Backstory - All About Eve (Behind the Scenes Documentary)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2013
- All about Eve was released in 1950, and it stars Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders and Celeste Holmes. It is one of the greatest films ever made, and Bette Davis' greatest movie performance.
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perfect movie, writing, directing ,casting! Bette Davis' best performance of her career. I could watch this over and over and over....
me too
Karen Dempsey
6
Karen Dempsey same here
Cinnamon Girl n-wwzviv
Karen Dempsey Yes. I watched it at least 10 times until my wife said, "Again??? Enough!" Not just Bette, all of 'em. You bring that much movie-making talent together, my god.
Bette's eyes are so captivating. She has a way of looking at you as if she can read your thoughts. My favorite actress of all time.
Many men I have talked to thought Davis looked *sexy* as Margp
Ditto!
That's why the song "Betty Davis Eyes" was written.
All About Eve is a movie that should be in every movie-lover's collection.
I love Bette Davis. She is one the best actresses that ever lived. All about Eve is sensational.
Oscar or no Oscar Bette was the best actress.
@@amysands8925Absolutely!! She was brilliant at her craft!😘
As much as I love Claudette Colbert, I can't even begin to imagine anyone playing Margo Channing, but Bette Davis. I don't think that the movie would have been a hit without Davis. Period.
Colbert was a great actress but Davis was beyond sensational.
Wouldn't have been a hit? Are you kidding? With that script? Look at the hit that Mankiewicz had the year before, with "A Letter to Three Wives," which did NOT star Bette Davis. Colbert would have been brilliant, which people can't imagine, because they're used to seeing Davis as Margo. If nothing else, Colbert was a far more nuanced actress than Davis; all Davis was doing as Margo was playing Bette Davis.
knight44441
However, Lauren Bacall was too young to play Margo in 1950. You're probably thinking about the 1970s Lauren Bacall which could have worked.
Rafael Storm
It certainly would have been interesting, Rafael, and we wouldn't have known the difference. However, I think that this part was made for Bette Davis.
With Colbert in the leading role I would have thought she would the fact it was based on Tattulah Bankhead to be rather obvious.
As a Kid, I knew "All About Eve" was one of my mother's favorite movies. So as a grown married woman, whenever I would see that it was about to come on again, I'd call her to let her know and she would always watch. Those were the days before video recorders.
One day I called to tell her and she said, 'dear, I've seen that movie so many times I could play the part myself'.
To this day, when I think of 'All About Eve" it still reminds me of my mother. May she rest in peace.
dustee what a lovely story. I ring my mum to tell her things are on TV that we both like, I'm not looking forward to the day when I can no longer do so.
That was so beautiful about you and your mother this movie and great bette Davis fasten your seat belt it's going to be a bumpy night . 5:57
Bette Davis was gorgeous
Cinnamon Girl I agree with you...Bette Davis was Gorgeous! I am 66 and I think Bette Davis was the Best Actress!
I Second that reply!
No one could do distain better than the irrepressible Bette Davis. George Sanders was perfectly cast as the aloof and mischievious critic who swanned above all the fray. Both very much missed.
She could do 'disdain' really well, too.
Whoa - "Eve's" got to be one of the BEST written scripts that ever went on screen!
If not the best
If you can watch a movie everytime it comes on thats a great movie. All About Eve. Damn near perfect. Bette Davis IS perfection as Margo.
Karen Dempsey Betty should have won the Oscar...
No doubt
Nah, I can watch bad movies as often, if not more than, great movies. Watchability doesn’t always equal great.
Diana Curry i agree w ur list. Add sunset blvd and same. ❤
@@janinebasil That's odd to me. I don't want to watch something again that I didn't like. That don't make any sense.
You never know about the voters back then. Bette Davis should have won for All About Eve, one of the greatest iconic acting performances in history.
Shocking that she didn't get best actress. It must be one of the top 5 onscreen performances of the 20th century.
+Hans Tun Not shocking; it was explained: Davis, Baxter and Swanson split the vote and Holliday walked away with the Oscar.
