All About Eve

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see All About Eve (disambiguation).
All About Eve

1967 US re-release film poster
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring Bette Davis
Anne Baxter
George Sanders
Celeste Holm
Music by Alfred Newman
Cinematography Milton R. Krasner
Editing by Barbara McLean
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) October 13 1950
(NYC premiere)
Running time 138 minutes
Country United States
Language English

All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve," by Mary Orr.

The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star. Anne Baxter plays Eve Harrington, a willingly helpful young fan who insinuates herself into Channing's life, ultimately threatening Channing's career and her personal relationships. George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill and Thelma Ritter also appear, and the film provided one of Marilyn Monroe's earliest important roles.

Praised by critics at the time of its release, All About Eve was nominated for 14 Academy Awards (a feat matched only by 1997's Titanic) and won six, including Best Picture. Widely regarded as a classic in cinema history, it was selected in 1990 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry; it was among the first 50 films to be registered. All About Eve appeared at #16 on AFI's 1998 list of the 100 best American films.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Bette Davis as Margo Channing

Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is one of the biggest stars on Broadway, but despite her unmatched success, she is beginning to show her age. After a performance one night, Margo's close friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), the wife of the play's author Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), brings in besotted fan Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) to meet Margo. Eve claims to be Margo's biggest fan who tells the group gathered in Margo's dressing room - Karen and Lloyd, Margo's lover Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill), and Margo's maid Birdie (Thelma Ritter) - that she followed Margo's theatrical tour to New York after seeing her in a play in San Francisco.

Margo quickly befriends Eve, who willingly offers to assist Margo in small ways. Margo soon offers Eve a job as assistant, leaving Birdie, who dislikes Eve, feeling put out.

Eve begins working to supplant Margo, scheming to become her understudy and taking advantage when Margo is tricked into missing a performance. Eve, knowing in advance she will go on, invites the city's theatre critics to the theatre that night. Eve makes a pass at Bill, but he rejects her. She then schemes to secure the role of Cora - despite the fact that Lloyd has written this new character for Margo - through blackmail. Eve attempts to climb higher by using theater critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders). Just before the out-of-town opening of her play Eve faces DeWitt with her next plan - to marry playwright Lloyd Richards after he divorces his wife. DeWitt is infuriated that Eve has outwitted his own plans and reveals that he knows her backstory is all lies.

Eve becomes a Broadway star and is presented with an award for her performance in the role of Cora. She arrives home and encounters an apparently besotted young fan Phoebe who had sneaked into her apartment. Phoebe begins to attend to Eve's needs. Phoebe answers the door to Addison who has returned with Eve's forgotten award. While Eve rests in the other room Phoebe tries on Eve's gown and poses in front of the mirror with her award.

[edit] Production

[edit] Origin

The story of All About Eve originated in an anecdote related to Mary Orr by actress Elisabeth Bergner. While performing in The Two Mrs. Carrolls during 1943 and 1944, Bergner allowed a young fan to become part of her household and employed her as an assistant, but later regretted her generosity when the woman attempted to undermine her. Referring to her only as "the terrible girl," Bergner related the events to Orr, who used it as the basis for her short story "The Wisdom of Eve." In the story, Orr gives the girl a more ruthless character and allows her to succeed in stealing the career of the older actress. Bergner later confirmed the basis of the story in her autobiography Bewundert viel, und viel gescholten (Greatly Admired and Greatly Scolded).

In 1949, Mankiewicz was considering a story about an aging actress and, upon reading "The Wisdom of Eve," felt the conniving girl would be a useful added element. He sent a memo to Darryl F. Zanuck saying it "fits in with an original idea [of mine] and can be combined. Superb starring role for Susan Hayward." Mankiewicz presented a film treatment of the combined stories under the title Best Performance. He changed the main character's name from Margola Cranston to Margo Channing and retained several of Orr's characters, Eve Harrington, Lloyd and Karen Richards, and Miss Caswell, while removing Margo Channing's husband completely and replacing him with a new character, Bill Sampson. The intention was to depict Channing in a new relationship and allow Eve Harrington to threaten both Channing's professional and personal lives. Mankiewicz also added the characters Addison DeWitt, Birdie Coonan, Max Fabian, and Phoebe.

Zanuck was enthusiastic and provided numerous suggestions for improving the screenplay. In some sections he felt Mankiewicz's writing lacked subtlety or provided excessive detail. He suggested diluting Birdie Coonan's jealousy of Eve so the audience would not recognize Eve as a villain until much later in the story. Zanuck reduced the screenplay by about 50 pages and chose the title All About Eve from the opening scenes in which Addison DeWitt says he will soon tell "more of Eve ... All about Eve, in fact."[1]

[edit] Casting and characters

The principal cast of All About Eve. (Left to right) Gary Merrill, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Anne Baxter, Hugh Marlowe and Celeste Holm.

