All About Eve (1950)

The first film of this experiment: the 1950 best picture All About Eve.

The stats: All About Eve won 6 of 14 awards it was nominated for, including best: actor in a supporting role, costume design, director, sound recording, screenplay and, of course, picture.

What shocked me most about the film was that when it started I thought it would be one of those upbeat showbiz movies. Instead it almost had a horror feel - not in the story or in how it was presented, but just how Eve sneaks in and becomes this fearsome creature, who takes the place of Margo, and in the end it appears that another "Eve" comes to take her place.

The film starts at what seems to be the climax of Eve's career. Then, through different character narations we see the story unfold. Eve is a fan of the great theater actress Margo Channing, and through the kindness of Margo's friend, Karen, Eve and Margo are introduced. Margo takes Eve under her wing and gives her a job. Shortly thereafter Margo feels Eve as a threat and throws child like tantrums about Eve, Eve, Eve. This is where you think, "man I really don't like Margo - she is out of control" yet, you have an eerie feeling that Eve isn't as sweet as the smile on her face. Through a series of "innocent" events, Eve replaces Margo as a grand actress, and Margo lets go of her actress identity and moves on to pursue her career as a woman. Eve, the whole time, was manipulating and lying in the hopes of becoming greater than the great Margo Channing.

The storyline is great, but it is definitely the screenplay and acting that make this film what it is. The dialogue is witty, vivacious and vivid. I wanted to imprint every line in my memory forever.

It is hard to say whose performance was better, Bette Davis (Margo) or Anne Baxter (Eve). They were both PHENOMENAL and were nominated for best actress. You just loathe Margo in the beginning, especially with her arching, expressive eyebrows, droopy eyes, and down-turned mouth (only because she pouts for the first half of the film).
And then, with those exact same features she wins you over - she is a changed woman who is no longer controlled by the theater, but who is in control of her own life, and this change jumps out at you from the screen. And then there's Anne Baxter whose face is so serene and gentile and whose voice is so soothing, yet you know she is just a sugarcoated lemon, and this shows through her eyes. You see the bad in her come out through her eyes. By the end of the film every feature on her face has gone from sweet to sour.

Can you see the difference? It's so subtle yet you can't forget it once you notice it.

Both women played their roles so brilliantly - where has this acting gone? They don't come as great as Anne Baxter or Bette Davis anymore.

The screenplay, the one that my life's ambition is to memorize, exuded the film's themes. My favorite is the life of the theater and how an actress isn't a woman, but "a body with a voice that [sometimes] pretends it has a mind." What does a woman do once she has destroyed everything in her path to become a great actress? I believe it's Margo who says, "the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster, you forget you'll need them again when you get to be back to being a woman." You see Margo almost self-implode when Eve threatens her place on the ladder. Then, somehow, she lets go and moves on to a great career as a woman, while Eve remains behind that when she is asked "All that for a part in a play" she says, "I'd do much more for a part that good." There is a constant discussion throughout the film about the theater and the obsession with it that makes you, and then ultimately breaks you. Which is kind of ironic, because Marilyn Monroe makes an appearance as an acting ingenue, and her life was pretty much destroyed by the profession she committed it to.

Basically I LOVED this movie. It has a powerhouse cast and the production quality to back it up. Go see it. NOW.