+DS9Sisko True! Still, it is a huge disappointment to Bette Davis fans around the world.
+Hans Tun I agree, but to be fair Judy Holliday really was wonderful in Born Yesterday.
+Hans Tun It's the best performance ever Hans ;)
L
I love seeing backstories to my favorite movies.
+Bailey Kenner I do, too. It seems like only 20th Century-Fox classic films enjoy this special and distinguished treatment, although other companies that own the films from other "golden age of film" studios are coming out with editions that feature "the making of" documentaries on their DVDs. It seems, however, that any picture in question has to have an "across-the-board" reputation as being widely well-known, when there are other excellent classic pictures that are just being rediscovered that deserve the same kind of presentation. This would include classic films that were given the undeserved reputation of being "bombs," largely due to the ruthlessness and free-handed omnipotence of the film critics of the 1950s and 1960s, when both international film motif was influencing American film (For example: The critics slayed "The Sound of Music" when it premiered in March, 1965 and the "knives" against its star and production artisans came out when the public nonetheless made it one of the most popular films of all time; thus, when Julie Andrews, who contractually owed Fox a film, teamed with producer Saul Chaplin and director Robert Wise for the long-awaited chance to make a rare (as in musically and dramatically accurate) film of the life of Broadway luminary, Gertrude Lawrence, the critics used the "changing times" that were in full force in October, 1968, to "murder" the film, thus assuring that it lost money at the box office and was dubbed "one of the worst musicals ever made." Luckily, the film, entitled "Star!", retained its original 3-hour, roadshow engagement negative (being cut per theatre and retitled, "Those Were the Happy Times," which only "doomed" its reputation with the public further) and, in 1993-94, was specially re-premiered at an initial theatrical retrospective screening with the original cast and creative team (a documentary of this appears on the many extras of the DVD) and it re-premiered nationally, on October 6, 1993, at 8 P.M. EST on American Movie Classics---where, as at the recent theatre retrospectives, it played like gangbusters (people attending the initial theatrical retrospectives admittedly came to see "one of the worst bombs in film history" and found themselves cheering both the overall well-crafted, visual and audio restored presentation of the picture, as well as the musical numbers, realizing they had been mislead for 25 years about the excellent quality of the film, which is hailed as the proverbial "cult classic." The DVD sells well on Amazon, along with another critic-induced "bomb," the 1974 Lucille Ball-Bea Arthur film version of the musical, "Mame" Unlike "Star!", however, the combined "star power" and chemistry between those two talented ladies made the film a commercial hit---and EVERYONE knew that Lucy couldn't sing, and didn't CARE). Just an example of how so-called "Nero-esque" critics such as Pauline Kael, Vincent Canby, Gene Shallit, Leonard Maltin, and Siskel and Ebert (the latter who penned a few Russ Meyer "exploitation"-genre films!) abused their positions and power for over 20 years to promote only what THEY liked and believed cinematically "relevant" and, in the end result, sullying the general reputation of the American film critic and historian. Of course, today's films invariably have loads of "extras" about behind-the-scenes activities, and independent film-making has left it to the public (sometimes good, sometimes not so good) to make up its own collective and individual minds about what constitutes cinematic "art and entertainment."
She was born to be an actress, and a great one at that.
I love the scene when Joseph talks about Margo Channing treating a fur like a poncho...Meryl Streep did a similar thing in Devil Wears Prada! Meryl is truly Bette's protegee and her letter to Meryl says it all!
Thank God she did. Bette has that thing where even when she makes you angry you still want her to win! Loved her.
Not so much in The Little Foxes. Ooh, that face!
Over the years, I have watched All About Eve at least a dozen times. You discover something new with each viewing. Davis is amazing, and the screenplay is one of the best ever written.
Such a fantastic cast! I can't tell you how many times I've see it, one of my favorites.I can watch classic movies hundreds of times and have : )
this film is eternal!! you can just watch it over and over again since the dialogue is so good and the cast brilliant. thank you for sharing!!
