All About Eve

Rating:
Summary: Fasten Your Seat Belts...
Review: This is one of my favorite black and white movies. The players all have such talent! Bette Davis is one of my favorite actresses, her interesting voice, and the way she carries herself makes her an icon of American Movies. This movie shows you why.. (a twisted aside, with the advent of DVD, and apologies to Ms. Davis, there is a scene in the dressing room where Ms. Davis sits puffing away at a cigarette. My kids and I had fun with the DVD playing her smoking scene backwards; volumnous clouds of smoke seem to just force themselves back inside her lungs...).
The basic plot is Ms. Davis is quite a star of Theater; Eve, is her understudy. Through manipulation and the planting of seeds, and deviousness never revealed in reviews (get the movie!) Eve wrangles her way into the Actress' life, becomes nearly indespensible to Ms. Davis, and ... well. I can't reveal the rest because that would not be fair.
This movie practically oozes with great insight on life, both in Theater and in general. One of the lines Ms. Davis has become famous for is in this movie, "Fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy night"... The movie is almost worth having just to watch her deliver that line...

Marilyn Monroe is in this movie although I have scarclely ever seen her recieve any credit for it. George Sanders is stunning in this movie; and again I have rarely see him get much credit for his work. In fact, I recommend just about any movie with George Sanders in it... What a talented actor.

I highly recommend All About Eve.

Rating:
Summary: New 2003 DVD transfer: Restored video and audio, plus extras
Review: I managed to find this a few days before its official release date and am happy to report that it finally gives this classic film the treatment it deserves. The video and audio have been restored from orignal source material with noticeable improvements over the previous DVD transfer. The picture has none of the scratches and dust that were present on the earlier version, and there is a Dolby stereo option as well as the original mono. The stereo soundtrack offers greater clarity and depth and there's no low-level hum or hiss.

Besides offering a major improvement in the quality of the image and sound, the new DVD also includes a good selection of extras. There's a 25 minute "Backstory" from AMC that is very informative and entertaining. There are two separate commentary tracks, one with Celeste Holm, Christopher Mankiewicz (Joseph's son), and Kenneth Geist, the other with Sam Staggs, author of "All About 'All About Eve'". There are
promotional interviews with Davis and Baxter, four newsreels, a trailer, and a restoration comparison.

The restoration comparison is one of the strangest that I've seen. Instead of an audio track explaining the problems and processes involved in the transfer, there's a series of screens with text printed on them. There then follows a series of comparisons from various versions of the film. There's nothing really wrong with any of this, but considering the huge amount of time and effort that goes into a restoration of this magnitude, I expected something a bit more dynamic.

For any "All About Eve" fan, old or new, this is the DVD we have been waiting for, and at five dollars less than the original DVD, a real bargain.

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Old Wine in a new Bottle
Review: I was wrong, i.e. this is major improvement over the earlier release (maybe Fox should be more clear in the product announcements). It is one of the best pictures, one of those they do not make anymore nowadays. This is a must have.

Rating:
Summary: MEOW!
Review: Bette Davis will kick you in the guts, pull out your liver, stomp on it and smile the entire time with a cigarette in one hand and a martini in the other.

This may be one of her greatest performances, certainly a signature one, playing a Broadway star on the cusp of being a bit too old, with a young, crafty wannabe, Anne Baxter, nipping at her heals. Everyone thinks, until much later in the movie, that Anne Baxter's character is sweet and lovely and that Bette Davis is just being an old (...), which she is, but with good reason.

Lots of great supporting actors, including a few small scenes with Marilyn Monroe. A well-crafted script with stinging wit and conversations.

Rating:
Summary: My favourite movie of all time!!!
Review: When I first saw this movie, I had no idea what to expect. IT KNOCKED ME OFF MY FEET! I have seen All About Eve 20 times since. I have never seen another movie that many times and no other movie is quite like it.
First of all...you know that saying: they don't make them like they used to. Well, I think not! You don't need to colour this world...the black and white cinematography is bold, beautiful and perfect...as is Bette Davis as Margo Channing. What a star! What a voice! What an actress! She definitely deserved the Oscar that year...is she acting or is she Margo Channing? Who cares in a portrayal this good.
The direction, writing, acting -- across the board magnificant!

