On the very short list for the best screenplays of all-time
Nominated for a record breaking (and still tied) 14 oscar noms (titanic and la la land the others with 14 noms)
Like most of Mankiewicz’s work it’s very cynical in air
Back to back (with letter to three wives in 1949) wins for Best Screenplay and Best Director for Mankiewicz
The cynical voice-over is very down-gazing— and like Three Wives we have multiple voice-overs and narrators- here we start with the wonderfully sardonic George Sanders
It isn’t repeated later (which is a shame for formal purposes) but there’s a great freeze-frame when Baxter gets the award in the opening before we break for the flashback (this is actually the editing vehicle for it after Sanders voice over explanation). This didn’t invent the freeze-frame- most credit Hitchcock for doing that with Champagne in 1928—but this is one of the first uses still (another is It’s a Wonderful Life in 46’)
Such a brilliant and innovative narrative- we go from Sanders voice-over to Celeste Holm’s flashback with her voice-over… then Davis’s
Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter as a team is a dynamic duo if I’ve ever seen one on screen—spitting fire the entire film
The writing by Mankiewicz is stunning. It’s witty, throwing 100+mph the entire time, cutting like a razor—very Wilder-like or Sorkin-like
The “fasten your seatbelts it’s going to be a bumpy night” is genius- but it’s also Bette Davis’ delivery in her best work here—superb playing the aging ego, a maudlin and paranoid drunk,
Marilyn Monroe radiates in her scenes- 1950 wasn’t her debut but it was her coming out party with this and Asphalt Jungle as her first archiveable films
Edith Head Oscar for her costume- brilliant work
Clearly this film’s writing has influenced everything from Sorkin to Mamet to The Favourite here in 2018—it’s an elevated script—never dumbs it down- “revelation” and “megalomania”
Well-deserved Oscar with for George Sanders- Machiavellian, calculating—“Do they have an auditions for television. That’s all television is”— writing
nom for Ritter, nom for Alfred Newman who did the score- an excellent one
a meditation on stardom, jealously, aging—battling Divas
#5 screenplay of all-time according to the WGA—behind only Casablanca, The Godfather, Chinatown, Citizen Kane — “What I go after I want to go after. I don’t want it to come after me”
The cyclical ending is sublime with the protégé/sociopath/dreamer in front of the mirror (mirroring Baxter’s scene trying on Davis’ dress). – sadly this is only one of the handful of interesting visual shots in the film and in that way it is clearly no Citizen Kane or Godfather– Mankiewicz is no Coppola or Welles and that’s painfully clear in that the main mise-en-scene here is medium shot with 3-4 or more actors in the frame—there’s really no interesting camera movements, a few nice editing touches—it’s all screenplay and acting
Interesting review, as # 5 best script of all time mentions.
I must admit i haven’t seen it in a while, but i remember you had it as MP. # 129 that’s masterpiece territory, near giant masterpiece.
Not that i’m complaining about the rating, just observations, would you say it’s similar to The Apartment where everyone praises it as a masterpiece?
As a final comment you would have a hard time if you told someone else that it is not a masterpiece
@Aldo- yeah that’s certainly masterpiece territory for the TSPDT. Yes- I think that’s a fine comparison with The Apartment. I’m not sure what your last comment means- sorry.
I believe that, in the final sentence, he is suggesting that people might show considerable opposition if you told them that All About Eve was less than a masterpiece.
Got a another viewing of this yesterday, what a blast this film is. Eve Harrington is such a perfect and unique villain.
This is one of the most sharply written films I have seen, this exchange for instance:
Addison De Witt: I think the time has come to shed some of your humility. It is just as false not to blow your horn at all as it is to blow it too loudly.
Eve Harrington: I don’t think I’ve done anything to sound off about.
Addison De Witt: We all come into this world with our little egos quipped with individual horns. If we don’t blow them, who else will?
The brilliant lines comes at you so fast I think I missed a few during my 1st viewing. Interesting that it came out the same year as Sunset Blvd. I don’t think this is as cinematic as Sunset Blvd. but it is also somewhat appropriate I suppose as the focus here is on theatre and Sunset Blvd. on Hollywood.