I met Davis in Northborough Massachusetts at an ice cream parlor when she was appearing at Framingham's Community Theater.
We spent 20 minutes or so sitting at the bar licking our cones and chatting, her limousine's chauffeur (weirdly) standing ....guard(?).
She was slightly drunk which made the meeting great fun! Bette was a REAL human being - vivacious, totally open and fascinating!
Hearing that she likes "hairy men" in this video made me chuckle. It sounds like something she'd say.
t4705mb6 Glad to hear you say this about Bette Davis. She struck me as a wonderful human being. As for the coldness between Celeste Holme and Bette, which Celeste never tires of talking about, I attribute that to Celeste being to unbending (I will leave out the phrase about a broomstick) to overlook a casual remark of Bette's.
Brian Lemaire
Bette was like a "lost soul". Ironially she showed no ego at all. She seemed like someone who needed someone. She told me she was depressed and felt "unloved". She was pretty drunk so I took it as how she was really feeling.
Ironically I also met and talked to Lauren Bacall at the SAME *FRIENDLY'S* ??? She was starring in Framingham as well.
t4705mb6 That's really nice that you met Bette. I wish I had had the pleasure of meeting her. I wish I had met the author of 'Now Voyager', her movie from 1942. Olive Higgins Prouty. There's a website about 'Now Voyager' & Olive Prouty, if you would like to see it. ValeTales.info
Brian Lemaire Thanks.
it was one of what I call a 'brush with greatness'. I also ran into Lauren Bacall in the same ice cream stand (they had FANTASTIC homemade ice cream!). She was REALLy drunk but very nice as well. She was also headlining in Framingham at the time and had been "dining" (drinking?)at the White Cliffs mansion restaurant across the street.
Why were they eating ice cream while being drunk? There's no way in hell that I could drink my quota of vodka and put ice cream on top of it. I would be sick for days!
Maybe they had cast iron stomachs?
the BEST movie EVER! Davis is a powerhouse...
CLEARLY it should have been Bette's 3rd and Baby Jane should have been the 4th...those two women she portrayed are most of the memorable of all time!
Bette Davis, the finest actress ever to grace a Hollywood film. Tiny woman with more power in every sense of the word than any other, before or since. She was brilliant.
They don't make great movies like this one anymore, thank goodness for TCM. Classic movies at their finest.
Though I know that Bette Davis starred in All About Eve as a replacement for Claudette Colbert, I cannot visualize any other actress playing Margo Channing except Bette. She was the very best replacement.
Absolutely (-_-)
Bluejeans0701 Claudette would not have done this film justice like Betty... The gods were working to get Betty the role...
It's because the entire script was revised to Davis' personality. The character was initially conceived genteel and humorous, traits which Colbert was known for. Also, the character was supposed to be foreign, just like Elisabeth Bergner, though not Austrian like her, however, they changed it after a series of Foreign Actresses turned down the part, after French Claudette Colbert sustained a severe back injury during the last day of shooting of her other film with 20th Century Fox 'Three Came Home' German Marlene Dietrich, turned it down due to somehow miscommunication, ranted after knowing that Claudette Colbert was supposed to play the character, saying "she's too German to play a French Actress", English Getrude Lawrence, whom was too demanding, asking to rewrite the party scene, so that she won't have to smoke nor drink, will have a scene, in which she would sing a 'torch' song only communicated through her lawyer, Swedish Ingrid Bergman, whom was head over heels in love with her then Italian husband Roberto Rossellini, didn't want to leave Italy, alas their marriage ended 7 years later, Canadian Norma Shearer, whom didn't bother listening to its premise, saying she's already retired. Prior to Bette Davis, several actresses were considered to play Margo Channing, including Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford whom were both unavailable, believe it or not but Gloria Swanson, who also famously portrayed another aging actress in "Sunset Boulevard", also released in the same year was also considered. Till the very last minute they were still hoping for Colbert to recuperate, in fact they waited for her for 2 months, due to extreme desperation to start the filming, they finally invited Bette Davis, whom recently ended her almost 2-decade union with Warner Brothers after several poorly received film, labeled 'box office poison', to read the script, then offered it to her after saying 'it's one of the best she'd ever seen', ultimately accepting the part. The casting of Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington, primarily because of her facial similarity with Colbert makes more sense in light of their intention for her to play Margo. She knew a lot had been changed, that's why she lamented that stroke of bad luck through out her career. Who knows, how much details they scrapped, which would have made the film awful had they kept them as is upon casting of Bette Davis.
