Backstory - All About Eve (Behind the Scenes Documentary)

it's been called one of the greatest movies ever made we're all busy little beans for stings making honey day and night aren't we honey it's been praised as having one of the finest screenplays ever written why do they always look like unhappy rabbits cuz that's what they are don't make him happier with the heated performances and scorching screenplay you can always put that award where your heart ought to be we're nothing compared to the passionate fireworks that exploded behind the scenes what's attractive on stage need not necessarily be attractive on all right hi art low blows and the demons of desire fasten your seat belts it's going to be a bumpy night unpack story all about Eve how that happens there are particular aspects of my life to which I would like to maintain so an exclusive rights and privileges for instance what for instance you Joseph mankiewicz is all about Eve was that rare animal in Hollywood it was a true work of art in which every element blended perfectly it had a brilliant script filled with biting humor what are you okay a stellar cast that showcased some of Hollywood's finest actors at the very peaks of their careers and it had a director who brought out the very best work from everyone involved you picture I believe I will but what made the film a smash hit was its star Betty Davis who salvaged her fading career with a tour de force performance that uncannily mirrored her off screen life it was the greatest break at that point in my career that ever happened there's no question about it as I told mankiewicz he resurrected me from the dead glory hallelujah in 1949 Joseph mankiewicz was Hollywood's golden boy the multi-talented filmmaker had just won Oscars for both writing and directing a letter to three wives a film that further revealed his fascination with exploring the female psyche then all of his films the films that he wrote and especially the ones that he wrote and directed the women are the best parts they have the best parts they are the most three-dimensional characters and the most fascinating characters actresses in particular fascinated him mankiewicz had always dreamed of making a movie about the theatre world but it took a short story from Cosmopolitan magazine to make that dream a reality based on a true story the wisdom of Eve was the tale of a conniving young actress who latches on to a great but fading star who's reached the critical age of 40 I remember him commenting how unfair it was that women were considered no longer beautiful or able to hold on to carry a star role romantic role sometime north of 40 Audrina's keep coming up beneath you and you keep moving up mankiewicz develop the story into a treatment for a film entitled best performance 20th Century Fox studio Chief Darryl F zanuck liked the idea so much that he agreed to make it one of his personal productions zanuck was very enthusiastic and when zanuck got the script and go through and make notations and there was a line near the beginning of the script board said but more about Eve later in fact All About Eve and zanuck circled that and that may have been the first time that the thoughts were given to using that as the title but almost immediately mankiewicz and his brilliant but volatile producer began arguing over casting for the duplicitous Eve zanuck wanted to hire Jeanne Crain but mankiewicz insisted on another Fox contract player 26 year old Oscar winner and Baxter and Baxter oh I haven't seen you since the Academy Awards congratulations on winning that Oscar thanks ed very much mankiewicz believes strongly that in contrast to Jeanne Crain and Baxter had what it took to play the part something he called virtuosity I know we've better than anyone she wanted success she had her own ideas on how to get it she lied she cheated she forgot moral scruples and when necessary she even walked in and out of her friends hearts without knocking to play the critical role of Karen Richards the woman who unwittingly aids even her ruthless climbed to stardom mankiewicz chose another Oscar winner Celeste home but home had recently left Fox following a bitter contract dispute with Darryl zanuck mankiewicz stood I'd like you to play Karen fact I don't want to make the move unless you do I'm Susanna had to hire me back yeah yeah yeah but that's a deal that was a nice boy but the most difficult decision of all was the casting of the central character Margo Channing the flamboyant but insecure stage star producer and director considered many of Hollywood's top actresses before they finally agreed 46 year-old Claudette Colbert would play the coveted role but then just two weeks before filming began all of zanuck and mankiewicz as careful planning was derailed by a plot twist worthy of a backstage melodrama Claudette Colbert ruptured her discs when she was making a scene in three came home and she was put in traction for a long time so the panic set in desperate for a replacement zanuck and mankiewicz finally turned to the only other available actress who had the kind of experience and star quality that the part demanded Betty Davis zanuck is impatient he wants me he needs yelled and ecstatic what are you two lovers the outspoken and fiery actress had been the reigning queen of Warner Brothers Studios and the winner of two Best Actress Oscars she had given indelible performances in such landmark films as Jezebel the little foxes and now Voyager but by 1950 Davis's career was starting to resemble a black hole she had made a series of box-office flops and found herself no longer in demand after an infamous battle with Jack Warner Davis parted ways with the studio that had been her home for 18 years so people thought well that's the end of Betty Davis and she indeed was no spring chicken she thought she was through did you know that 41 years old marvelous but for the creators of All About Eve Betty Davis seemed to offer the best and only hope of saving their troubled production there was only one problem zanuck and Davis couldn't stand each other in fact the two hadn't been on speaking terms ever since Davis walked out from her post as president of the Motion Picture Academy in 1941 zanuck had said she'll never work in this town again but that was the last time that they had had any kind of a meeting apparently swallowing his pride zanuck phoned the star at home Betty picked out the pan and boy seller and said Betty this is Darrell Darrell who Darryl zanuck of course and said alright whoever you are come off it but Davis soon realized that the man on the phone was not a prankster Darryl zanuck was offering her what sounded like