Bette Davis was cast as Margo Channing after Claudette Colbert severely injured her back and was forced to withdraw shortly before filming began.[2]

Davis, who had recently ended a 19-year association with Warner Brothers after several poorly received films, later commented she had read the script in one sitting and immediately accepted the role after realizing it was one of the best she had ever read. Channing had originally been conceived as genteel and knowingly humorous, but with the casting of Davis, Mankiewicz revised the character to be more abrasive. Among other actresses considered before Colbert were Mankiewicz's original inspiration, Susan Hayward, rejected by Zanuck as "too young," Marlene Dietrich, dismissed as "too German," and Gertrude Lawrence, who was ruled out of contention when her agent suggested, "Wouldn't it be nice if Gertie sat by the piano and sang?" Zanuck favored Barbara Stanwyck, but she was not available. Mankiewicz praised Davis for both her professionalism and the calibre of her performance, but in later years continued to discuss how Colbert would have played the role.

Anne Baxter had spent a decade in supporting roles and had won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Razor's Edge in 1947. She got the role of Eve Harrington after the first choice, Jeanne Crain, became pregnant. Crain was at the height of her popularity and had established a career playing likable heroines; Zanuck believed she lacked the "bitch virtuosity" required by the part, and audiences would not accept her as a deceitful character.

The role of Bill Sampson was originally intended for John Garfield or Ronald Reagan. Reagan's future wife Nancy Davis was considered for Karen Richards and Jose Ferrer for Addison DeWitt. Zsa Zsa Gabor actively sought the role of Phoebe without realizing the producers were considering her, along with Angela Lansbury, for Miss Caswell.

A young and unknown Marilyn Monroe (Miss Caswell) in a scene with Anne Baxter, Bette Davis and George Sanders.

Mankiewicz greatly admired Thelma Ritter and wrote the character of Birdie Coonan for her after working with her on A Letter to Three Wives in 1949. As Coonan was the only one immediately suspicious of Eve Harrington, he was confident Ritter would contribute a shrewd characterisation casting doubt on Harrington and providing a counterpoint to the more "theatrical" personalities of the other characters. Marilyn Monroe, relatively unknown at the time, was cast as Miss Caswell, referred to by DeWitt as a "graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art." Monroe got the part despite Zanuck's initial antipathy and belief she was better suited to comedy. Smaller roles were filled by Gregory Ratoff as the producer Max Fabian, Barbara Bates as Phoebe, a young fan of Eve Harrington, and Walter Hampden as the master of ceremonies at an award presentation.[1]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Response

[edit] Critical reaction

All About Eve received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics upon its release on October 13, 1950 at a New York City premiere. The film's competitor, Sunset Boulevard, released the same year, drew similar praise, and the two were often favorably compared. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times says of Davis that "veteran actress Margo Channing in All About Eve was her greatest role".[3] A collection of reviews from the film's release are stored on the website Rottentomatoes.com, and All About Eve has garnered 100% positive reviews there, making it "Certified fresh." Boxoffice.com stated that it "is a classic of the American cinema -- to this day the quintessential depiction of ruthless ambition in the entertainment industry, with legendary performances from Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and George Sanders anchoring one of the very best films from one of Hollywood's very best Golden Era filmmakers: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It is a film that belongs on every collector's shelf - whether on video or DVD. It is a classic that deserves better than what Fox has given it."[4]

[edit] Awards and honors

[edit] Academy Awards

[edit] Golden Globe Awards

[edit] NY Film Critics Circle Awards

[edit] Directors Guild of America Awards

  • Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Motion Picture - Joseph L. Mankiewicz

[edit] Cannes Film Festival

[edit] British Academy of Film and Television Arts

[edit] Later recognition and rankings

In 1990, All About Eve was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film received in 1997 a placement on the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame. The film also earns a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

American Film Institute recognition

[edit] Sarah Siddons Award

The film opens with the image of a fictitious award trophy, described by DeWitt as the "highest honor our theater knows - the Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement." In 1952, a small group of distinguished Chicago theater-goers began to give an award with that name, which was sculpted to look like the one used in the film. It has been given annually, with past honorees including Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and Celeste Holm.

