Starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders. Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Marlowe, George Merrill, Gregory Ratoff

(10-Masterpiece)

Sardonic. Intelligent. Classic.

Margo: Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!

Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, is a bonafide star of the theater- perhaps its biggest star-but Margo is getting older (past forty), and life for an actress after forty looks pretty bleak to her. Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter, is an ambitious, young nothing hoping to have center stage for herself. She works her way into Margo’s inner circle, affecting modesty and innocence, but she’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, longing all the time to take Margo’s place. The crisscrossing stories of Margo and Eve’s careers make for a classic satire, one that seems like it could be as much about Hollywood as it is about theater. All About Eve’s also a stirring melodrama, beautifully written, beautifully performed, with a handful of classic characters. Bette Davis is a force of nature, Baxter’s breathy manner of speaking serves her pretentious, insincere character well, and George Sanders’ voice and demeanor almost single-handedly give the film it’s indelible, sardonic tone.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,048)