All About Eve (1950)

Ann Baxter, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, George Sanders

'All About Eve' is a dramatic movie made in 1950, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm, with Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill and Thelma Ritter. It is a remarkable film, engrossing and entertaining, with a witty, biting script, full of quality performances and it is generally regarded as a cinematic classic, one of the best movies ever made.

Critical acclaim for the movie was overwhelming and it received an amazing fourteen Academy Award nominations, a record which stood until broken by the movie 'Titanic' 47 years later. It won six of its classes, including Best Picture and Best Director, as well as Best Supporting Actor (for George Sanders), and Best Screenplay awards (for Mankiewicz). The two nominations for Best Actress for both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, and the two for Best Supporting Actress for Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter gave the movie the record for most female nominations for the same film.

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In 1997 it was selected at number 16 in the American Film Institute's list of 100 Best Movies, slipping to number 28 in the 2007 selection. It was amongst the first movies to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

The movie is a realistic account of backstage life in the New York Theater. Bette Davis's acing in the role of aging Broadway star, Margo Channing, is compelling; a brilliant and riveting characterisation round which the whole movie revolves. She comes to realise that Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), whom she has taken under her wing, is coldly ambitious and duplicitous. Eve achieves her goal of Broadway stardom, but leaves a web of betrayal, cold-hearted deceitfulness and unhappiness behind her.