[edit] Adaptations

A radio version of All About Eve starring Tallulah Bankhead as Margo Channing was presented on NBC's The Big Show by the Theatre Guild of the Air on November 16, 1952.[7] The production is notable in that Mary Orr, the writer of the original short story that formed the basis for the original film, played the role of Karen Richards. The cast also featured Alan Hewitt as Addison DeWitt (who narrated), Beatrice Pearson as Eve Harrington, Don Briggs as Lloyd Richards, Kevin McCarthy as Bill Samson, Florence Robinson as Birdie Koonan, and Stefan Schnabel as Max Fabian.[8]

Somewhat more famously, in 1970 the film was made into the stage musical Applause, with book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. The original production starred Lauren Bacall as Margo Channing, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical that season. It ran for four previews and 896 performances at the Palace Theatre on Broadway.

[edit] In Popular Culture

The plot of the film has been used numerous times (frequently as an outright homage to the film), with one famous example being a 1974 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "A New Sue Ann". In the episode, the character of Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White), hostess of a popular local cooking show, hires a young, pretty and very eager fan as her apprentice and assistant, but the neophyte quickly begins to sabotage her mentor, in an attempt to replace her as host of the show. (Sue Ann, however, unlike Margo Channing, prevails in the end, countering the young woman's attempts to steal her success and sending her on her way.)[9]

A 2008 episode of The Simpsons, "All About Lisa", is influenced by this film. In the episode, Lisa becomes Krusty the Clown's assistant, eventually taking his place on television and receiving an entertainment award.[10]

Pedro Almodovar's 1999 Academy Award-winning Spanish language film, Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother), has elements similar to those found in All About Eve. The title of the film itself is an homage to the 1950 film. In the first scene, the character of Manuela and her son, Esteban, are watching a dubbed version of the movie on television when the film is introduced as "Eve Unveiled." Esteban comments that the film should be called "Todo Sobre Eve" ("All About Eve"). Later in the scene, he begins writing about his mother in his notebook and calls the piece "Todo sobre mi madre." Also in All About My Mother, Manuela replaces Nina Cruz as Stella for a night in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, leading a furious Nina to accuse her of learning the part "just like Eve Harrington!"[citation needed]

The 2008 film High School Musical 3: Senior Year use the plot of the the film for the Sharpay storyline. Sharpay (who is reminiscent of Margo) meets Tiara Gold (who is reminiscent of Eve), a British exchange student, and later hires her to be her personal assistant. By the end of the film, Tiara then betrays Sharpay and tells her how her entire plan was to steal the spotlight from Sharpay, and ends up taking Sharpay's place in the musical. Unlike Margo, Sharpay fights back and eventually undermines Tiara to get her spot back, besting her at her own game.[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Staggs, Sam: All About "All About Eve". St Martin's Press, 2001. ISBN 0-312-27315-0
  2. ^ TCM Notes
  3. ^ Roger Ebert "All About Eve (1950)" Chicago Sun-Times (11 June 2000)
  4. ^ http://www.boxoffice.com/boxoffice_scr/boxoffice_dvd_result.asp?terms=12
  5. ^ "NY Times: All About Eve". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/1546/All-About-Eve/awards. Retrieved on 2008-12-20. 
  6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: All About Eve". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4072/year/1951.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-11. 
  7. ^ Ironically, Bette Davis played three roles that had been originated on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead (in Dark Victory, Reflected Glory and The Little Foxes) — Bankhead and Davis were considered to be somewhat similar in style, with Davis a more disciplined performer who understood film better than Bankhead. Source: liner notes, All About Eve, Moving Finger LP MF002
  8. ^ liner notes, All About Eve, Moving Finger LP MF002
  9. ^ "A New Sue Ann" Starpulse.com
  10. ^ The Simpsons on Fox TVGuide.com. Retrieved 18 April 2009.

[edit] External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: All About Eve
Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: All About Eve


Awards and achievements
Preceded by
All the King's Men		 Academy Award for Best Picture
1950		 Succeeded by
An American in Paris
Preceded by
Bicycle Thieves		 BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source
1951		 Succeeded by
La Ronde
Preceded by
n/a		 Special Jury Prize, Cannes
1951		 Succeeded by
Nous sommes tous des assassins
v • d • e
Academy Award for Best Picture

How Green Was My Valley (1941) · Mrs. Miniver (1942) · Casablanca (1943) · Going My Way (1944) · The Lost Weekend (1945) · The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) · Gentleman's Agreement (1947) · Hamlet (1948) · All the King's Men (1949) · All About Eve (1950) · An American in Paris (1951) · The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) · From Here to Eternity (1953) · On the Waterfront (1954) · Marty (1955) · Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) · The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) · Gigi (1958) · Ben-Hur (1959) · The Apartment (1960)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_About_Eve"
Personal tools