All
About Eve (1950)
Starring
Anne Baxter, Bette Davis
Director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Awards
Academy Awards
Best Picture
Best Director - Joseph L.
Mankiewicz
Best Screenplay - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Best Supporting Actor--George
Sanders.
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actress-Anne Baxter
Best Actress-Bette Davis
Plot Synopsis
As the film opens, a rising young actress accepts an award for
best newcomer on the Broadway scene. Then, in a flashback, we see the starlet insinuating
herself into the life of her idol, an aging but accomplished actress. By ruthlessly
exploiting the older woman's kindness and hospitality, she manages to achieve her present
success while almost destroying her "friend" in the process. The ending of the
film returns to the awards banquet to find the starlet clinging to her trophy, the only
thing left in her life to which she can cling.
Film Notes
"Showered with Oscars, this wonderfully bitchy (and witty)
comedy written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz concerns an aging theater star (Bette
Davis) whose life is being supplanted by a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ingenue (Anne Baxter)
whom she helped. This is a film for a viewer to take in like a box of chocolates, packed
with scene-for-scene delights that make the entire story even better than it really is.
The film also gives deviously talented actors such as George Sanders and Thelma Ritter a
chance to speak dazzling lines; Davis bites into her role and never lets go. A classic
from Mankiewicz, a legendary screenwriter and the brilliant director of A Letter to Three
Wives, The
Barefoot Contessa, and Sleuth."
(Tom Keogh, Amazon.com)
Rated: NR