Touches You

How sad is this?

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

All About Eve is essentially a film about a bunch of unlikeable women who are able to grow even more unlikeable as the film progresses, and their pushover boyfriends. This concept alone proves it difficult to create a compelling story from, and it definitely did not happen here.It is a picture that consists of only dialogue, and has no other redeeming qualities. Some of the dialogue spoken has a certain level of depth i admit, yet this is one of the few things that keep this movie afloat on a quality basis. Almost all of the scenes are indoors and feature mediocre scenery that do not delight the eyes. Some critics have praised the acting in All About Eve, but Bette Davis's dead eyed lazy delivery of her lines, Anne Baxter's extremely forced mannerisms, George Sanders's wooden emotionless plank behaviour make it quite difficult to see what they are talking about. I would say Gary Merrill was alright, but even thats pushing it.We start off with Eve as a relatively likeable humble insecure celebrity fan ( The only likeable person in the film at that point ) yet halfway through this changes and she becomes just as unlikeable as all the other manipulative melodramatic women in this film. All the women's boyfriends seem to barely have anything to say in their respective relationships, capturing a biased feministic kind of look on reality. In the end this is a film that has no one to root for since every single character is unlikeable, but even worse they are also just not interesting. As stated earlier, the best parts about the film is the writing and dialogue, yet the acting is just so wooden and lazy ( by most of them ) that this barely matters at all. There is just no emotion, no passion in this film. Also it doesn't help that nothing significant ever happens in the film, but that isn't the actors fault. Just a bunch of pseudo intellectual dialogue and shot reverse shot techniques just isn't enough to convince me of its quality. While not a complete disaster due to some witty dialogue ( Yet still kind of pretentious ) it is still a mediocre film with little significance in the end.

Well-deserving of the six Academy awards (including Mankiewicz for his accomplished direction and screenwriting) and eight nominations (including Davis and Baxter for their fine acting), "All About Eve" (1950) is an undying classic, still very impressive. /Mårten Larsson (Twitter: @7thArtShortRevs).

Brilliantly acted and cleverly characterized, with sparkling dialogue that mercilessly parries the gloss from the New York theater world's highly sophisticated veneer, "All About Eve" is a scintillating comedy of manners that compels rapt attention for the whole of its 2¼ hours. We like George Sanders, pointing out Gregory Ratoff to his escort, Marilyn Monroe (whom the script describes as "a member of the Copacabana school of acting"), with the words: "There's a real live producer, honey! Go and do yourself some good!" And the final scene, in which Sanders asks Barbara Bates, "Do you want some day to have an award like that of your own?" — "More than anything else in the world!" she answers. "Then you must ask Miss Harrington how to get one", he replies. "Miss Harrington knows all about it!"It is often complained of Mankiewicz's work that it is too stagey and too talkative, that there is not sufficient movement. There is some justice in this charge in the consideration of such films as Five Fingers, The Quiet American, House of Strangers, and Dragonwyck; certainly Mankiewicz's two spectacles, Guys and Dolls and Cleopatra, are much improved by sharp editing. But in his best films, The Late George Apley, A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve, People Will Talk (which I regard as his masterpiece — it was too off-beat, unfortunately, for contemporary audiences or critics to appreciate), and The Barefoot Contessa, any trace of over- talkativeness is more than offset by the range and variety, the unusualness of the characters. Moreover, it is the characters themselves that determine the plot — not the fate or some external force.Thus, in All About Eve, Margo Channing is the victim of her egocentricity, Sampson the victim of his own cynicism and Richards, the victim of his own ingenuousness. Eve Harrington is cunning and ruthless enough to exploit these traits in her climb to stardom. Besides Mankiewicz's two awards, All About Eve also won statuettes for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (George Sanders), Best Costumes and Best Sound Recording. Also, producer Darryl Zanuck won the Thalberg Memorial Award for consistent high-quality production over the previous three years.The film also won the New York Film Critics' Citation for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Actress (Bette Davis). Actually, I thought that Miss Davis' performance, fine as it was, was overshadowed by Anne Baxter's interpretation of the scheming Eve. To cover with a winning veneer of innocence a character that would not stop at blackmail or adultery to win stardom, cannot have been an easy assignment for a young actress; yet Miss Baxter brought it off flawlessly.OTHER VIEWS: I'd had the general idea for All About Eve in mind for a long time. But I never had a middle, a second act. Then our New York office submitted a short story by Mary Orr called "The Wisdom of Eve" — later a radio script — and I had my second act. Incidentally, Zanuck deserves some credit for what happened. He was the only studio head in town with the courage and intelligence to try new things. I don't think I could have made this picture on any other lot but 20th Century- Fox. -- J.L.M.

There are not many films that I can just watch over and over again, and still appreciate. I'm also someone who is usually critical of even the most iconic of films- don't believe me? Well, everyone in my family seemed to love "The Quiet Man" yet I absolutely hate it! "All About Eve" though is a film that I can still watch over and over. Nearly everything about this film is perfect- Bette Davis is iconic as the fading actress, Ann Baxter is appropriately despicable as the young actress yearning (and eventually succeeding) to replace her, and Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter are wonderful as, respectively, Davis' supportive best friend and the maid who does not quite trust her employer's new protégé. Marilyn Monroe has a small role as a graduate of the Copacabana School for Dramatic Arts, and Barbara Bates plays a crucial role at the film's conclusion.However, George Sanders steals the show for me each time as the diabolical critic. His voice always gets me, and I want to watch what he will do each time.As much as I like Judy Holliday, I do think Bette Davis (or Gloria Swanson) should have won the Oscar for this film. Both of those were powerhouse performances while Holliday's was comedic and did not require much depth in my opinion. But I digress.'All About Eve" is a film that you should not miss.