I stick by my assertion that Barbara Stanwyck and Eve Arden are the quintessential dames of classic Hollywood.  In their movies they usually embody the smart, strong, sharp-witted women who navigate the world on their own terms.  Now Bette Davis, her pantheon of parts includes all kinds of women – some mousy, some murderous, and lots of dames to be found, even when they’re 19^th century Southern belles, as in Jezebel.  But it should come as no surprise that my favorite Bette Davis movie (in fact one of my all-time favorite movies) is All About Eve, where she plays fierce, funny and vulnerable Margo Channing.  Is there a dame-ier line in movie history than when Margo tells her party guests to, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

All About Eve is truly one of the all-time classic Hollywood greats, garnering a record-breaking 14 Oscar nominations and winning 6, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (both going to Joseph L. Mankiewicz) and Best Supporting Actor to George Sanders as the deliciously acerbic Addison DeWitt.  All of the four major female roles were Oscar-nominated as well, Bette Davis and Anne Baxter for Best Actress (they probably cancelled each other out), and Best Supporting Actress nods going to Celeste Holm as Margo’s BFF and Thelma Ritter as, well, everyone’s idea of Thelma Ritter.  The movie is considered to be one of the best films of all-time; in 1998 it was #16 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 Best American Films.  The Writers Guild of America named the screenplay as the fifth best in cinema history.  If you’ve never seen All About Eve I feel confident in telling you to remedy that ASAP.  If you find some of the themes kind of played out, keep in mind they started with this movie.  You’ll now recognize how widely copied the whole “wolf in sheep’s clothing trying to take down her idol” has become.  Though 70 years old (wow, that blows my mind!) the relationships, plot twists and witty one-liners work just as well today as they ever did.  The movie is simply fantastic.  Let me put it this way, if you don’t like All About Eve, not only can’t we be friends, I don’t think I could make it through brunch with you.  (Nor would you be able to stomach one with me.  If you don’t like this movie, you will most certainly not like me.)

I don’t want to ruin the plot for those who haven’t seen it, and for those who have, well, you already know it.  But I will tell you that what went on behind-the-scenes is almost as interesting as what you see on the screen.  Based on a short story which was an elaboration of something that happened to actress Elisabeth Bergner, Mankiewicz developed a screenplay about a scheming fan who insinuates herself into the life (on and off the stage) of fabulous larger-than-life Margo Channing.  Played to perfection by Bette Davis, the part was originally intended for Claudette Colbert.  Poor Claudette had a back injury and missed out on what would have been the role of a lifetime and perhaps not relegated her to a name known today only by classic Hollywood film buffs like myself.  According to Wikipedia, in the original version of the script, the part of Margo was “more genteel and knowingly humorous”.  Claudette really knows how to rock the “knowingly humorous” and she would make sense as that Margo.  I am a HUGE fan of Claudette’s, and I can see how her deft way with comedy made her seem perfect for the part.  There were other actresses considered, including Susan Hayward (“too young”), Marlene Dietrich (“too German”), Gertrude Lawrence, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwyck, and Ingrid Bergman.  (I can see Barbara and even Joan in the role, but who’s going to believe someone thinking they can take a man away from Ingrid Bergman?)  But once you see Bette it’s virtually impossible to see anyone else as Margo Channing.  Davis loved the script and once she was cast Mankiewicz subtracted the genteel and added some “abrasive qualities” (I think they mean b*tchy.).

Listen, Bette KUH-RUSHES it.  She IS Margo Channing.  And in many ways, perhaps she was.  First of all, IRL Bette was an actress with a big talent and ego to match.  Also, IRL Bette Davis ended up hitting it off with younger Gary Merrill (who played her on-screen lover, Bill Sampson) and they f**ked like crazy throughout the entire production and ended up getting married.  (They remained married for 10 years, but it’s been said that perhaps it was really Margo and Bill who fell in love rather than Bette and Gary.)

Personally, I don’t find Margo abrasive.  She’s tough sure, but as someone who’d been in the theater all her life, she had to be tough.  (And when men are tough they’re considered…tough, and it’s a wholly positive thing.)  Most of the things she does that seem unseemly are driven by fear, mostly fear of aging – a completely realistic fear for a woman of 40, especially in 1950, especially for an actress, and especially for a woman in love with a younger man.

Anne Baxter is perfect as Eve, and while Jeanne Crain was considered for the part, she became pregnant and Baxter won the role.  Daryl Zanuck was happy because he thought Anne could more convincingly come off as a villain.  Daryl said Jeanne lacked the “bitch virtuosity”.  (That’s a phrase I’ll need to remember.)  For me, if Jeanne Crain, with that perfect punim of hers, was after my guy, I’d surrender immediately.  Still, if she could have carried it off, Jeanne’s air of wholesomeness would have made the Eve role really interesting.  The more a bad girl seems like a good girl the more intense it feels, in movies and IRL.  An unknown at the time, Marilyn Monroe has a small part as Miss Caswell.  Real life met art when Bette Davis, frustrated with Monroe’s unprofessionalism, apparently let her have it in such a way as to make Marilyn have to go off and vomit.  (Stage fright, not Bette Davis, has Miss Caswell retching in the film.)  Celeste Holm played her patented wise woman and Thelma Ritter, whom Mankiewicz just loved, is funny and perfect as the first one who’s totally on to Eve.

The on- and off-screen couple.

While Margo is the film’s star in more ways than one, I confess that George Sanders’ Oscar-winning performance as the way-bitchier-than-Bette Addison DeWitt may be my favorite character.  I love a bitchy queen, and although Addison seems to be straight, he’s straight like Waldo Lydecker in 1944’s Laura is straight.  Frankly, I don’t care AT ALL if Addison is gay or straight, I only care that he’s superbly mean in a gracious, articulate way that George Sanders is just so good at.  Like Bette’s Margo, it’s really hard to believe George is acting when he’s throwing shade with that inimitable purr of his.  (Well, it’s sort of ‘nimitable’, since his brother Tom Conway speaks with a similar Shere Khan purr, but George always seems like the cruel version of Tom.)

In 1970 All About Eve was made into a Broadway musical, Applause.  Lauren Bacall played Margo, and when she left the production she was, ironically, replaced by Anne Baxter.  (As a teenager I worked on a local production of Wonderful Town in which Miss Bacall starred.  I will say that from my personal experience, Miss Bacall is capable of bringing an authentic, real life “bitch virtuosity” to the role of Margo.)

Again, I won’t go into details about the plot, because why?  All I can say is those of you who’ve seen All About Eve know how great it is and know how super dame-y Margo is.  (And Thelma Ritter as Birdie is good and dame-y too, as always.)  For those of you who haven’t seen it, make sure you get to it soon.  You’ll thank me.