Rating:
Summary: FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS....
Review: What's left to say about a legendary classic starring a legendary actress with a legendary cast spouting legendary dialogue and directed by a legendary director? That it's "legendary"? There's so much more to this film that's already been analyzed, re-analyzed, dissected, re-dissected, etc. etc. ad nauseum. To say it is a classic is enough. Davis should have gotten the Oscar for this and Anne Baxter should have gotten Best Supporting Actress. Skullduggery, bitching, self-analysis, back-stabbing, misguided trust, irony and just desserts abound in this backstage story of life in the theater. A priceless cast includes George Sanders as a devious theater critic, Celeste Holm as a loyal but flawed friend, and not to be overlooked---a young Marilyn Monroe as a starlet on the make and the wonderful Thelma Ritter as Margos' assistant who sees her position being usurped by the evil Eve. This film is a must for so many obvious reasons. The ending is now film legend in "be careful what you wish for and who you hurt" territory. Just mention the name "Margo Channing" and instant recognition sends queens flapping like mad butterflies.

Rating:
Summary: All About Eve
Review: The All About Eve movie opens with the Sarah Sittentons Award presentation, the highest honor for an actress/actor, being presented to Eve Harrington. Eve Harrington has come to fame through her admiration of Margo Channing, or was it something besides admiration?
All About Eve has won seventeen awards from 1951 to 1952. Betty Davis and Anne Baxter each won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Joseph L. Mankiewicz won an Oscar for Best Director in 1950 and Outstanding Directorial Achievements in Motion Pictures in 1951. All About Eve was one of the most successful stories for it's time.
Betty Davis (Margo Channing), Anne Baxter (Eve Harrington) and George Sanders (Addison DeWitt) were excellent choices for these roles. Margo plays a beautiful 40 year old actress, who's a spoiled, insecure person, she started acting at age four. Eve was Margo's understudy, who will go to great lengths to achieve stardom. Only Eve is not the innocent actress that she portrays. George plays a very clever movie critic. George can keep everyone on their toes at all times.
All About Eve movie was jam-packed with one liners that are classic. For anyone who likes black and white, classical dramatic films, with loads of talent, All About Eve, in my opinion, would be wonderful movie to watch. This movie can teach you a few things. One fact could be, to watch who you stab in the back during your journey up the ladder to success. Lastly, no matter how you try to cover up your past, someone will probably find out what it was and will try to use the facts against you. I rate this movie a five.

Rating:
Summary: "Mouse, never mouse. If anything RAT!"
Review: This movie is such a favorite of mine. ... Written with intelligence, wit,snap,sentiment and very true human emotions. If effectively allows you to understand about each character in a short amount of time. Fabulous acting from each cast member. I love the scene at Margo's home when Bette Davis, Ann Baxter and Marilyn Monroe show up. Talk about Hollywood legends!! I never get tired of this movie and now it is time to purchase it on DVD. Definately Bette at her best.

Rating:
Summary: Oscar Worthy? Yes
Review: I am a huge fan of Marilyn Monroes so when I saw this on the stands of Blockbuster I had to rent it. It was a let down because there wasn't much Marilyn but movie wasn't a let down. Beside having so little Marilyn Monroe "All About Eve" was a wonderful picture. It was worthy of its Academy Awards, every minute was enjoyable. I think that everyone should pick up "All About Eve".

Rating:
Summary: Brittle, sharp, witty- say "when!!"
Review: One of my ten favorite films of all time, this one is a marvelous exercise in the brio of the written word. Joseph Mankiewicz's script/direction is flawless, and this is easily his finest hour. So many scenes are memorable, and far beyond comic; there is a genuine wit and poignancy combined in just about every bit of dialogue. Bette Davis's Margo Channing may be the prima "prima donna," but her simultaneous vulnerability makes her character very much loved. (She may say 'fasten your seat belts,' but is exploding with insecurity all over the place at the thought of losing her younger fiancee, being upstaged by a VERY young ingenue, and turning "40 years old.....40.....4-0!!") Davis was actually 40+ at the time of filming, but because the topic of aging actresses is met head-on in the film's multi-faceted plot, the character takes command of the subject instead of being the butt of it. (In this respect, the film is remarkably ahead of its time. Now actresses in Hollywood are considered old at the age of thirty.) I wish Davis had won the Oscar this year (it would've capped her wonderful, albeit bumpy, career), but, as it is, this is probably her signature role. It is one of the last great, old-fashioned, black-and-white films to come out of Hollywood. Scoop it up!!