After being invited backstage to meet her idol Margo Channing, Eve Harringdon worms her way into Margo's life and turns it into her own, becoming a successful stage actress.
I adore this film on so many levels, but above all else, it's the acting ensemble.
5 of the cast were nominated for Oscars, 4 of whom were women, giving it the record for female acting nominations in a single film. Sanders was the only one of the five to take home the statue. The film itself held the nomination haul record for some time at 14, finally taking home 6.
Bette Davis has never been better as the deliciously bitter Margo. She delivers the witty cutting lines like poison arrows, but also showing a ensitive emotional side when the cracks show in her hard exterior.
Celeste Holm plays the downtrodden best friend to a tee. It is her viewpoint, along with the critic Addison DeWitt, that we take. Their dual narration is perfectly timed never overbearing with exposition, just enough to keep the story moving along.
George Sanders(who will always be Shere Khan to me!) plays DeWitt and is mesmerising. It is DeWitt who never falls for Eve's deception and ends up using her for his own benefits.
Marilyn Monroe, in one of her early roles, turns up playing Miss Caswell, a starlet on the arm of a rich producer. It's a very brief, but perfectly pitched performance.
I wasn't so illuminated by Ann Baxter's Eve. from the get go you have no sympathy for her, just deep suspicion and it's Birdie(Thelma Ritter on witty form) who you are cheering for when she makes a jarring remark after Eve's sob story confessional. "What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end."
Eve is played so bi-polar. It's either the innocent down trodden Eve or the steely cold successful Eve. There is no in between. I suppose this is as we see her through Karen or DeWitt's eyes. It's either a very clever performance or a glitch in the writing.
This is a classic film about showbusiness too in particular the snobbery involved. 'Selling out' to go to Hollywood instead of being on or writing for the stage; DeWitt's comments about television:-
Miss Claudia Caswell: Tell me this, do they have auditions for television?
Addison DeWitt: That's, uh, all television is, my dear, nothing but auditions.
In Margo and Eve's world, it's the stage that is the purest art form.
You can't fault the story. I just find that Eve has no arc to her character, though you have to love the ending.
What goes around, comes around!
Fabulous costume design by Edith Head winning one of her numerous Oscars.
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