All About Eve

ALL ABOUT EVE ****

I have often thought that the best performances to see are those that win Best Supporting Actor, and last night I was not disappointed with the 1950 winner. Bette Davis at that point had won her two awards and assumed her position as a perennial nominee who never really expected to win. The world of the theater is notorious, and rightly so, for its cutthroat participants. Such is the setting for the winner of Best Picture and 14-Oscar nominee in which Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, a 40-year-old actress who is feeling her years and getting rather MacBethian towards her friends. "All About Eve" opens on an awards ceremony narrated by the extremely dignified George Sanders, who later lent his voice to Sheer Khan in "The Jungle Book." How, he asks, could such a young girl reach such all-consuming prominence in only a year? In the flashback that occupies the bulk of the movie, Anne Baxter is Eve Harrington, the aspiring young starry-eyed actress who desperately desires a break and manages to catch the attention of Celeste Holm, the playwright's wife. Her humility in the face of Miss Channing and gracious actions toward all those involved is a wee bit too good. She seems almost like Melanie Hamilton, except that her sweet demeanor never falters even slightly in the face of all sorts of provocations. Gary Merrill gives a resounding performance that at times left me spellbound, as he shows himself every bit the equal of Bette Davis in some highly intense scenes. He loves her but she doubts his sincerity as she doubts herself in the coming of age. The strains on her career put strain on their relationship but Merrill is faithful always and will not let it go. He is the best director in the business, dating the best actress and they are lifelong friends with the playwright (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife. I postulate that they are fast friends because they have made many enemies in the process of reaching the top of their world. They are the only figures in show business who do not hate the four of them.

As the drama unfolds, our opinion of Margo Channing changes slightly for the better but Eve comes to truer light courtesy of Addison Dewitt, (George Sanders) the critic who is very good at his job. His job is to be fooled by nothing and he is never anyone's fool. As they make fools of one another, he glides through unscathed and manages to manipulate the outcome. After Eve's masterful apology that becomes a blackmail, he upstages her with a similar proposition, showing his devastating ability at smelling a rat. The power of the press is an awesome thing for a critic as skilled as Dewitt. Margo finds peace at last when her lad says the hard word and the irony of the last scene is thick enough to choke the best of us. The dialog throughout is memorable, "the minutes will fly like hours," etc. I am confident that no better movie about the theater behind the curtain has yet been made, although "The Country Girl" starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden is also good. An amazing script, Davis, Baxter, Merrill and Best Supporting Actor George Sanders make "All About Eve" a magnificent work, and it is refreshing to have such depth of emotion without any foul language. **** This is why new movies cannot hope to surpass the old: they were more creative because they could not use cheap expressers such as profane language. Watch for a very young and apparently wholesome Marilyn Monroe in a bit role.