I watched All About Eve twice last night and once today...I luuuuv this movie! WHY don't they make 'em like this anymore??

It is hard for me to believe that Bette Davis really only 42 when she made this movie...she looks way older than that to me, but never mind, she's just such a hoot to watch in this film!

Great performances all around, but my favorite scene is towards the end of the movie when Addison DeWitt tears down all of Eve Harrington's lies and very calmly informs her that from that moment on, she belongs to him...(and she deserves it, too!!) Also, the scenes between Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter were really clicked (I wonder if that was the only film they ever did together?)

I think I'll go upstaris now and watch it one more time!

Here's some food for thought: if they were doing a remake of All About Eve, who would you cast as Margo Channing?? I'll have to think about this...(remember that in the movie, Margo has just turned 40.)

I can watch Bette Davis movies again and again.
Today I saw a biography of her life narrated by Susan Sarandon.
Of course All About Eve was mentioned along with other favorites of mine
Now Voyager, Dark Victory, Mrs Skeffington, Foxes???
interviews with Dick Cavett, Phil Donahue, "This is your Life"
I was rolling in the hay of Bette Davis nostalgia.

sillage

Ohhh, one of my fave BD movies. I love Now Voyager, because who can resist a makeover movie, even if it totally ridiculous. Never been all that fond of Dark Victory, but I will watch any BD movie, even The Nanny and Baby Jane! I sort of like the high camp of Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte!

Did you notice Marilyn Monroe in a small part?

That particular year was a very tight Oscar race with amazing performances by the top actresses of the day. Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday), Bette Davis (All About Eve), Judy Garland (A Star is Born) and Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard), if I remember correctly. Judy Holliday won, I think.

I agree, why can't they make movies like this anymore!

I love this movie! In a way I find it very un-american, that dry sense of humor and irony, to me it's more british. George Sanders is great, his voice over in the beginning, you listen to that and you know you'll love the movie. I can't pick a favourite scene, but the one with Margo and Karen in the car is top! And the clothes, wow!

Love this movie - she's such a Diva in it, and yes she did look much older but remember she smoked like a fiend and drank too so surely that was the reason she was beginning to age badly.

Marilyn Monroe had a small part in this before she was really famous - she looked very fresh and beautiful in that part.

Yes, why aren't movies made like this one any more?

I think it is because every one has an agenda in the movie business...and it is not to entertain us.

Maybe I am just being old and grumpy this morning.

You know that Claudette Colbert was set to star in this film. She broke her back. Gertrude Lawrence was then, considered . . . she wanted to sing, during the party scene . . . director Mankiewizc wouldn't acquiesce. Barbara Stanwyck, was then approached. She didn't want to play an 'aging' star. As a last resort, Bette Davis was approached; she jumped at the chance to play Margo.

Who could play Margo, today?? If she were younger . . . perhaps, Glenda Jackson. Can't think of anyone else. btw: 'fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy, night!'

Of course I love this one. I own it and watch it from time to time. If you do a little reading about this film, it is always cited for it's intelligent script.

They might have wanted Bette Davis to look a little older than she was in real life, because its about an actress confronting her age. (Loved her hair in this,by the way.) What a great performance. You really feel her pain as she struggles with aging and sorting out what her life is about, what's important, etc.

George Sanders is great, the perfect icy villain. (He basically played the same role in The Portrait of Dorian Grey, many years before.) He committed suicide in real life, sad to say.

I'll have to see it again.

I saw Baby Jane on tv the other night and it struck me that I haven't seen a current movie with that much daring on a psychological level, ever. I don't know if that's a change for the better or the worse. Sweet Charlotte, too, geez, it's over the top.

I have a hard time watching BD as I keep thinking of her Baby Jane and Sweet Charlotte movies. I never saw her in her early movies where she was strikingly beautiful. To hijack the thread, I wonder what she would have looked like in old age with the surgeries that abound today. Her only option were the horror films.

I did think the nuances of expression on the younger movie star were exceedingly well done.

