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All About Eve Overview:

All About Eve (1950) was a Drama - Black-and-white Film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.

The film was based on the short story The Wisdom of Eve written by Mary Orr published in Cosmopolitan in May 1946.

SYNOPSIS

This brilliant, acerbic look at theater life features Davis as an aging Broadway star who takes a seemingly naive fan under her wing, only to discover the waif is scheming to take her throne. Wit and sarcasm reign supreme as the determined divas duke it out. Davis is often cited for this role, but George Sanders as the viperish columnist is oily perfection.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

All About Eve was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990.

Academy Awards 1950 --- Ceremony Number 23 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActorGeorge SandersWon
Best ActressAnne BaxterNominated
Best ActressBette DavisNominated
Best Supporting ActressCeleste HolmNominated
Best Supporting ActressThelma RitterNominated
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Lyle Wheeler, George W. Davis; Set Decoration: Thomas Little, Walter M. ScottNominated
Best CinematographyMilton KrasnerNominated
Best Costume DesignEdith Head, Charles LeMaireWon
Best DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczWon
Best Film EditingBarbara McLeanNominated
Best Music - ScoringAlfred NewmanNominated
Best Picture20th Century-FoxWon
Best WritingJoseph L. MankiewiczWon
See More Oscar Winners

All About Eve BlogHub Articles:

Marilyn: Behind the Icon – Monroe Steals Scenes in All About Eve

By Gary Vitacco-Robles on Jun 29, 2020 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Marilyn: Behind the Icon Marilyn Monroe Steals Scenes in All About Eve Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe and George Sanders On the heels of winning the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) director Joseph L. Mankiewicz casted an A-film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck at ... Read full article

Win Tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: All About Eve” (Giveaway runs February 3-18)

By Annmarie Gatti on Feb 3, 2017 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Win Tickets to see “All About Eve” on the Big Screen! in Select Cinemas Nationwide Sunday, March 5 & Wednesday, March 8! “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!” CMH is thrilled to announce the 3rd of our 14 movie ticket giveaways this year, courtesy of Fathom Events! T... Read full article

Like Liz Lemon’s Sugarbaker Meltdown? See Bette Davis in All about Eve

By Judy on Mar 20, 2014 From Cary Grant Won't Eat You

I always love a comedic meltdown, and 30 Rock‘s Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is brilliant at them. In one of my favorite episodes, The C Word (Season 1, Episode 14), Lemon tries to earn a reputation as a nice boss by spoiling her staff. Of course, her subordinates quickly exploit her kindness, resulti... Read full article

All About Eve (1950) (1)

By Brandy Dean on Nov 16, 2013 From Pretty Clever Films

For Hollywood actresses old age is at best a limbo of obscurity and at worst a slow descent into the hell of being unknown. To wit, just look at two of Hollywood’s most famous portrayals of the aging actress, Gloria Swanson as the waxily preserved Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s Sunset B... Read full article

All About Eve, Limerick Style

By Angela on Nov 27, 2012 From Hollywood Revue

Just a quick entry for True Classics’ third anniversary classic film limerick contest. There once was a woman named Eve. Stardom is what she hoped to achieve. She plotted and schemed, Margo sure was steamed. The Siddons Award she would receive.... Read full article

See More All About Eve Articles

All About Eve Quotes:

[a butler passes by]
Miss Claudia Caswell: Oh, waiter!
Addison DeWitt: That is not a waiter, my dear, that is a butler.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Well, I can't yell "Oh butler!" can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler.
Addison DeWitt: You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.
Miss Claudia Caswell: I don't want to make trouble. All I want is a drink.
Max Fabian: Leave it to me. I'll get you one.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Thank you, Mr. Fabian.
Addison DeWitt: Well done! I can see your career rise in the east like the sun.
[throwing door open]
Eve Harrington: Get out.
Addison DeWitt: You're too short for that gesture.
Bill Sampson: We started talking - she wanted to know about Hollywood. She seemed so interested.
Margo Channing: She's a girl of so many interests.
Bill Sampson: Pretty rare quality these days.
Margo Channing: A girl of so many rare qualities.
Bill Sampson: So she seems.
Margo Channing: So you've pointed out so often! So many qualities so often - her loyalty, efficiency, devotion, warmth, and affection, and so young! So young and so fair!
Eve Harrington: I'll never forget this night as long as I live, and I'll never forget you for making it possible.
Bill Sampson: Darling, there are certain characteristics for which you are famous, on stage and off. I love you for some of them, in spite of others. I haven't let those become too important. They're part of your equipment for getting along in what is laughingly called our environment. You have to keep your teeth sharp - all right - but I will not have you sharpen them on me, or on Eve!
Margo Channing: What about her teeth? What about her fangs?
Bill Sampson: She hasn't cut them yet, and you know it! So when you start judging an idealistic, dreamy-eyed kid by the barroom Benzedrine standards of this megalomaniac society, I won't have it! Eve Harrington has never, by word, look, thought, or suggestion indicated anything to me but her adoration for you and her happiness at our being in love. And to intimate anything else doesn't spell jealousy to me - it spells a paranoiac insecurity that you should be ashamed of!
Margo Channing: Cut! Print it! What happens in the next reel? Do I get dragged off screaming to the snake pits?
See More Quotes from All About Eve
All About Eve Facts
Co-star Celeste Holm spoke about her experience with Bette Davis on the first day of shooting: "I walked onto the set . . . on the first day and said, 'Good morning,' and do you know her reply? She said, 'Oh shit, good manners.' I never spoke to her again - ever."
Claudette Colbert was originally cast as Margo Channing, but suffered a ruptured disc during filming on Three Came Home and had to withdraw. Bette Davis stepped into the role, even though 20th Century-Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck and Davis couldn't stand each other, going back to when Davis walked out from her post as president of the Motion Picture Academy in 1941.
The irony was that Joseph L. Mankiewicz knew very little about the theatrical world. And yet he created one of the great classics about that world. Even more ironically when Mankiewicz tackled a world that he knew much more intimately, lampooning the film community in The Barefoot Contessa, it was a resounding flop, both creatively and financially.
The movie's line "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" was voted as the #12 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
It was Darryl F. Zanuck who decided to change the working title "Best Performance" to "All About Eve" after reading one of Addison DeWitt's lines in the opening narration of the script.
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