ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders,
Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Thelma Ritter,
Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Marilyn Monroe
Famously venomous backstage melodrama starring Bette Davis as a legendary actress and Anne Baxter as an eager young fan who insinuates her way into the great star's life. Davis totally kicks ass in this. You wouldn't want anybody else playing Margo Channing. Others could try, but they wouldn't be Bette Davis. And you could get emphysema just watching her smoke. There's a theatrical quality to most of the performances, which makes perfect sense under the circumstances, and makes you aware of the players who go the other way: George Sanders as a lethally snide critic, Thelma Ritter as Davis's seen-in-all attendant, and Marilyn Monroe in a brief early role as a girl from the Copacabana who's angling for a chance to act. The dialogue crackles and bites (and it's very funny), as if Mankiewicz wrote the script not with a pen or a typewriter, but a dagger dipped in battery acid.
Celeste Holm
(1917-2012)