the role of a lifetime after reading Jo mankiewicz a script she was sure of it she was absolutely thrilled Betty Davis was very shrewd and when she saw something that was good she respected that but in this case as soon as she read that script she knew that we're talking about quality here and of course it was a perfect casting the aging actress had agreed to play an aging actress in fact it was hard to miss the frequent parallels in the script between the career of Betty Davis and that of her fictional counterpart Margo Channing but once the camera started to roll fiction and fact would converge in ways that no one would have thought possible with just days to go before shooting began on All About Eve Betty Davis's co-stars began to speculate about what it would be like to work with the notoriously temperamental actress we were taking a plane up to San Francisco as a hydroplane very noisy with you Marlow and Gary Merrill so I hollered over the noise what do you think it's going to be like working with the queen bee and Gary hollered back well I know one thing it'll all be over in eight weeks even a seasoned veteran like director Joseph mankiewicz was anxious about working with the legendary star Edmond Golding called me I said give away you're out of your mind this woman will annihilate she'll gratitude to a fine powder and blow you away she will come on the set with a large yellow pad and sharp pencils and she will write and having written she will then direct just when exactly does an actress decide there her words she's saying and her thoughts she's expressing usually at the point when she has to rewrite and rethink them to keep the audience from leaving the theater but this time it was different Davis knew better than to change mankiewicz his flawless script and to the directors surprise she turned out to be one of the most agreeable leading ladies he'd ever worked with all her other scripts handwriting was on every single page on the script of Eve there were no notation she said what did I need to do this genius had done it all through fate and circumstance mankiewicz had discovered the perfect marriage of actress and character Mecca which said now here's the key to the character Margo treats a mink coat like a poncho where's my coat right when you're left oh and Betty Davis said that this made all the sense in the world she could do whatever she wanted she was the star when shooting began in San Francisco on April 11th 1950 the director was astounded as he watched Betty Davis become Margo Channing before the cameras or was it just Betty Davis being Betty Davis sometimes it was hard to tell the difference people waiting around night after night just to see you even in the wind in the rain also Graf feeds they're not people those are the beasts that run around in packs like coyotes they're your fans your audience then nobody's fans they're juvenile delinquents their mental defectives and nobody's audience they never see a player a movie even they never indoors long enough the first time I ever went into a Betty Davis dressing room I opened all the dressing room and there was Marga and the rapes on a hare masses of cold cream on her face as she had a large scotch there and she was yelling about this and yelling about that and I mean that's pure Betty Davis Hollywood's grandest Dame had no trouble identifying with Marcos brassy self-confidence or with her professional anxiety about reaching the age of 40 whoa whoa but Betty and Margot also shared another much more personal bond and in the last analysis nothing's any good in this you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed there he is without that you're not a woman no something with a French Provincial office or a book full of kitties like the character she was playing on screen Betty Davis craved a happy family life away from the spotlight the actress was in the middle of a bitter divorce from her third husband artist William sherry and she was frustrated that the men in her life seemed unwilling to share the spotlight with her she said that the trouble was that they all hated being mr. Davis and she said what could I do about it but the moment she laid eyes on her new on-screen love interest 34 year old Gary Merrill she realized that she and Margo shared something else very important in common their taste in men the biggest bonus of all was seeing this very good-looking man a very hairy man as she's used to say that she loved hairy men and she saw his hairy man coming towards it my god and she fell right in love with Bill Sampson there was chemistry going there this was a hot and heavy relationship that was going on which of course did nothing but improve the aspect has represented in the film heaven help me I love a psychotic Davis and Meryl seemed like the perfect couple except for the fact that both were already married dad always used to say I don't care when the bell rings at the end of the day if members of my cast go out and make love to a McCormick Reaper get drunk whatever they do so long as the next morning they're on time and ready to give it a hundred percent the production team moved back to the Fox sound stages in Los Angeles where they shot the infamous party scene in which all of the characters and their secret agendas collide in one cocktail drenched confrontation we know you we've seen you like this before is it over or is it just beginning fasten your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy nuts the party also marked the first appearance of an attractive blonde whom zanuck had fired from the studio two years earlier for being unfair genic Marilyn Monroe you see that man that's max Fabian the producer now go and do yourself some good why do they always look like unhappy rabbits cuz that's what they are I'm gonna make him happy Marilyn played a young starlet intent on advancing her career by befriending powerful men offering yet another example of art imitating life I don't want to make trouble all I want is a drink leave it to me I'll get you one Thank You mr. Fabian well done I can see your career rising least like for some veteran cynic George Sanders also made a grand entrance at the party as critic Addison DeWitt the character closest to mankiewicz his heart we're a breed apart from the rest of humanity we fear to focus we have the original displaced personalities do you all have to read his column tomorrow if you just heard it I don't agree anything that happens to be your particular abnormality all of dad's venom disdain and I used the words nicely he saved for Addison DeWitt there's so many of Addison's observations that I can hear my father saying there was a lot