
Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is waiting backstage to meet her idol, talented but aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). It seems innocent enough as Eve explains that she has seen Margo in EVERY performance of her current play. Margo and her friends take Eve under their wing but only theatre critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) sees through Eve's evil plan, which is to take Margo's parts and her fiancé, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill) too.... (Full plot summary below)
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Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is waiting backstage to meet her idol, talented but aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). It seems innocent enough as Eve explains that she has seen Margo in EVERY performance of her current play. Margo and her friends take Eve under their wing but only theatre critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) sees through Eve's evil plan, which is to take Margo's parts and her fiancé, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill) too.
Leave your thoughts about All About Eve.
| Sacramento BeeJoe BaltakeThe presence of All About Eve, while a relief, is also a sad reminder of how in certain ways movies have regressed in the past 50 years. |
| VarietyAbel GreenThe Zanuck production investiture is plush in every department. |
| Playback:stlSarah BoslaughSanders...was ideally cast in this role: you can feel in Addison's every word the world-weariness of the actor who would eventually commit suicide at age 65... |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie's strength and weakness is Anne Baxter, whose Eve lacks the presence to be a plausible rival to Margo, but is convincing as the scheming fan. When Eve understudies for Margo and gets great reviews, Mankiewicz wisely never shows us her performance; better to imagine it, and focus on the girl whose look is a little too intense, whose eyes a little too focused, whose modesty is somehow suspect. |
| Filmcritic.comPete CroattoScreenwriting students, you have your Bible. Movie lovers, you have a film that is impervious to the rigors of time, not to mention an inspiration for every prime-time soap opera. |
| Electric SheepCaroline BlinderAs if Bette Davis wasn't enough, the supporting cast is also fantastically emotive. |
| NerdistWitney SeiboldJoseph L. Mankiewicz' All About Eve is a rich, impeccably written, gunshot sharp black comedy about an aging actress, the go-getter who seeks to supplant her, and the heaping pile of carefully fostered artisanal bitchiness that they construct. |
| EmpireDavid ParkinsonThe stinging bon mots occasionally sound handcrafted rather than raspingly spontaneous, but aspiring actress Anne Baxter’s rise to the top over the corpse of her supposed idol, Bette Davis, remains rousing and endlessly amusing. |
| The New YorkerPauline KaelAll About Eve has substance in virtually every dramatic and romantic mood, which have been given proper shading and projection by producer Darryl F. Zanuck and Mankiewicz. |
| The New YorkerRichard BrodyAll About Eve is one of the greatest movies about theatre—an idea that, in itself, opens an ironic abyss into which Mankiewicz spelunks with an impish, riotous aplomb. |