Picture 23: All About Eve (1950)

It’s the 1950s! However, despite the invention of passenger jets, transistor radios and flashy haircuts there seems to be no immediate cinematic technical revolution. Black and white remains the order of the day as we arrive at this winner of 6 Academy Awards. Hollywood stars Bette Davis and Anne Baxter collaborate for one of the iconic films of its time. Another superstar who you may have heard of, Marilyn Monroe, also appears in a minor role. Can this dream team deliver on the biggest stage of all?

They can. This film is intriguing from start to finish. The scenes are long like a play and the dialogue is consistent in depth and quality. We watch as Eve (Anne Baxter) from humble beginnings is increasingly obsessed with Hollywood Starlet Margo (Bette Davis). Eve’s desire to become a success in this tough business and usurp Margo becomes pathological and makes her act in grim and manipulative ways. The success she achieves can only be tainted with a share of misery and the generation of a fair few enemies. When people start looking up to her and getting similar ideas, one gets a sense that a vicious cycle is in motion.

All About Eve grips and entertains in equal measure and is rightly a classic of American cinema. It races into fourth place.

Rating:

9/10

Reflections:

1. If you become a success, some of the next generation will aim to make you irrelevant.

2. Some humans possess phenomenal abilities to deceive and manipulate others.

Oscar Best Picture Rankings:

1. Casablanca (1943)

2. Rebecca (1940)

3. Lost Weekend (1945)

4. All About Eve (1950)

5. Hamlet (1948)

6. How Green Was My Valley (1941)

7. Gone With the Wind (1939)

8. Mrs. Miniver (1942)

9. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

10. Wings (1928)

11. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

12. You can’t take it with you (1938)

13. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

14. Cimarron (1931)

15. Grand Hotel (1932)

16. It Happened One Night (1934)

17. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

18. Cavalcade (1933)

19. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

20. Going My Way (1944)

21. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

22. All the King’s Men (1949)

23. The Broadway Melody (1929)

With credit and thanks to the patrons of the Best Picture Film Club:

Dr Sophie Bloomfield

Dr Caspar Briault

Dr Fionnuala Durrant