Journal Entry #12

It’s All About Eve

Movie:  1950, b/w, and 138 min.

• Director:  Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Actors: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter

Tiny Synopsis: Eve Harrington is a crazed fan that inserts herself into the very life of the person she is obsessed with. A Ms. Margo Channing who is a famous Broadway star that is paranoid of her age, rightly so. Harrington then takes over Channing’s life, threatening her career and personal relationships something that was not a visible motive from the get go and it soon becomes eerily evident that this is her only purpose in having immersed herself into Channing’s life.

What are some of the cinematic-theatrical gags that Joseph L. Mankiewicz plays with during the film?

At the very beginning of the film Makiewicz establishes an already comical setting by having one of the characters who plays a film critic narrate the scene that is to occur near the end of the film as well. The tone is set cynical by the voice of a Mr. Addison Dewitt who recounts the events of a one award ceremony that was not commercially publicized due to its obscurity from only having guests within the film society. He carry’s on with a class A stereotype about old actors and how their speeches go on and on, warning the naïve, imagined audience that would be his later readers. Repeating a sardonic quality that’s emphasized when he mentions that whatever the old man is talking about is not important. Further on with the criticisms of the theater industry he makes a demeaning comment towards the readers as to which he assumes they know nothing of the world they live in. Mankiewicz also touches on the harshness of it, the superficiality and the common stereotypes. The actress that is towards the end of her career, unwilling to give it up, aging rapidly with the stress of upholding her name. The play’s author who is constantly taken advantage by the director, the wide-eyed, young fan that deeply aspires for the same life.

How does Mankiewicz filming of the very last scene convey his message?

Mankiewicz’ filming of the very last scene conveys the message through the mirror shot. The replication of the new girl who enters into Eve’s life at the end is exactly like Eve was for Margo Channing. This mirror clones her into hundreds and hundreds of the same girl, Mankiewicz’ word to the theater. There will never be an expiration of young girls who go to Hollywood or Manhattan trying to fulfill the “dream.” It begins as a crazed fan and ends with them wanting to be the person they idolize. They are all over, wherever and whenever. A timeless message which will forever be eternal in the world of cinema.