Yes Indeed.
The script is so intricate in its use of language and figures of speech of all varieties that I found it exhaustively thrilling to try and keep up! Zanuck and Mankiewicz were geniuses. (Of course there's no need to mention Bette Davis' brilliance throughout the film.)
ETA: This mini-doc was fascinating! Thanks for uploading it!
Bette Davis is awesome in All About Eve
Is awesome anywhere
She is but she overacts a little. I think Anne Baxter was better in the film.
Margaret bullshit she neither overacts nor was Anne Baxter better
@@m.e.d.7997 Wrong. Ann Baxter was not better and Bette Davis did not overact.
@@SymphonyBrahms Ever hear of Academy Awards??
I remember these backstories. They used to be on AMC in the 90s.
Betty Davis, in the early 1980s, made a TV movie which was about a school teacher retiring from teaching. Her real life grandson was in it to. I don't remember the name of the movie. They filmed some of it in a school I taught in, up on the North Shore of Long Island. They were there for two days. I was fortunate enough to meet her, and get to talk to her several times over that time period. It is one of the highlights of my life, to have actually met this great actress I had seen in movies all my life.
"Family Reunion" is the only time she worked with her grandson, Ashley Hyman. Is that the one you're talking about?
Rafael Storm Yes, that is the movie. They used the Locust Valley Intermediate School, which is in Locust Valley Long Island, as one of the locations. It was an old, stately building, with a very nice auditorium. They also used a fourth grade classroom. I used to work as an instrumental music teacher in that district. I left in 1985 to go to another school district which is also on Long Island.
I remember that movie. I recall a scene in which Bette Davis's character is talking to a younger female relative and uses the word "lady" to her. The younger relative angrily shouts, "Not "lady"...woman!" Bette's character calmlyreplies, "I stand corrected. A lady never shouts".
Ok
Mm
Bette Davis has three major and unforgettable roles in cinema: Jezebel (1939), Margo Channing (1950) and Baby Jane (1963)............ All characters are pure MASTERPIECES!!!
Wrong again. Her best performance by far was 1942 'The Man Who Came to Dinner', a comedy, then 'The Man Who Played God, as an ingénue, 'A Stolen Life' as twins, and 'June Bride', another modest little comedy with Robert Montgomery in '48. Even that famous scene in 'Of Human Bondage' is so implausible since she was not beautiful enough to play Mildred. Then there was the sluggish 'Dark Victory', which she said was her own favorite, showing her own ignorance, and she destroys the brilliant play 'The Little Foxes' which should have gone to Tallulah Bankhead.
I am adding Now Voyager, The Letter and Mr.Skeffington to this commentary.
@@rogerpropes7129 Tallulah made several films in Hollywood and they all bombed. The general consensus in Hollywood was that she was a stage actress that couldn't succeed in film acting. No one in Hollywood would hire her, including the director of "The Little Foxes", William Wyler, who said "No way". And Bette Davis did not destroy "The Little Foxes". She was perfect for the role. As she was perfect for "Of Human Bondage" and "Dark Victory". Since you are a Bette Davis hater, then go to Tallulah's board and praise her efforts. You are a despoiler of the greatest actress in Hollywood, Bette Davis. Just take yourself away from the presence of reasonable people. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
@@SymphonyBrahms Here again we see Bette Davis playing Bette Davis in a film which would have been better if Claudette Colbert had not hurt her back.
