After taking a day off we’re back with the 1950 film All About Eve. Directed and written by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm. I think that this is a good movie that I just didn’t enjoy very much.
Synopsis
Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, is a huge Broadway star but she is over forty and worried that her age will soon create problems for her career. Back stage one of Margo’s close friends Karen Richards, played by Holm, introduces Margo to one of her biggest fans, a young woman named Eve Harrington, played by Baxter. Eve recounts her tragic backstory involving her husband who died during the War and Eve’s time in San Francisco where she first saw Margo perform. Taken by her story Margo brings Eve in to work as her assistant. Eve injects herself into every aspect of Margo’s life which creates tension between the two. Eventually Eve becomes Margo’s understudy and starts a relationship with a famous critic Addison Dewitt, played by George Sanders. Karen catches wind of Eve’s deception but it doesn’t stop Eve from landing the lead role in a new play being directed by Karen’s husband. After Addison learns that Eve’s backstory was also a lie he blackmails her and tells her that she now belongs to him.
All About Margo
Despite the film’s title I think the character that is best realized is Margo Channing. Bette Davis is wonderful at playing a Broadway diva. Margo is a woman who has gotten to the top of her profession but has had to make many sacrifices to get there and now as she is reflecting on her life she has massive regrets. On top of the existential dread that comes with aging Margo has an attractive ambitious young woman clipping at her heels wanting everything that she has. At one point Margo makes the point that her significant other, director Bill Sampson, is 32 years old and will look 32 years old for the next 20 years. It shows that men have the privilege of not having to worry about there age. Men also have the privilege of not having to compete with one another. Eve’s attack on Margo’s career highlights the fact that the number of slots for successful women in showbusiness, or any industry really, are limited. For Eve to get her place in the spotlight she has to shove Margo out of it.
Margo is not a very likeable character. She starts arguments for no reason, she gets drunk and makes a scene at Bill’s birthday party, she is overly paranoid although in regards to Eve her paranoia was justified. But through Davis’ performance you can see that all of these things are a defense that Margo has built up over the years to protect what she has. Margo doesn’t revel in her stardom she seems exhausted at having to try so hard to prove herself still after a long career of proving herself. Margo’s speech to Karen when they are in the car in the cold is one of the most real and gripping performances I have ever seen and really speaks to the struggles of being a woman trying to build a career.
Award Winning Writing
Joseph Mankiewicz won the academy award for both directing and writing for All About Eve. I think his writing is his more noteworthy accomplishment. This film is full of quotable lines most of which are given to Bette Davis. My favorite being, “Lloyd, honey, be a playwright with guts. Write me one about a nice normal woman who just shoots her husband”. Davis’ deadpan delivery is great and a lot of her lines have a funny because it’s true kind of quality to them. Mankiewicz also writes the character of Addison Dewitt really well. Dewitt is a snotty upper crust theater critic. Mankiewicz’s dialogue manages to show how much of a self congratulating prick Addison is while also convincing us that he really is that much more intelligent than everyone else. Dewitt plays the role of detective for most of the film trying to piece together Eve’s real backstory but his turn at the end when he finally discovers the truth brings him close to Stanley Kowalski levels of douchebagery.
A Problem of Length
I think there are moments where the film feels a little bit over written though. There are long drawn out monologues that are difficult to sit through. It makes sense, these are all theater people and have a proclivity for over exaggeration but it causes the movie to drag a bit. This film comes in at nearly 2 and a half hours and that’s way to long to tell this relatively straight forward story. Mankiewicz uses this framing device where we see Eve accepting an award at the beginning of the film with all of the supporting characters looking at her with distain. So from the jump we know that Eve will eventually become successful and burn some bridges. This actually works well for the movie as Margo is slowly catching wind to Eve’s deceptions we the audience already know that Eve will succeed in her goal to overthrow Margo so we notice every little bit of her plan in action.
What doesn’t work quite as well is the voiceover. There are not many movies that do voiceover well and although All About Eve does better than most I think a substantial part of the voiceover can be cut out and the movie would work better. There are a few time jumps in the film where we have Addison Dewitt narrating the events that transpired during the period of time we missed. They scenes seem totally unnecessary. You should give the audience some credit and trust them to pick up on context clues to figure out what the new status quo is. I think this a situation where showing would have been better than telling. I didn’t hate all of the voiceover though. Unlike other films that have one narrator this film has several all sharing their own experience with Eve.
Is Eve a Lesbian?
From the little bit of research I have done on this film I’ve found that it has become somewhat of a mainstay in the LGBTQ film community. This is because the character of Eve Harrington is believed by most to be a closeted queer character. Eve’s obsession with Margo is not overtly sexual in the film but I can definitely see how people can make that conclusion. Eve’s ambition to be a famous actress one of her driving forces but in the first half of the film especially it seems that she is much more interested in being involved in Margo’s life rather than making a career for herself. There is a scene where Margo catches Eve wearing her stage costume and we are meant to believe that Eve aspires to be where Margo is but you can just as easily make the connection that Eve desperately wants to be with Margo. I think if this same film had been made 30 years later the sexual undertones of Margo and Eve’s relationship would have been thrust to the forefront but a respect the subtly that this movie takes. But to give my definitive opinion, yes, eve is definitely a Lesbian.
Hollywood vs. Broadway
These film critics the rivalry between Hollywood movies and theater on Broadway. Multiple times throughout the film characters are saying how theater is the truer art and that if you stoop down and do movies you’re degrading yourself and selling out. Marylyn Monroe’s character, yes Marylyn Monroe is in this movie, suffers a faith even worse than Hollywood, she’s forced to go do TV. There is a lot made about the importance of the stage and how the applause of a live audience is enough gratification to keep on doing plays for close to no money. This part of the movie is what turned me off.
There are a lot of scenes of these rich upper class New York elites complaining about their problems and debating that importance of theater. Why should I care about any of these people? Yes Eve lies and manipulates her way into a spot in this society but the rest of these characters don’t really lose anything so I don’t see why they should resent Eve. Even Margo who Eve has probably effected the most still gets a happy ending settling down with Bill. The stakes of this film seemed off to me and I found a hard time connecting with most of the characters. That being said I can’t deny the great performances and the great writing so I will give All About Eve a conflicted 4 out of 5 stars.
