I’ll start with the eloquent speech said in the opening of the film by Addison DeWitt, played by George Sanders.
The Sarah Siddons Award for
Distinguished Achievement is
perhaps unknown to you. It has been
spared the sensational and
commercial publicity that attends
such questionable “honors” as the
Pulitzer Prize and those awards
presented annually by the film
society…
However it is important that you
know where you are, and why you are
here. This is the dining room of
the Sarah Siddons Society. The occasion is its annual banquet
and presentation of the highest
honor our Theater knows - the Sarah
Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement.
Look guys. If you appreciate great acting and great fucking dialogue, All About Eve is the film to watch. Lets start with the cast:
Anne Baxter -
She plays Eve Harrington and gives a sensational performance. The film was previously called “The Great Performance” for a good reason, and that reason is Eve’s ploy to attain stardom in the theatre, no matter what.
his is what Jow Mankiewicz called the “what they didn’t know…was” - which is something he learned in Paramount when he started writing titles for silent films.
George Sanders -
He was alright in The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, but in Eve he finally won the Acadmy Award for best supporting actor, Addison DeWitt is the know it all critic who was loosely based on George Jean Nathan - an authority in Broadway theatres - the William Randolph Hearst of the theatre. He could make and break carriers. The same with Addison DeWitt, he is the critic that despises Hollywood for stealing the talent of the theatre like Jeanne Eagles and Bankhead. Anyways, this is bar none his best acting performance dudes. This alone should get you to see it.
Bette Davis -
AH! One look is all it took. one look. Take it away Addison!
Margo Channing is the Star of the Theatre. She made her first stage
appearance, at the age of four, in
’Midsummer Night’s Dream’. She
played a fairy and entered - quite
unexpectedly - stark naked. She has
been a Star ever since.
Margo is a great Star. A true Star.
She never was or will be anything
less or anything less…
As this phenomenal line is said, Margo Channing holds a look. In that look we know, we just know that thee is a history with Eve. She projects jealousy and hatred - and so many emotions that cannot be written. It is something that the camera can only capture. And it’s that one look.
Now ladies and gentlemen, is there any other actress with such talent and dilegence and respect for cinema and its craft?
NO.
Bette Davis is the best fucking thing that has ever happened to cinema. All the leading ladies could and would not exists if it weren’t for Miss Bette Davis. That one look she holds is just the mastery of actor and director grasping to attain perfection.
Yeah and there’s also Celest Holm, Hugh Marlow and Gary Merryl. They were all great, but my hands are getting tired. I’ll type more later.