Baby Jane was the year before
Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis made the word "comeback" have a special meaning for 1950. I loved this movie and I love Bette Davis, Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford. They represent a Hollywood we will never, ever see again
Annoying self important hags ...........all of 'em
It's 'return', not comeback per Sunset Blvd dialogue!
@@duke9555 It takes one to know one.
..and not forgetting Thelma Ritter too. One of the best co-stars there ever was..
Yes,indeed!!👏 Thelma Ritter was an absolute gem in this wonderful film! Just love her!🥰😎
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Brilliant! I love Anne Baxter but this one time the ego was too big. Bette Deserved that Oscar! However, the kind of magnificent performances that we will never see again sadly.
Best movie out of Hollywood!
Re: Celeste's "I can't do that" story, I kinda have to call shenanigans. Bette cackled delightfully on cue in Baby Jane. I doubt there's much Bette couldn't do as an actress.
tallulah2 Maybe she learned
I call crap on Celeste Holm's catty remark.
Really enjoyed watching this, from page to screen All About Eve, personified the raw talent of actress Bette Davis.
GREAT MOVIE INDEED!!!
THE BEST EVER!!!
SUPERB CAST!!!
THEY NEVER EVER WILL MAKE SUCH MOVIES!!!
GOT THE D.V.D. SO HAVE SEEN "ALL ABOUT EVE" MANY A TIMES!!!
THANKS FOR THE POSTING.
I'm surprised that there's no mention of Tallulah Bankhead as possibly the inspiration for the Margo Channing character. At the time, Bankhead herself used to crack wise about "that terrific motion picture, 'All About ME'!" And when I look at the hairstyle, the fur coat, the drinking, the bitchiness, the theater setting... You know, I can see it!
Tallulah Bankhead wasnt in the same category w Bettie Davis when it came to acting. She tried and all movies were not as memorable as Bettie Davis performances. But your right Talullah Bankhead did have 'Bitchviturocity' but it didnt translate on film.
@@markanthonyfuentes4052 a good number of Broadway greats didn't break into the film industry. They're different mediums. Tallulah was a great theater actress, there was just no room for her in Hollywood
Funny enough Tallulah was considered for Margo Channing, how very different would that film would have been.
Even though Bette Davis' loss in the Best Actress category was due to the forced split vote, it -- along with Judy Garland's loss of the Best Actress Award in 1954's, "A Star is Born" -- is widely considered to be the biggest Academy Award robbery in history. "All About Eve" truly is one of the greatest -- and most entertaining! -- films ever made.
Judy was cheated again after giving a tingling, spine-chilling performance in "Judgment at Neuremburg." And then they gave the Best Supporting Actress award to a dancer in "West Side Story."
Rita Moreno. She also sang.
Mike Willing You will NOT attack Rita Moreno. She hands down deserved that Oscar.
In my opinion, Dorothy Dandridge deserved to win for Carmen Jones.
I love my old movie(black and white) my friends call me creepy, but, I don’t care. I love the scripts, intrigued and dialogue. That was the best acting ever...omg love this movie and backstories.. BD , BarbaraS. Lauren B, Greer, Joan, etc. my favs, I could watch this movies all day... 💕💕💕💕
You gotta love Bette. This is one of the best movies ever made. Both Anne Baxter and Bette did such a phenomenal job. Unbelievable they didn't win that year.
Braeden Silas Aw, c'mon, how can you say the movie was not that great? Its Bette at her best , the costumes, the writing, c'mon. But Hey, no disrespect. You know what makes it a really fun movie? Have a drink every time Bette does. Bet you can't make it till the end.
Braeden Silas "not that great." Why do they allow 12 year olds to write opinions on great films?
Braeden Silas My Bad, I was confused with your first comment, but now I get what you're saying. This is one of her best.
Braeden Silas Braeden - Billy Wilder was a Hollywood director. I think you mean Judy Holliday, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in Born Yesterday. And for the record - I agree. Holliday's performance is by no means bad, but it doesn't even begin to approach Davis's performance in Eve.
*****
Can't agree with you on which was the more important film between Sunset Blvd and All About Eve. I'd watch the latter any day, the former only occasionally because I thought Swanson over acted like crazy. And her eyes in that movie...truly bizarre.
