Movie: All About Eve

Movie: All About Eve


English 30

Spring "97"


    In the film All About Eve, (directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and released in

1950), Eve Harrison (Anne Baxter) was a young woman with evil running through

her veins.  She wanted to be "somebody" and chose to get there through Margo

Channing (Betty Davis) who was a famous stage star.  Eve would do whatever it

took to get where she wanted to be, including hurt the ones that trusted her and

took her in as a "lost lamb".  Though Eve was already evil within and throughout,

the people around her made it even easier to acomplish her goals.


   Margo was one of the most popular stage actresses and put herself high on a

pedastel, and looked at someone like Eve as being below her, a poor soul that

could be of no threat to anyone, especially Margo Channing.  Eve played the meek

and shy girl that idolized Margo.  She claimed to attend all the preformaces of

the play that week due to the fact that she adored Margo and  she would have

nowhere else to go anyway.  Doing this allowed Eve to get her foot in the door.

If it wasn't for Margo's conceitedness, Eve would have had to work a little bit

harder to get this.  Margo took her into her home.


   Margo's secretary-aid, Birdie (Thelma Ritter), was the first to sense

something was strange about Eve, but her position made it not her place to speak

her mind.  Eve knew this and also knew it would be easy to take control of her

position because of this.  It would only seem to Margo that she enjoyed doing

things for her.


   Eve charmed Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill), director and Margo's lover, with her

feminine qualities that Margo lacked.  Eve just seemed to be overly interested

in everything Bill had to say about the theater.  She used to keep him admiring

her and at the same time, drove Margo crazy with jealousy to tear their

relationship apart. Little did she realize, Bill had no romantic feelings

towards Eve at all, so she blew her cover when she made a pass at him.


   Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), Margo's best friend, was the one that found

and introduced Eve to Margo.  She was the type of person that would anything for

anyone, sort of niave and trusted Eve from day one.  Karen was amazed by Eve's

devotion towards her idol.  After getting into Margo's home, she used Karen's

kindness to subtly suggest that she would love to replace Margo's pregnant

understudy.  Once again she got her way.


   After Eve's first reading, she completely won over Karen's husband, Lloyd

Richards (Hugh Marlowe), a playwright.  Eve gave him
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