I watched this movie for the first time bec it was recommended here. Meantime, my daughter in law mentioned it for some reason as being a film she really likes. How about that! So I had just seen it myself.

My question is: if you were Margo, would you want your friend to confess what she had done to cause you to miss the performance? and would you have been able to forgive? IRL, I doubt if it would have wrapped up so neatly at the restaurant. Also, IRL I would not have been so gullible about the character, I don't think.

Karin, those are good questions: here's something else, that bothers me: we never get to see Eve Harrington do any onstage acting, except for that little vignette, during which Lloyd and Bill argue over Eve's scene. I guess one could say that she fooled a bunch of 'sophisticated' New Yorkers, but I found the lack of Baxter's actual depiction of stage acting to be an evasion, in this film.

If she were a bit younger, I think Stockard Channing might make a good Margo.

As for seeing Eve "act", even though we don't see her on stage, she is basically "acting" her way through the whole movie. Only at the very end (when Eve is alone in her hotel suite (with Phoebe) do we really see the real Eve. Burnt out and hard boiled, with such a hard edge to her voice...

About Karen helping Margo to miss that performance, I think if/when Margo ever found out about it, she would not be amused! (even with the passage of time)

And yes, Marilyn Monroe was so funny as Miss Cassell, graduate of the "Copacabana School of Dranatic Arts"

I know, nubka . . . that's what the director said, too . . . still, I'd have enjoyed seeing some more proof, of Eve Harrington's ability to act onstage . . .

Thelma Ritter is awesome. Honestly, I hope this movie is not remade-- I think it's so good, I don't want it messed with.

Come to think of it, we never actually get to see Margo "act", either...

That's true!! btw: Stockard Channing, is an EXCELLENT, choice!! Did you see Six Degrees of Separation?? You should . . . Stock plays a tightly wound, society matron, in that film. She is marvelous.

Who should we cast as Eve ??

Click to view attachmentHmmmmmm . . . gosh, I don't know these new actresses, too well . . . you think of someone!! Cate Blanchett??

I'm one of those who would hate to see a remake. This is at the top of my list of all-time favorites. I would forever be comparing the old and the new & nothing would be able to stand up to the original. I really lose myself in the the story - I just hated Eve. I don't think I was ever able to watch Anne Baxter after that and think of her as anything but an evil, conniving climber.

"Seeing Julia" with Annette Benning has a similar theme & good acting. But not the bite. It was a great "Revenge Movie", though, and definately worth seeing.

I thought BD's acting was wooden. Sorry. Her supposedly drunken scene was just speaking slower. I like the line Armanis quotes, but it didn't really get wild thereafter, so the line fell flat to me.

I always like Thelma Ritter. She usually is distinctly herself.

I was thinking about who could play Margo. Now, I agree with Stockard Channing as i love her but I think a little used actress called Mercedes Rhuel (not sure on spelling - she was in that fantastic movie FisherKing) well , I think she could really "do" Margo. Where is this actress now???

Interesting comments, Karin . . . although many critics called 'Eve,' Bette Davis's finest film performance, BD lost the Oscar, to Judy Holliday . . . in my opinion, Davis did a great imitation of Tallulah Bankhead, in All About Eve . . . the hair, the voice, the mannerisms . . . everything, clearly reflects Ms. Bankhead. Personally, I think Davis's finest film role, was THE LETTER.

Definitely one of my top ten flicks of all time. And yes, you ARE too short for that gesture! One earring, it's the latest thing, Dahling. Everything but the bloodhounds snapping at her rear. Oh, I could go on and on...

Susan, it's good to hear from you...you have been missed!

I love this movie too - the snappy dialogue is brilliant.

I just discovered a piece of trivia recently - the actor who played "Bill Sampson", "Margo Channing's" boyfriend was Gary Merrill. I didn't realize that in real life, while this film was made, Bette Davis and he were a couple! They were married, adopted two children - she was 7 years older than he.

Click to view attachmentYes . . . and later, they divorced. Bette was married four times. She claims the love of her life was director, William Wyler. I've read conflicting stories as to whether or not, WW, returned Bette's affections.