All About Eve: A Review
too many deliciously acerbic one liners to count
This divinely acted, elegantly bitchy Broadway satire stars Bette Davis as ageing actress Margo Channing, serving up equal measures of caustic cattiness, vulnerability and steely resolve in what is considered to be the finest performance of her career. The stellar supporting cast features George Sanders as the critic Addison De Witt, whose acid witticisms simply drip from his tongue, and Anne Baxter as the ingénue who threatens Davis's crown. The film was nominated for a record breaking fourteen Oscars, and marked the major debut of Marilyn Monroe, in a small role as an aspiring starlet. Davis' famous warning "fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy night" before setting forth on an evening of drinking and destruction has become the most often quoted line from a script with too many deliciously acerbic one liners to count. [Penelope Bartlett]