In the continuous saga of films that expose Hollywood, Andrew takes a look at All About Eve.
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| "Why yes, I did bring enough protection for the whole evening!" |
Second to Billy Wilder’s scathing and surreal
Tinseltown nightmare Sunset Boulevard,
Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Best Picture winning classic All About Eve is a blistering black comedy about the cutthroat
ambition and backwards dealings to get to the top of the entertainment
industry. Sporting timeless performances
by Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, a young Marilyn Monroe and George Sanders, the
film concerns a “fan” who quickly ingratiates herself into an aging actress’s
life in an effort to supersede her star power all the while scheming, lying and
cheating her way to success. A timeless
masterpiece and still as of today the only film in the history of the Academy
Awards to receive four female acting nominations, All About Eve is known as ‘the bitchiest film of all time’, a film
that digs its sharp claws deep into the duplicitous nature of Hollywood
relationships and the nastiness undertaken by all sides to retain power while
still wearing a glamorous pretty face for all the world to see.
Across the board, All
About Eve is a flawless masterpiece which speaks to those who have both
sold their soul to the film industry and those who have maintained their
integrity to emerge intact. Considered
to be the role of Bette Davis’ career as the abrasive and fading Margot
Channing, it’s spoken of the same breath as Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond from
Sunset Boulevard but far more nuanced
and down to Earth. It’s also arguably
Davis’ most autobiographical and expressive role about a woman in the
entertainment industry who is defeated statistically but not spiritually by her
much younger and inexperienced protégé. Anne
Baxter as the duplicitous Eve, having recently come off of winning an Academy
Award for The Razor’s Edge is
superbly nasty and deceitful, paving the way for the mercurial seductress
Nefretiri in The Ten Commandments. Of the film’s eclectic cast, it was
George Sanders (later known as the voice of Shere Khan in Disney’s The Jungle Book) who took home an Oscar
for the bloodless and conniving theater critic Addison DeWitt. Reserved with mannered cool, Addison is the
one adversary in Eve’s life who can see through her charade and beat her at her
own game.
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| "The internet keeps telling me to smell the flowers. Well, damn it, I don't know what that means!" |
As much a tale of the inner machinations of the
Hollywood system as it is about those who value art over adulation, All About Eve was an instant commercial
and critical success. Unlike the far
more grotesque and maybe even melodramatic Sunset
Boulevard, All About Eve received
effusive praise and garnered a staggering twelve Academy Award nominations,
five of which it won including Best Picture and Best Director. The film even went on to spawn numerous radio
adaptations, including one featuring both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter and in
1970 a stage musical version called Applause
was made with veteran actress Lauren Bacall in the role of Margot
Channing. Frequently reference in
popular television by at least eight different programs, there was even an
episode of The Simpsons entitled All About Lisa where Lisa Simpson worms
her way into Krusty the Clown’s life and supersedes him.
In the years since its release it remains a
timeless classic and among the most realistic examples of the fierce
competition in the acting business and how much nasty backstabbing can be
covered up with glitz and smiles. More
than anything, it presents to newcomers to the film business with a simple
question: Is all the fame and fortune Hollywood has to offer worth selling your
soul over?
-Andrew Kotwicki
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