All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It is based on the 1946 short story (and subsequent 1949 radio drama) "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr, although Orr does not receive a screen credit.
The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star, and Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington, an ambitious young fan who maneuvers herself into Channing's life, ultimately threatening Channing's career and her personal relationships. The film co-stars George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, and Hugh Marlowe, and features Thelma Ritter, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, Walter Hampden, and Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles.
All About Eve held its world premiere in New York City on October 13, 1950. Highly praised by critics at the time of its release, it received a record 14 nominations at the 23rd Academy Awards, becoming the only film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations (Davis and Baxter as Best Actress, Holm and Ritter as Best Supporting Actress). It went on to win six awards, including Best Picture, as well as Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, Mankiewicz's second consecutive wins in both categories.
Widely considered as among the greatest films of all time, in 1990, All About Eve became one of 25 films selected that year for preservation in the United States Library of Congress's National Film Registry, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was ranked No. 16 on AFI's 1998 list of the 100 best American films.
Plot
At the Sarah Siddons Award ceremony honoring rising actress Eve Harrington, narration from acerbic theatre critic Addison DeWitt introduces the attendees and hints that there is more to Eve's story.
The narration switches to Karen Richards, wife of playwright Lloyd Richards. She recalls the previous October, when she introduced Eve to aging Broadway star Margo Channing, who was starring in a play written by Lloyd. Eve tells Karen, Lloyd, and Margo's maid Birdie that she followed Margo's last theatrical tour to New York City after seeing her perform in San Francisco. She tells of her impoverished childhood and losing her husband in the South Pacific during World War II, and, moved by Eve's story, Margo takes her into her home as her assistant. Eve quickly manipulates her way into Margo's life as both secretary and adoring fan.
Margo is also concerned about her romantic relationship with Bill Simpson, eight years her junior, who is directing a film in California. Without telling Margo, Eve arranges a midnight long-distance phone call from Margo to Bill on his birthday. Eve hopes the unexpected late call will show Bill that Margo forgot his birthday and also sends her own greeting. Margo realizes that Eve set her up and asks producer Max Fabian to hire Eve at his office to get her away from Bill; instead, Eve has Karen convince Fabian to make Eve Margo's understudy without Margo's knowledge.
As Margo's irritation grows, Karen sympathizes with Eve, believing that Margo is overdramatizing her resentment towards her. Hoping to humble Margo, Karen conspires for her to miss a performance so Eve can perform in her place. Eve secretly invites the city's theater critics, including Addison, to attend the performance. Eve's performance is a triumph. Later that night, Eve attempts to seduce Bill, but he rejects her.
Addison interviews Eve for a column, which harshly criticizes Margo for resisting younger talent. Eve apologizes to Lloyd for the things said in the article, and subtly convinces him to consider her instead of Margo for the lead role, Cora, in his next play.
Margo and Bill announce their engagement while dining out with Lloyd and Karen. Eve, who had been dining at the same restaurant with Addison, summons Karen to the ladies' room. After first appearing regretful, she delivers an ultimatum: Karen must recommend her to Lloyd to play Cora or she will have Addison expose Karen's part in Margo's missed performance in his newspaper column. When Karen returns to the table—to her relief—Margo surprisingly announces that she does not wish to play Cora. Margo admits that she is too old for the ingénue role, and her impending marriage means that the theater no longer has to be her entire life.
Eve is cast as Cora, despite the objections of Bill, who is directing the play. Just before the out-of-town opening, Eve tells Addison that she had seduced and plans to marry Lloyd so that he can write plays for her to star in.
Angered by Eve's audacity, Addison reveals he knows her backstory is false; her real name is Gertrude Slescynski, she never went to San Francisco, she was never married, and she was paid to leave town over an affair with her married boss. He blackmails Eve, forbidding her from trying to marry Lloyd and saying she now "belongs" to him.
The story catches up to the opening scene; months later, Eve is a Broadway star headed for Hollywood. While accepting the Sarah Siddons Award, Eve thanks Margo, Bill, Lloyd, and Karen, who react with indifference. Eve skips the after-party and returns home, where she encounters Phoebe, who claims to be a teenage fan who slipped into her apartment and fell asleep. Eve is angry but softens after Phoebe professes her adoration and ingratiates herself. Eve is considering inviting her to stay over rather than take the long subway ride back home when the doorbell buzzes. Phoebe offers to answer the door and recognizes Addison, who has brought Eve's award back from the taxi cab where she left it. Addison quickly realizes that Phoebe isn't her real name and that she, like Eve, has her sights on stardom. Phoebe lies to Eve that a taxi driver had dropped off the award. When she is alone, Phoebe puts on Eve's elegant cloak and poses in front of a floor-length mirror, holding the award and bowing.