No mention of "Birdie"?!! In this brilliant film, Thelma Ritter is my favorite....
Really.. one the best character actors of all time
Well, she disappears halfway through the film, inexplicably.
musicaltheatergeek79 well it's gratifying to know you have an answer for everything. I guess it must have been great to have known each of the actors personally.
Fred Howard Everything but the bloodhounds nipping at her heels. Great line!
+musicaltheatergeek79 she doesn't disappear inexplicably. Her character makes it quite clear she isn't impressed with Margo's behaviour and quits, because Margo's attitude is well, you know where you can go!
These movies are timeless ageless and true art!! I'd watch eve over ne movie today !!!
The perfect fusion of dialogue and cinematography
One of my favorite movies. I just watched it yesterday and it was fantastic!
Such an amazing movie, and Bette Davis really was just such an incredible actress. Her hard-working personality reminds me of my grandmother - feisty and fantastic.
It's amusing to see how scenes from the film perfectly depict moments of Bette Davis' real life around the making of this film and after. The documentary maker did a nice job.
Really sweet, Bette & Gary coming together. I like Bette Davis very much. She was wild, in a funny way beasty, and tough. Before I saw her on film, I heard the song "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. I never forget my mother - upon my asking her what it was all about those eyes- trying to get B. Davis' facial exression on her face. She wasn't successful in imitating her, though. However, when I watched a movie starring Bette Davis years later, I knew what Kim Carnes meant. Bette's eyes were so amazing. I also like the movie "Whatever happened to Baby Jane?" - really scary.
Tadzio Lazlo she was amazing in what ever happened to baby Jane
Bette said she loved that song because it made her grandson think she was cool.
This is one of the best movies ever made. Shame on this documentary for making not the smallest mention of Thelma Ritter's perfect performance as Margot's cohort Birdie. Yes, it can be watched over and over!
Trici Venola Ahhh yes. In most every memorable movie, Thelma.
Love birdie❤
@@AnaisWolf And Trici Venola. Well, then we share the same. They called her "character actor" but boy did they want her in every movie possible. She offset other actors. You're right, a few words out of her mouth, she stole the scene, the stage... Enigma. Great choice of word.
One of my top 5 films of all time! One helluva bumpy night, Margo!
Bette Davis is the purest definition of "Movie star".
George Sanders walked away with Best Supporting Actor, rightly so! (-_-)
At a party, Sanders and Bette met. George said to her "Sour grapes, Bette?"...and she *spat* on him!....
"ALL ABOUT EVE" IS THE MOST INCREDIBLE WORK OF "ART" !!!
Bette Davis was a shrewd woman she saved her career with this movie😀
The movie is a masterpiece....the writing just keeps u waiting to hear more...many a times I been in a party imagining it somehow turned into Carol 's party....I loved it when Marylin screams out Waiter! to the butler seving drinks or De Witt being the ultimate cynic...it just drips w class....n I met many an Eve but this one is the perfect one to get what she wants....one of my favorite movies of all time...I never get tired of watching this film.....BRILLIANT!!
