23rd Academy Awards · 1951
All About Eve
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
“It's all about women... and their men!”
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The story
From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer99%Fresh#1 of 98 winnersIMDb8.2151K votes#17 of 98 winners
Metacritic98/ 100#5 of 93 winners
TMDB8.1/ 10
Famous lines
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.
Everybody has a heart - except some people.
I'll admit I may have seen better days, but I'm still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut.
Nice speech, Eve. But I wouldn't worry too much about your heart. You can always put that award where your heart ought to be.
Miss Casswell: Oh, waiter!
De Witt: That isn't a waiter, my dear. That's a butler.
Miss Casswell: Well, I can't yell, 'Oh, butler!' can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler.
If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights and wrapping you up.
We all have abnormality in common. We're a breed apart from the rest of humanity, we theatre folk; We are the original displaced personalities.
Funny business, a woman's career. The things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman.
She loves me like a father. Also, she's loaded.
Bill's thirty-two. He looks thirty-two. He looked it five years ago, he'll look it twenty years from now. I hate men.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- All About Eve earned a record 14 Oscar nominations and is the only film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations: Bette Davis and Anne Baxter for Best Actress, and Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for Supporting Actress.Wikipedia · Introduction
- The story was inspired by an anecdote from actress Elisabeth Bergner about a young woman who stood outside her theater for days, became her secretary and understudy, and then tried to take control of her life.Wikipedia · Development
- Claudette Colbert was originally cast as Margo Channing, but she was hospitalized with an injured back while filming Three Came Home, and Zanuck couldn't wait for her to recover.Wikipedia · Casting
- When Darryl Zanuck phoned Bette Davis about the role, she thought it was a prank, since the two hadn't been on speaking terms. She had to be ready to start filming within ten days.Wikipedia · Casting
- Gertrude Lawrence was considered for Margo, but her attorney demanded that Lawrence not smoke or drink on screen and that she sing a torch song in the party scene. Joseph L. Mankiewicz declined.Wikipedia · Casting
- Marilyn Monroe, in one of her earliest roles, arrived an hour late on her first day of shooting, and according to Gary Merrill her theater lobby scene with George Sanders took 25 takes.Wikipedia · Casting
- Zanuck's first choice for Eve Harrington was Jeanne Crain, but Joseph L. Mankiewicz felt she lacked the "bitch virtuosity" the part required and suggested Anne Baxter instead.Wikipedia · Casting
- Tallulah Bankhead and many critics believed Margo Channing was patterned on her, a charge Bette Davis denied but which costume designer Edith Head attested to.Wikipedia · Adaptations
- All About Eve was the first film to have its screenplay published in hardcover, by Random House in 1951.Wikipedia · Development
- The film inspired the 1970 Tony-winning Broadway musical Applause starring Lauren Bacall as Margo. When Bacall left, she was replaced by Anne Baxter, the film's original Eve.Wikipedia · Adaptations