“All About Eve” is a 1950 Twentieth Century Fox Movie about theatre people and stardom. The black and white movie lasts138 minutes and was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and was filmed on soundstages in Los Angeles with locations shots in New York, San Francisco, and New Haven, Connecticut.
The movie is told in flashback of about the sudden rise to fame of Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). A few years earlier Harrington had seemingly been a stage door groupie just eager to see reigning queen of theatre, Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Margo hires Eve as a personal assistant. Eve quickly becomes indispensable to Margo and become more of a friend and confidant than just an employee. In time she begins to replace Margo in rehearsals and becomes her understudy. When a new role is written for Margo, Eve assumes the role and quickly becomes a star who surpasses Margo. . . . .
. . . By the movie’s end it becomes clear that Eve Harrington was not all sweet and innocence as she appeared, but had engaged in a deliberate attempt to enter the theatre. With the movie’s closing scene the threat that Eve Harrington’s Eve is present and more than willing to replace Eve Harrington.
Bette Davis is one of the great female Hollywood stars. She won two Best Actress Oscars. First for “Dangerous” (1935) where she played a rehabilitated Hollywood actress. Her second Best Actress Oscar came in “Jezebel” (1938) where she played Julie an antebellum spoiled brat intent on having her own way opposite Henry Fonda as Preston Dillard. She received nine more Best Actress nominations including one for “All About Eve.”