my favorite line from this movie is when eve tries to seduce another woman's man. he told her "what i want i'll go after - i don't want it coming after me"
According to the author of "All About All About Eve," Sam Scaggs, in the over-sized paperback edition of his book, in a newly-culled chapter for that publication, the true "BI-ZICH" of "All About Eve," he realized, was not Davis, but haughty and snotty Celeste Holm. Holm had the idiocy to remark aloud to the man who would become Davis' lover and fourth husband, Gary Merrill, "I wonder what it'll be like to work with the Queen Bee?" and then has the gall to complain that Davis (to whom the remark was relayed, as Gary Merrill became smitten with her at virtually their first meeting), "As the rudest woman I ever met!" Like, big surprise, Celeste (no wonder Bette greeted her, for the first and last time, with "Oh, s**t! 'Good manners!'", obviously verbally back-handing Holm's hypocrisy (her childish "Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah!" to her supposed one-upmanship over 20th Century-Fox production chief Daryl Zanuck (60-some years after the fact) speaks volumes about her five-faced persona and "frustrated diva" attitude). Ditto her apocryphal anecdote about showing up Davis, who had no trouble doing so upon feeding Joan Crawford a rat in "Baby Jane" 12 years later, about being able to laugh hysterically on cue, something Davis proved later she could do far better that Holm ever could---which, no doubt, helped Davis earn her tenth Oscar nomination. Holm was nominated twice---both times for Best Supporting Actress---and won, once, for "Gentleman's Agreement," in 1948). The author of the "Eve" revised biography likewise was confronted, as he describes with great (and understandable relish ("Celeste's problem must be that Bette Davis still has millions of fans...while Holm has, oh...about THREE!") Holm's mean, capricious, and vindictive side when he engaged her in collaborating on the new afterward for the book; if fact, throughout the earlier text, Holm comes across as high-brow and egotistical in her reminiscences). Even Susan Hayward, who was touring in 1969 in the ongoing successful production of the musical, "Mame," when informed her replacement would be Celeste Holm, confronted "Her Norwegian Nibs" with the quietly-phrased but deadly-serious vow: "If I hear of you being mean to ANY of my friends among the cast and crew in this production, I'll come back here and kick your arse!" Unfortunately, perhaps to assure Holm's "cooperation" in the making of the "Backstory" documentary for the AAE documentary, none of this biographical information of the book made it into the narrative (Note: Despite the bestselling popularity of both editions of the biography, Sam Scaggs is not interviewed---at ALL---in the "Backstory" documentary, giving Holm free reign to play her "Lady Bountiful" persona, though she often slips into what was her true character when she goes "off course" in giving simple declarative replies to obviously direct questions put to her re: her memories of being part of the ensemble cast of a truly timeless, great motion picture).
+Jane Hudson Thanks for this interesting comment. I've heard stories from someone who'd been in the NYC theater world from the fifties through the eighties, and evidently Celeste's reputation was just as you say, to the point that people would tell her off at dinner parties because of things she'd said about them elsewhere. That side to her character is evident in her snide storytelling, which by the way is ridiculous on its merits: Bette could laugh in different ways, she was quite skillful but needed a strong director to check her energy levels. I don't believe her story at all.
+Raymondo Passero Thank you for your thumbs up and response. When I saw this documentary, I was surprised that author Sam Scaggs was not even interviewed, and Holm was given "carte blanche" and her comments about Ms. Davis went unchallenged. Your information is very interesting---and, assessing by Mr. Scaggs experiences with interviewing Ms. Holm while he was expanding his book, it add credence to Holm's reputation as a troublemaker and having a childishly uncensored mouth. Ms. Davis was, indeed, insecure about not having a good script and a strong director (something that happened with increasing frequency at Warner Bros. in the 1940s), and so, since the star of a picture was blamed, solely, in those times, for the success or failure of a picture, it seems sensible that she would work hard---although it was then considered audacious---to improve the script and direction of a weak film project (Barbra Streisand has also been heavily criticized, from the start of her film career, for believing that making a fine picture is a collaborative effort, and offering suggestions for script and directing ideas---and, like Ms. Davis---she is still not popular within the Hollywood directors community, even AS a director; while this is perhaps about HOW these two ladies went about asserting themselves---the increasing number of directors who happen to be women seem to garner praise and respect, overall---being the core issue, they were active in Hollywood in a time in which women were only beginning to express an interest in directing and producing pictures (e.g., Ida Lupino), so the collective mindset and support for them just wasn't there, for them). Too bad Ms. Holm didn't decide to go into directing pictures---she certainly was "mouthy" and "bossy" enough, just like some of the men, in those days! LOL!
+Jane Hudson Back in the 50's, I used to spend part of my summer in Dennis, Mass. on Cape Cod. The Dennis Playhouse was a prestigious venue for actors doing summer stock, and Ms. Holm was one of those who performed there. