Some of the best news from the upcoming New York Film Festival is the complete retrospective of the films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Oct. 1-14), whose most celebrated film, “All About Eve,” from 1950, I discuss in this clip. Not that Oscars are a mark of true quality, but in this case the Academy did itself proud, because the movie won six (including Best Picture and, for Mankiewicz himself, Best Director and Best Screenplay) and was nominated for eight more—tellingly, two for Best Actress (Bette Davis and Anne Baxter) and two for Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter). But the movie’s fame shouldn’t get in the way of our appreciating its particulars and looking at them anew. There will be more to say about Mankiewicz as the retrospective approaches; in general, he mixes analytical intelligence with practical wit. The irony of “All About Eve” has such a broad reach that it’s easily missed; it takes off from the movie’s very subject, a great diva of the stage named Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis. She’s rarely seen onstage; she gives her greatest performances in private, for friends and colleagues and enemies—and for Mankiewicz’s camera. “All 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.
Movie of the Week: “All About Eve”
