In 1950, after nearly twenty years in Hollywood, Bette Davis needed a hit movie badly. She had recently left her longtime studio Warner Brothers and had reached the age when most actresses began playing supporting character roles. You can imagine her delight when she was offered the role of Margo Channing in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's backstage melodrama All About Eve. This would be the fifty-ninth and most celebrated movie of her legendary career, and with good reason. Not the least of which being the superb cast and the undeniable fact that All About Eve has the greatest dialogue ever written for a screenplay.
Poor Eve Harrington waits outside the theater hoping to catch a glimpse of her idol Margo Channing after every performance of 'Aged in Wood'. One day she is taken in to meet the star by the wife of the playwright. She quickly weasels her way into Margo's life becoming a trusted companion and all-around girl Friday. Soon it becomes clear that Eve is far more ambitious and far less innocent than she pretends. By the time Margo realizes Eve's true nature she has already maneuvered her way into being hired as Margo's understudy. When Margo misses a matinee, Eve gives the performance of a lifetime, becoming the newest glittering star on the Great White Way.
The incredibly witty, highly theatrical dialogue works so well because the story takes place in the incredibly witty, highly theatrical world of the New York stage. The scene that best demonstrates this is the cocktail party. It features the best lines in the movie including Margo's iconic statement, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" Later when she is in a drunken depression after too many martinis, acerbic theater critic Addison DeWitt tells her, "You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent!" When playwright Lloyd Richards suggests they call it a night Margo snaps, "And you pose as a playwright. A situation pregnant with possibilities and all you can think of is everybody go to sleep." They just don't write dialogue like that anymore.
A young luminescent Marilyn Monroe adds to the luster of this screen gem. She plays an aspiring actress named Miss Caswell who also happens to be a bubble-headed blond. When she calls for a waiter during the cocktail party scene Addison corrects her saying, "That is not a waiter, my dear, that is a butler." Miss Caswell responds, "Well, I can't yell 'Oh butler!' can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler." Without raising an eyebrow Addison replies, "You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point."
Like the stars, the supporting characters in All About Eve are all fully realized people demonstrating both good and bad qualities. Thelma Ritter is a stitch as Birdie, Margo's loyal servant and the only one able to see through Eve from the beginning. Gary Merrill plays director Bill Sampson. He also happens to be Margo's eight-years-younger boyfriend. Celeste Holm is perfectly charming as Margo's best friend Karen and the wife of playwright Lloyd Richards. She is in fact the one responsible for Eve's big break when she purposely strands Margo in a car that mysteriously runs out of gas, in an attempt to teach her sharp-tongued friend a lesson.
The fine acting, direction and script all add up to make this one of the few genuinely perfect movies. But in the final analysis the real credit for the enduring success of All About Eve is due Bette Davis. She IS Margo Channing. The way she holds a cocktail, smokes a cigarette and struts about commanding everyone's attention, and that inimitable hoarse voice she possessed all come together to make this a performance for the ages.
