All About Eve (1950)

Eve (second left), whom the film is all about.

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders



Welles, Toland and Mankiewicz.  The holiest of holies, the triumvirate primarily responsible* for the greatest film ever made.  And, for what it's worth, I think it probably is - I know it's horribly clichéd to go on about Citizen Kane being better than anything cinema has seen before or since, but as far as I'm concerned there's nothing out there to compare.  Sorry to be obvious, but there it is.

But then, I'm not here to go on about Kane.  In fact, I commit to that:  there's nothing left to be said about that picture, indeed there hasn't been anything left to be said for at least the last thirty years.  So I'm not going to waste my time adding to the pile of needless repetition.  However, I didn't raise it wholly without reason.  See, the names of Welles, Toland and Mankiewicz are unimpeachable: they're like Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, like Roald Amundsen, like Yuri Gagarin, like James Watson and Francis Crick - they did something extraordinary and unique, upon which they have and will retain forever the sole claim.  Orson Welles, Gregg Toland and Herman J. Mankiewicz.  They made Citizen Kane.  And that first name (and middle initial) is important, because of the other Mankiewicz.

It's strange to think of it now, but there was a time - a very long time, in fact - when Herman J. was by no means the most famous Mankiewicz.  He'd been an occasional contributor and (usually uncredited) rewriter to a lot of films - most notably The Wizard of Oz, for which he's generally now recognised to have written most of the Kansas scenes - but also a washed up alcoholic, who'd had an argument over the writing credits to a 1941 picture that critics loved and audiences mostly ignored.  Meanwhile, little brother Joseph L. was a giant.  Writer, director, producer - often a mixture of the three - he has to his name classic pictures like The Philadelphia Story, Sleuth, The Barefoot Contessa, Cleopatra, The Quiet American, A Letter to Three Wives, Dragonwyck, The Ghost and Mrs Muir and Guys and Dolls.  He joined a very exclusive club in winning two Oscars at the same ceremony for A Letter to Three Wives (best screenplay and best director) in 1950, and then a club all of his own in repeating the feat twelve months later with this movie, All About Eve, which I'll get around to eventually.  Joseph L. Mankiewicz ought to be held up to this day as one of the greatest names in Hollywood history.  Well, the Joseph L. bit should be, seeing as Mankiewicz already is.

And I don't mean this as any slight on his older brother - anyone who claims Kane and The Wizard of Oz amongst his achievements has done more than enough as far as I'm concerned - but rather that there needs to be room for two of them, there needs to be a greater respect for the remarkable talents of the younger Mankiewicz.  Sure, he didn't write the greatest film ever made.  But there aren't many names in the long tale of cinema to have done much more than Joseph L. did.

The film?  Quite possibly his best work as writer/director (he didn't direct The Philadelphia Story, which happily saves me from having to pick a favourite), what starts as a light, charming romantic comedy, all good fun, rapidly shifts into a dark study of manipulation, jealousy and cruelty.  The cast is superb, Mankiewicz - as I may have mentioned - was a brilliant writer and director, the film is photographed with elegance and energy by the ever-dependable Milton R. Krasner, there's a very fine Alfred Newman score... it's wonderful.  I see nothing wrong with this film, which is probably why I've not actually written much about it.  What is there to write about it, really?  All About Eve is magnificent.  That is all.




*I think Herrmann and possibly Houseman also deserve more credit than they get. But still, the point stands.