of Addison DeWitt him with its air of urban sophistication and backstage backstabbing it was only a matter of time before rumors began to fly that the actor's filming all about Eve were as contentious off screen as they were on but according to the film's cast members rumors of caddy behavior behind the scenes just weren't true yeah you're supposed to be at one of those roads and cut the atmosphere with a knife and that's there was nothing like that there was no cattiness on the set at all do you think Joseph mankiewicz understood still freaked out behavior of that kind no even though there was an absence of obvious hostility on the set there was a famous and frosty feud between Betty Davis and co-star Celeste Holm I walk onto the set I know there's Betty I say good morning and she said oh good manners and I felt as if I'd been hit in the face with a wet flounder and I never spoke to her again she called me a okay Oh relax kids just me and my big mouth just did you get me so mad sometimes but home got the last laugh while filming the scene in which your character realizes that Eve's master plan has backfired I don't want to play core what now wait a minute you're always so touchy about this place it isn't a pot it's a great part in a fine play but not for me anymore not for a Foursquare upright downright forthright married lady what's so funny nothing everything everything so funny Davis was startled by Holmes ability to laugh on command she said I can't do that and I said oh I'm sure you could if you tried she's a no I can't and at that point Mac I said would you like to do it again and I said sure so I went and it was then that I realized that Joe had been aware of how difficult Betty had been to me yeah I'm going to be cowboy a married lady with a paper to prove no more make in the off stage or off by the end of filming Betty Davis had made the same decision as Margo Channing she would marry her younger leading man but unlike Margo she was not ready to give up show business not when she had just turned in the kind of performance that would make Hollywood sit up and take notice All About Eve was about to put a gifted actress back in the spotlight but could she handle the glare Betty Davis was about to find out Eve had insatiable ambition and talent an improbable person with a contempt for Humanity and inability to love or be loved but how can such a woman fool so many how did any Eve do it guided by the shore hand of writer-director Joseph mankiewicz the shooting of All About Eve was completed in mid-june 1950 on July 28 Betty Davis and Gary Merrill were married in Mexico just hours after marrows divorce was final and on October 13th that same year the world got to meet Margo Channing and her acid-tongued colleagues for the first time Hollywood's fabulous Chinese Theater is the distinguished setting for the gala West Coast premiere of the latest 20th Century Fox dramatic masterpiece all about he getting a novel salute from the neighboring Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel as the film's producer Darryl F zanuck and his wife lead a host of celebrities including the pictures writer director Joseph mankiewicz to the opening hail for her performance and All About Eve Betty Davis attends with her mother while title role player and baxter brings hubby John ho deaq next day Betty Davis with a Marine escort returns to the scene of triumph to be immortalized in the Chinese theaters famous cement a tribute to her outstanding performance in all about e a performance the public is now hailing as one of the finest of her career All About Eve was an immediate hit and soon the film and its cast and crew began reaping award after award but a fierce battle was raging in 20th Century Fox over Oscar nominations and Baxter one of the studio to nominate her as Best Actress instead of Best Supporting Actress a move that would put her in direct competition with Betty Davis it was yet another in a series of examples of how scenes from the film would resonate in the star's real lives in February 1951 for the first time in history two leading ladies from the same film were on the ballot together All About Eve was nominated for a record-breaking 14 Oscars including Best Picture Best Director and Best Screenplay it was a staggering number of nominations it still holds the record tied with Titanic for the most number of nominations in motion picture history and when one looks at a huge sprawling film like Titanic and then thinks that in All About Eve probably the biggest piece of action is Betty Davis walking down a staircase it's even more remarkable the triumphant Betty Davis knew she had delivered the performance of her career and felt certain that she had earned her third Oscar as the winner was announced she along with Anne Baxter and Sunset Boulevard Gloria Swanson leaned forward only to hear that the year's Best Actress Academy Award would go to Judy Holliday for her performance in born yesterday Davis was devastated well folks are to blame they should have persuaded Baxter to go into Best Supporting Actress and that Betty and Gloria were sort of neck-and-neck so it splits and it goes to the underdog life seem determined to imitate art one last time as the actress who played Betty's archenemy inadvertently ruined her chances of winning an Oscar and Baxter admitted she should have accepted the Best Supporting Actress nomination Davis in her typical style said yes she should have I'm happy to announce that the winner is all about him but regardless of the disappointments All About Eve swept up six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Score mankiewicz won another two Oscars for both directing and writing and George Sanders picked up the award for the year's Best Supporting Actor despite her Oscar disappointment Betty Davis have made a spectacular comeback and would forever be identified with the great Margo Channing unfortunately her marriage to Gary Meryl was less enduring the couple divorced after 10 years in a way that should have worked except she said to me you know something peculiar happened that he he married Margo Channing not Betty Davis and she married Bill Sampson not Gary Meryl but whatever regrets Betty Davis may have had about her backstage romance no one could deny that All About Eve reestablished her as one of Hollywood's greatest stars an established Margo Channing is one of the most memorable characters in the history of cinema slow curtain the end you

Channel: Vlad Sicoe

Views: 626,073

Keywords: All About Eve, Bette Davis, Margo Channing

Id: a98Bcu55nAM

Length: 24min 25sec (1465 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2013