Review of All About Eve (1950) by Joe C — 04 Jan 2015

Mankiewicz takes every cliché you've ever suspected about actors and magnifies them, to create an acidic story of jealousy and regret driven by some of the cattiest insults ever brought to the screen.

The ensemble performance is one for the books, as Bette Davis plays Margo, an aging film star who takes enthusiastic, down-on-her-luck fan Eve under her wing as her understudy. Eve's youth and talent reflects Margo age and fading beauty, and as Margo becomes increasingly agitated and difficult to be around, Eve's motives begin to come to light.

All About Eve is glamorous, classy, sassy, and devastatingly biting. It's an absoulte riot. A mad cocktail of sparking dialogue and whip-smart satire. Joseph L. Mankiewicz and his group of misfits deliver a gloriously cohesive and tongue-in-cheek mockery of actors that will have you quoting its lines until the bumpy night is over.