the screen after being blacklisted by studio heads for tussling over actors' rights to choose their own material, imbues aging Broadway star Margo Channing with an amazing juxtaposition of strength and vulnerability. And there isn't a slouch among the supporting cast, which includes Thelma Ritter as Davis' quick-with-a-quip sidekick, Anne Baxter as an adoring fan, George Sanders as viperish columnist Addison deWitt, Celeste Holm as "just a playwright's wife," Gary Merrill as Davis' director and lover, and a young Marilyn Monroe picture-perfect as "a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art." If you haven't seen it, you must. If you have seen it, you must see it again, for this is truly as good as it gets.
Rating: 
Summary: Marilyn Monroe battles Bette Davis in a dated DIVADRAMA !!!
Review: .
NOTE: Also read my UPDATED review on the re-released version of this DVD! This is one film that is never as good as it's remembered to be. I don't even think it was ever as good as it was supposed to be. I think a post-mortem edit would vastly improve the storyline. Either that or an autopsy. Perhaps it's time for a remake. I can just imagine dozens of Bette Davis drag queens "camping out" (pun intended) the night before auditions to recast the Davis role! (Where is Charles Pierce when we need him?) The film has it's merits, but it is so hopelessly dated and corny that only the biggest of Bette Davis fans can get through an entire viewing without swigging martinis ala Diva Davis herself. Two sparkling moments shine through this heavy-duty divadrama: Bette belting out the immortal line "Fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy night!"; and Marilyn Monroe's minor appearance at Bette's boyfriend's birthday bash. TECHNICAL REMARKS:
Although I felt the need to add this DVD to my collection of MARILYN MONROE films, I am deeply disappointed by the murky transfer from film to DVD. I guess I was spoiled by the beautifully restored films of the Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection, but still I was surprised by the poor quality of this DVD. They should have done better. *** This review will be remembered as the first-ever appearance of the word "divadrama", which I came up with today, 1/9/02. Remember you heard it here first. When you hear it on "Will & Grace" you'll know it was my personal contribution to gay society. Thank you! ***
Rating:
Summary: One of the best american films ever made. What? No extras??
Review: All about Eve is (along with Sunset Blvd.) my favourite film of that year. What makes it so great? Everything! This is the story of how greedy people get ahead in showbiz: using other people and manipulating their lives. But there's more than meets the eye. The screenplay really shows how the characters revolving around Eve get affected by her actions. All of them play important parts in her raise and ultimate fall. And more... The ending is one of the best endings ever written on movie history. This is a film that trully shows you the circle of life and how the evil that you do returns to you in the end. Bette Davis, Celeste Holm, Anne Baxter, Thelma Ritter (and even Marilyn Monroe)... This is also a film dominated by women. It is their antagonism between them that moves the film. What they want and what they do. Every scene in this film is capital. An american gem: a solid script, a strong cast, a beautiful music score, great production values, a great cinematography and on top of it all, a great director in peak form. This DVD edition is ok. I think this film deserved a better edition with some commentary or a brief documentary, production notes or something like that. Here, all you get is the trailer. Anyway, with or without extras, this film is a must! My two favourite lines: Bette Davis' "fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night!" and "I wish someone would tell me about me." ohh, but there are many... George Sanders' introduction is beautiful as is his "killer to killer" final talk with Eve.
Buy it now!
