Movie: All About Eve :: essays research papers

Movie All About eveEnglish 30Spring "97"In the film All About eventide, (directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and released in1950), eve Harrison (Anne Baxter) was a young woman with evil running throughher veins. She wanted to be "somebody" and chose to get there through MargoChanning (Betty Davis) who was a renowned stage star. Eve would do whatever ittook to get where she wanted to be, including hurt the ones that trusted her andtook her in as a "lost lamb". Though Eve was already evil within and throughout,the people around her made it even easier to acomplish her goals.Margo was one of the most popular stage actresses and put herself high on apedastel, and looked at someone like Eve as being below her, a poor soul thatcould be of no threat to anyone, especially Margo Channing. Eve played the meekand shy girl that idolized Margo. She claimed to attend all the preformaces ofthe play that week due to the fact that she adored Margo and she would havenowhere e lse to go anyway. Doing this allowed Eve to get her foot in the door.If it wasnt for Margos conceitedness, Eve would have had to work a little bitharder to get this. Margo took her into her home.Margos secretary-aid, Birdie (Thelma Ritter), was the first to sensesomething was queer roughly Eve, but her position made it not her place to speakher mind. Eve knew this and also knew it would be easy to take control of herposition because of this. It would whole seem to Margo that she enjoyed doingthings for her.Eve charmed Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill), director and Margos lover, with herfeminine qualities that Margo lacked. Eve just seemed to be overly interestedin everything Bill had to say about the theater. She used to keep him admiringher and at the same time, drove Margo crazy with jealousy to tear theirrelationship apart. Little did she realize, Bill had no romantic feelingstowards Eve at all, so she blew her cover when she made a pass at him.Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), Margos best friend, was the one that foundand introduced Eve to Margo. She was the type of person that would anything foranyone, sort of niave and trusted Eve from day one. Karen was amazed by Evesdevotion towards her idol. After getting into Margos home, she used Karenskindness to subtly suggest that she would love to replace Margos pregnantunderstudy. Once again she got her way.