...or is it?
Solo blogpost this time. This film deserves it. Blah blah woof woof, AFI top 100 (10th Anniversary Edition), watching them all in a year. Blogging about it here. Rules are here. Other films can be seen throughout the blog. Go find them.
On with it.
Film 15
15. "All About Eve" (AFI Rank #28)
Nope. Hadn't seen this film before, either.
This is a terrific film. A true masterpiece.
I started this one 4 times before I finally maintained consciousness throughout. It's not that I was bored by it, or anything else, I just have been burning the candle at both ends for...well...my whole life. Sometimes, when I try to watch a film late night...I fall asleep. Took me one night where I fell asleep about 10 minutes in, then woke up two hours later, to finally do it. I decided to sit up, rather than lie down, and by the time I was about 30 minutes into this, I was rapt, and nothing was going to put me to sleep.
The basic framework for the story is solid. Framed with an award ceremony in honor of a young actress named Eve, the film is the story of how she got to that night. An aging ingenue, and brilliant stage actress, Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, is introduced to a young, mousy woman who has hung around the stage door for every single performance of her latest play, "Aged in Wood." Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), the young woman, is led to Margo's dressing room by Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), the wife of the play's author, Lloyd (Hugh Marlowe). There she meets the play's director, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill), the playwright, the star, and the star's personal assistant, Birdie, delightfully played by Thelma Ritter.
Through an almost unbelievable (more on this later) path, Eve insinuates herself immediately into Margo's life, first as a guest in her home, then as Margo's personal assistant. Eventually, we discover that perhaps Eve wants more from Margo than to just be helpful. Through a series of connections, Eve manages to become Margo's understudy. Eve, through her charms, is able to get Karen to be a co-conspirator in getting her a chance to go on one night for Margo. Because it was planned, the critics are all there to witness her performance, including veteran scribe (and sometimes narrator), Addison DeWitt, played by George Sanders. Eve is praised, and becomes...a star.
That's the basics. What makes the film so...engaging is all that is required to make Eve into that star. Manipulation, blackmail, betrayal, persistence, compromise. It's a wonderful ride.
Bette Davis is simply incredible as Margo Channing. Subtle, committed, and decidedly always in the moment, Ms. Davis' portrayal is intensely grounded in reality, while playing a flighty, not real character. My favorite moment of hers, and there are LOTS of great, great moments, is a point in the film in which her lover, the play's director, is chiding her about Eve. By this time in the film, Margo has had her fill with Eve. There's a moment where Margo, in a flash of passion, screams "Cut, print it" (or something very close to that). The moment is so authentic, so real, that one doesn't feel like we're watching an actor playing a part. I felt like I was watching the real Margo Channing. Ms. Davis also does a hell of a drunk.
In fact, that's a great thought. Let's talk about the centerpiece of the film. Just as we've gotten to like Eve, and just as we realize that perhaps, just perhaps, there's more lurking beneath her surface than we know, Margo hosts a party, almost completely arranged by Eve, in Bill Simpson's honor. He's just returned from making a film in Hollywood, and it was his birthday. Margo has had enough of Eve. We watch as she drains drink after drink, eventually going from happy to nasty to morose, back to nasty, then resigned. This scene, of course, features the most famous line in the film. Margo's friends, who have seen the results of too many nights like this, sense that something bad is going to happen. They quiz her about what is about to happen...Margo, downing a drink...then walking away in a defiant way, turns and says, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night." Tremendous. I just got goosebumps typing it. It's ominous. And yet, we cheer. We want the bumpy night. We want someone to get after Eve. She's just too good, dammit.
But we're still at the party. Every major player is at the party. It's a great set piece. We see Addison DeWitt really introduced to us. We meet a wonderfully understated and very funny Marilyn Monroe, playing a young actress who recently graduated from the Copacabana Drama School. The play's producer, Max, is at the party, and despite Margo's lustful anger that evening, she paws on Max, telling him that she loves him. So do we. Max is a wonderful character. Brief screen time, but cuts a path.
Anyhow, the party is the turning point in the film, and from this point on, Eve is no longer this wholesome, helpful character she'd been made out to be...but is now an object of our scorn, and no matter how bitchy, how difficult, how needy Margo appears to be...we recognize that she's a consummate professional, and she is just doing her job.
Other thoughts on the party. There is a wonderful bit that unfolds on the staircase. Every major player from the film is in the scene...and it's one that I've been in countless times, myself. We theatre folk, whether small scale community productions, or as is pictured here, Broadway stars...we enjoy our time talking with each other. I've seen/been part of groups splitting off into small discussion pods for years. I'm sure it's like that for every social group...but I'm pretty much limited to theatre folk when I party. And, inevitably, in the wee hours of the morning, a scene unfolds just like the one in "All About Eve."
So...rapid fire. Celeste Holm is wonderful in this. As is Thelma Ritter. Anne Baxter has the emotional range of a stone. That may be on purpose. Hugh Marlowe is a little stiff, and at no point do I believe he's an actual playwright, but he's a Hollywood leading man type. Gary Merrill is...well...he's not good. I don't see any director of the stage in him...at all. No quirk, no drive...no anything to separate him as a leader. He wasn't good. George Sanders as Addison DeWitt was the highlight of the men. Totally in control at all times, he has a pace, an energy to him that is undeniably likeable, but his character is a bully. And yet, we like him. The Oscar for Best Actor was given to Mr. Sanders, and it was well earned.
Bette Davis. Wanna learn how to act? Watch "All About Eve," and watch Bette Davis. That's all you could need. I can't say more. It's a clinic.
I mentioned above that I'd talk about unbelievable. I forgot. Here it is. No way that Eve goes home with Margo on the very first night she meets her, and no way she winds up in the star's home, as her assistant, that quickly. I'll forgive it, but it's impossible.
Joseph Mankiewicz's direction is tight. There is nothing in this film that seems superfluous. The camera shots are not necessarily grand gestures, but they always make sense. The way the actors interact, the patter, everything. You can see his fingerprints, and it's a joy to witness. "All About Eve" was nominated for a shitload of Academy Awards. It won Best Picture in a year that it was against "Sunset Blvd." and "Born Yesterday." I'm not entirely certain that the right film won...but I'm just as equally certain that the right film did.
"All About Eve" is nothing short of a masterpiece. I'd love to talk about the climax of the film, but if you haven't seen it...I can't give it away. Watch it again if you've seen it before. Watch it for the first time if you haven't. It's high art. Enjoy.
Roger Ebert's take is here. I didn't get to a bunch of Roger's thoughts this time. Oh, and Roger REALLY had a thing for Marilyn Monroe. Sure, she's great...but I think Roger is decidedly looking through a prism of history.
Thanks.
P.S. Totally uneducated, but a thought...has there ever been a class of better iconic female roles nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars than that of 1950? Seems odd that the least of the performances took home the prize, but that's a hell of a field.
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