Drake,
Is this the greatest “non cinematic” film? I realize what I said may sound like a contradiction but as you say “it’s all screenplay and acting”. But what a screenplay and what acting!
Say this is directed by like Ingmar Bergman (though perhaps not Ingmar Bergman in the year 1950; perhaps throw a decade or two more onto him), and the visual style, which is astoundingly bland considering the quality of the writing, how much higher does this go?
@Zane – Interested to know what Drake thinks. I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
First off, what grade would you give it?
Personally I think it’s a MP even with the limited visuals just because how great everything else is. It is so captivating for the entire 2 hour plus runtime. The ending is so brilliant as the narrative goes full circle as you have Eve essentially replacing Margo Channing and Phoebe replacing Eve as the obsessed superfan. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a wittier film in terms of dialogue, especially with the George Sanders character, Addison DeWitt.
For your question are we assuming that Joseph L. Mankiewicz still writes the screenplay? Hypotheticals, like this can be tricky because if Bergman directs will it still retain it’s wit and humor? Obviously the visuals would be far greater but other areas may not work as well.
[…] All About Eve– Mankiewicz […]
Interesting review, as # 5 best script of all time mentions.
I must admit i haven’t seen it in a while, but i remember you had it as MP. # 129 that’s masterpiece territory, near giant masterpiece.
Not that i’m complaining about the rating, just observations, would you say it’s similar to The Apartment where everyone praises it as a masterpiece?
As a final comment you would have a hard time if you told someone else that it is not a masterpiece
@Aldo- yeah that’s certainly masterpiece territory for the TSPDT. Yes- I think that’s a fine comparison with The Apartment. I’m not sure what your last comment means- sorry.
I believe that, in the final sentence, he is suggesting that people might show considerable opposition if you told them that All About Eve was less than a masterpiece.
@Graham– gotcha- thanks for the help. Yeah I mean I’m used to having those conversations/arguments with people- so be it.
Got a another viewing of this yesterday, what a blast this film is. Eve Harrington is such a perfect and unique villain.
This is one of the most sharply written films I have seen, this exchange for instance:
Addison De Witt: I think the time has come to shed some of your humility. It is just as false not to blow your horn at all as it is to blow it too loudly.
Eve Harrington: I don’t think I’ve done anything to sound off about.
Addison De Witt: We all come into this world with our little egos quipped with individual horns. If we don’t blow them, who else will?
The brilliant lines comes at you so fast I think I missed a few during my 1st viewing. Interesting that it came out the same year as Sunset Blvd. I don’t think this is as cinematic as Sunset Blvd. but it is also somewhat appropriate I suppose as the focus here is on theatre and Sunset Blvd. on Hollywood.
Drake,
Is this the greatest “non cinematic” film? I realize what I said may sound like a contradiction but as you say “it’s all screenplay and acting”. But what a screenplay and what acting!
@James Trapp- very well could be- not a distinction I keep track of though to easily pull up
Say this is directed by like Ingmar Bergman (though perhaps not Ingmar Bergman in the year 1950; perhaps throw a decade or two more onto him), and the visual style, which is astoundingly bland considering the quality of the writing, how much higher does this go?
I meant to type “and the visual style… blah blah… is perhaps on the level of a Wild Strawberries… and the rest”
@Zane – Interested to know what Drake thinks. I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
First off, what grade would you give it?
Personally I think it’s a MP even with the limited visuals just because how great everything else is. It is so captivating for the entire 2 hour plus runtime. The ending is so brilliant as the narrative goes full circle as you have Eve essentially replacing Margo Channing and Phoebe replacing Eve as the obsessed superfan. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a wittier film in terms of dialogue, especially with the George Sanders character, Addison DeWitt.
For your question are we assuming that Joseph L. Mankiewicz still writes the screenplay? Hypotheticals, like this can be tricky because if Bergman directs will it still retain it’s wit and humor? Obviously the visuals would be far greater but other areas may not work as well.