Cast
Production Development
All About Eve was based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve" written by Mary Orr and published in Cosmopolitan magazine in May 1946. The story was a highly fictionalized account inspired by an anecdote related by Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner. Bergner told Orr about a young Englishwoman who stood outside the Booth Theatre for several days. Bergner invited the woman into her dressing room and later gave her a job as her secretary to her husband. The woman later became Bergner's understudy and tried to take control of Bergner's life. Bergner confirmed the basis of the story in her autobiography Bewundert viel und viel gescholten (translated as Greatly Admired and Greatly Scolded), devoting five pages to her anecdote.
On January 24, 1949, "The Wisdom of Eve" was adapted into a radio episode broadcast on NBC's Radio City Playhouse. Orr wrote the radio play, changing the name of lead character Margola to Margo. Claudia Morgan was cast as Margo, Marilyn Erskine played Eve and Orr portrayed Karen Richards. A few days later, Twentieth Century-Fox optioned the film rights to Orr's story for $5,000 (). The story caught the attention of James Fisher, the head of the studio's story department, and he sent the story to several contracted producers, writers and directors. On April 29, Joseph L. Mankiewicz sent a memo to studio president Darryl F. Zanuck suggesting that they exercise their option on Orr's story. He stated that the story "fits in with an original idea [of mine] and can be combined. Superb starring role for Susan Hayward."
As he was filming No Way Out (1950), Mankiewicz wrote an 82-page film treatment titled Best Performance during the summer and early fall of 1949. Over the course of six weeks at the San Ysidro Ranch, he expanded his treatment into a first draft. Mankiewicz changed Margo's surname from Cranston to Channing, but Mankiewicz retained Orr's characters Eve Harrington and Lloyd and Karen Richards. He also removed Margo's husband from the original story and replaced him with a new love interest, Bill Simpson. Mankiewicz also created the characters Addison DeWitt, Birdie Coonan, Max Fabian and Phoebe.
By January 1950, Zanuck had received Mankiewicz's draft, and he provided numerous suggestions for improving the screenplay. Zanuck underlined a phrase in Addison DeWitt's voiceover narration: "Eve ... but more of Eve, later. All about Eve, in fact." Zanuck also suggested diluting Birdie Coonan's early mistrust of Eve so that the audience would not recognize Eve as a villainess until much later in the story. After inserting several of Zanuck's suggestions, Mankiewicz delivered another revised draft—dubbed the "temporary draft"—on March 1.
On March 7, Zanuck wrote in a memo to Mankiewicz: "Without any question of a doubt you have done a remarkable job. The holes that were present in certain sections of the original treatment have disappeared." However, Zanuck sent nine pages of notes, detailing recommended cuts or revisions: "I have tried to sincerely point out the spots that appeared dull or overdrawn. I have not let the length of the script influence me. I have tried to cut it as I am sure I would cut if I were in the projection room." Mankiewicz's draft, which had run 223 pages, was truncated to 180. According to Fox records, Mankiewicz's writing services on the project were terminated on March 24, and by April, he started his official assignment as director.
All About Eve was the first film to have its screenplay published in hardcover format when it was published by Random House in 1951. Mankiewicz wrote the book's dedication: "To Rosa—the critic on my hearth" (a pun on "cricket on the hearth".)
Casting
Several actresses were considered for the role of Margo Channing. Mankiewicz's original choice was Susan Hayward, but at 32 years old, she was deemed too young. As the script was being written, Zanuck was favorable to casting Claudette Colbert or Barbara Stanwyck. By February 1950, the role had been awarded to Claudette Colbert, but while filming Three Came Home (1950), she was hospitalized indefinitely for an injured back. With a San Francisco studio already leased for two weeks, Zanuck could not wait for Colbert to recover and sought to quickly replace her. Mankiewicz suggested Gertrude Lawrence, but Lawrence's attorney Fanny Holtzmann insisted that the screenplay be changed so that Lawrence would not smoke or drink in the film and would sing a torch song (instead of "Liebesträume" by Franz Liszt) about Bill in the party scene. Mankiewicz declined her proposed script alterations.
Mankiewicz and Zanuck briefly considered Marlene Dietrich, but Mankiewicz felt that her German accent would be incompatible with the dialogue. In 1972, Mankiewicz stated: "I was, and am, a great admirer of Marlene. But from what I knew of her work and equipment as an actress, I simply could not visualize—or hear—her as a possible Margo." Zanuck contacted Ingrid Bergman to replace Colbert, but Bergman refused to leave Italy for the production.
Bette Davis, who had ended her decades-long association with Warner Bros., was filming Payment on Demand (1951) when she received a phone call from Zanuck but was convinced that it was a prank. Zanuck and Davis had not been on speaking terms since Davis resigned from the Academy. Zanuck sent her the script with the understanding that Davis, if she agreed to the part, would need to be ready to film within ten days. In her 1962 autobiography The Lonely Life, Davis recalled: "When I finished reading All About Eve, I was on cloud nine. Any inconvenience was worth it."