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All About Eve 
	Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders
	Director:  Joseph L. Mankiewicz
 
Has a Hollywood star ever burned brighter than Bette Davis? Other actresses may be remembered for their sartorial style, tragic deaths or beauty, but Davis dazzled with the brilliance of her craft.
No one else had her swagger or her ability to deliver cutting lines with such malicious charm. In hindsight, it's hard to believe her career was on the wane in the late 1940s. Though she won Oscars for performances in the 1930s ( Dangerous and Jezebel), her most memorable roles came later in her career, in All About Eve and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
She was not director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's first choice to play ageing Broadway actress Margo Channing in All About Eve; the role had been written for Claudette Colbert, who was injured before production began.
All About Eve begins during a banquet for the Sarah Siddons Society (a fictional creation that later inspired a Chicago theatre organisation of the same name). Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), a young actress who appears to be sweet and modest, is honoured with a prestigious acting achievement award. Most of the crowd applauds with enthusiasm, but Margo and Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), a playwright's wife, do not. The rest of the film explores exactly why, and eventually reveals that Eve has been unscrupulous in her quest for fame.
The young actress enters the lives of Margo and Karen posing as a soft-spoken war widow and theatre fanatic. Soon, she becomes Margo's personal secretary and, through some clever manoeuvring, her understudy. Margo, who is convinced the theatre world and her boyfriend will soon discard her for a younger model, feels threatened by Eve, but her friends think she is simply being a drama queen.
The film, which won a best movie Oscar, features many excellent performances. Of the record 14 Academy Award nominations it received, two were for leading actress (Davis and Baxter), two for supporting actress (Holm and Thelma Ritter), and one for supporting actor (George Sanders, who won for his portrayal of critic Addison DeWitt). No other film has earned four Academy acting nominations for women.
Another notable appearance in the film is by Marilyn Monroe, who plays an aspiring actress named Miss Casswell. More than 60 years later, All About Eve is still notable for its constellation of female stars, and for reviving the career of Davis.
Doretta Lau


Rewind, film: All About Eve (1950)

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Has a Hollywood star ever burned brighter than Bette Davis? Other actresses may be remembered for their sartorial style, tragic deaths or beauty, but Davis dazzled with the brilliance of her craft.
