Movie Monday: All About Eve (1950)

Today’s Movie Monday may be a little controversial since I have very strong opinions on All About Eve. However, I will say that I am thrilled to have finally watched this film after waiting a very long time to see it, and this review has been on my mind for quite some time. Without further ado, here is my take on the film All About Eve.

Although All About Eve is considered one of the best films about show business and it is a a favorite of Bette Davis fans, but I found it to be quite predictable. This film follows the typical wide-eyed, young actress takes the place of another older actress who has had her day. All About Eve shows the ruthless nature of some people and at the end of the film it tells the audience that the cycle will all begin again only this time it will happen to Eve herself.

Something about the storyline of the replaceable actor/actress just doesn’t energize me. A story about show business being a tough has been done a million times over and in cases like A Face in the Crowd it was done a lot better than with All About Eve. So much of the plot of this film is focused on how Bette Davis’ character is feeling which is a bore half the time, too.

Lastly, All About Eve is way too long! There are only a few exceptions, but the majority of classic movies are a reasonable hour and a half. All About Eve takes a little over two hours to come to the conclusion that I figured about by the first hour of the film if not earlier. Now, some films need that extra time to complete the whole story, but I do not believe that this movie need that much time.

Despite all of my critiquing, there are good elements to All About Eve. The acting was solid and the lines were clever. However, I will say this film slowly becomes just the Bette Davis film. I understand she is a huge focal point of the movie because her character is slowly being replaced by Eve, but like many other Bette Davis films it comes across like everyone else in All About Eve had to take a step down acting wise. In my opinion, Bette Davis mostly took over the story of the films she starred in and made them chiefly to highlight her own skills. None of this is to say that I dislike Davis as an actress, matter of fact, I think she was very talented, but Davis is not one of my favorite actresses and only one of her movies makes my list of favorite films.

Overall, my expectations for All About Eve may have been a little too high or possibly the hype for this movie may be overrating it. Either way, I leave it up to you to decide whether this movie holds up to the standard that have been set for it. I give All About Eve 5/10 (10 being “It’s my favorite film!”) because it only gets right about half of what it should.

Much Love,

Sarah