Still relevant in its themes of women facing identity crises when they get older, and particularly if they're in showbusiness - though as great films like Nyad prove, there has been some change for the better over time. The parallel story of a star facing a threat from a younger contender is in a way a reworking of A Star Is Born, but we have the deceitful and manipulative character of Anne Baxter to enjoy as much as the juicily quotable dialogue. It's interesting how like Margo Eve becomes.
Margo is of course Bette Davis, who had just broken her contract with Warner Bros and stepped in to replace Claudette Colbert, who had hurt her back. (Mankiewicz had initially imagined it for Marlene Dietrich.) It's impossible to think about it without Bette. Her behaviour is terrible at times, she's a nasty and unhappy drunk. And Baxter is also wonderful as such a seemingly nice girl, evil on the inside. Both were Oscar nominated but Judy Holliday won for Born Yesterday.
I also liked the anti-cliché that Baxter is unable to seduce Margot's husband Gary Merrill or Celeste Holm's Hugh Marlowe. She thinks she's leading on George Sanders (one of his best performances), but he turns that around and makes it clear that she's his property.
The very ending, in which Eve encounters her first 'Eve' (Barbara Bates) is wonderfully circular.
Bette actually did marry Merrill a short time later. Her career did not immediately revive after this unfortunately and the fifties were not kind to her.
Great score by Alfred Newman, lovely though quite shadowy photography from Milton Krasner. Edited by Barbara McLean. With Gregory Ratoff as the producer, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe, Walter Hampden, Steven Geray. Won Oscars for Best Film, Writer and Director, Costumes and Sound. Ritter and Holm were nominated; Sanders won. Editing, photography, music, art direction all nominated.
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