All About Eve

The screenplay comes from Mary Orr’s story The Wisdom of Eve, published in Cosmopolitan in 1946; Fox took the rights for 5,000 dollars and Orr’s name never reached the credits. The seed was an incident the Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner had described to Orr. Margo Channing was cast with Claudette Colbert first. When Colbert hurt her back on another set the part went to Bette Davis, who agreed to be ready within 10 days. Marilyn Monroe appears in 2 scenes. At the 23rd Academy Awards the film drew 14 nominations, breaking the record of 13 held by Gone with the Wind. It won 6, among them best picture, director, adapted screenplay and the supporting actor award for George Sanders. Joseph L. Mankiewicz took directing and adapted screenplay for the second year running. All 4 of its nominations in the female acting categories lost: Davis and Anne Baxter for best actress, Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for supporting. The film was named best film at the BAFTA awards. At Cannes in 1951 it took the jury special prize, and Davis was named best actress. A good fit if you want the fear of ageing and of being replaced built line by line inside the theatre business. Not for anyone waiting on incident; the weight sits in the talk.