Rating:
Summary: A Drama All About Drama
Review: Joseph Mankiewicz's dialogue in "All About Eve" is razor sharp. The script he crafted and developed fully with his impeccable direction conveys the same brutal realism applied to the highly competitive world of New York drama which he applied several years later to the international film industry in "The Barefoot Contessa." Bette Davis' superb rendering of New York stage legend Margo Channing is perhaps the most memorable of her brilliant career. Channing at her most tart, however, cannot hope to exceed the acerbic cutting edge of acid-tongued drama critic Addison DeWitt, played by George Sanders in a role which won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Sanders' date for a party is a chorus girl who aspires to become a Broadway actress, played giddily by a young Marilyn Monroe. Not one for subtlety, Sanders lets her brutally know that she will never become a Sarah Bernhardt. Sanders' sharpest dialogue is reserved for a woman he reveals to know as well as himself, chiefly because of the resemblances he bears to the ice water-veined opportunistic Eve Harrington, played with perfect fidelity by Anne Baxter. Sanders has researched Baxter's past and knows where her numerous bodies are buried, letting her know that he holds her future in his grasp, and that one false move on her part could be fatal to her career. Baxter shrewdly recognizes that he means what he says. The other performers have been impeccably cast by Mankiewicz. Gary Merrill is excellent as Bill Sampson, director and lover of Davis who intercepts a pass tossed at him by Baxter, who has masqueraded as a loyal fan and friend of the star's. The busily opportunistic Baxter also makes a move toward Hugh Marlowe, Broadway's hottest playwright, after being befriended by his wife, Celeste Holm, after she has empathized with the other woman and introduced her to Davis. Baxter is a proverbial "What Makes Sammy Run" opportunist willing to trample anyone in her pursuit of stage stardom. In the publicity jockeying pertaining to "All About Eve," and with both stars being nominated in the Best Actress category, Davis made the comment that Baxter should have been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category instead. Baxter, the shrewd granddaughter of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was not about to be undone. "The name of the picture is 'All About Eve,'" Baxter asserted, "not 'All About Margo.'" From all accounts, the dialogue among some of the stars on set was every bit as tart as what emerged in Mankiewicz's dazzling script.
Rating:
Summary: Fasten Your Seat Belts
Review: Bette Davis at her wicked best. The movie is fine, but it would have been forgotten years ago if it weren't for Davis's great performance. She slaps the other actors down over and over with a withering barrage of firey glares and barbed--and witty--sideswipes. So fasten your seat belts--it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Rating: 
Summary: Great perfomances
Review: Bette Davis and Anne Baxter (one of the prettiest discoveries ever made by Hollywood) give their best on this film, where the first one plays the role of a mature actress who struggles against a young and beautiful ascending star -performed by Baxter-, who would do anything it takes to win the desired Academy Award.
Rating:
Summary: ALL ABOUT EVE!
Review: If you have never seen "All About Eve," then you are missing a true Hollywood classic! The Eve of the title is Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter, but it is Bette Davis as Margo Channing who you are going to remember the most! Margo is an aging star and Eve is her protege, who is really a coniving back-stabbing little, well, you know! Devastating on target look at the Broadway theater scene! George Sanders, Celeste Holm and Gary Merrill shine in the first-rate cast! Marilyn Monroe is also in this one, but you hardly notice as you watch Eve claw her way to the top over Margo's still warm body! We were all reminded of this great 1950 film directed by Joseph Mankiewicz when "Titanic" got all those Oscar nominations! But whatever prompts you to check this one out, just do it!
Rating:
Summary: Bette's Best
Review: I'm guessing that anyone who reads this review is already familiar with this movie and its standing as a titan in the film archives. Like only a few other movies, this film brought together a cast of performers at their personal peaks. Certainly, Bette Davis never surpassed her performance as Margo, and is best remembered for this part. The sexual tension between her character and Gary Merrill's was prompted by their passionate off-screen affair during filming. George Sanders was at his sarcastic best in a performance he never again equalled. However, I'd like to say that anyone who buys this DVD version will be delighted by the transfer quality. I've bought other DVD's of 'classics' only to be disappointed by the quality of transfer. I've been particularly disappointed by black-and-white transfers; somehow it appears hard to duplicate the creamy grays of the original. Not so here; the video quality definitely surpasses that of my VHS copy. A fun film to watch with a big bowl of popcorn and an appreciation of these performers, most long gone. Thank God for the magic of recording!
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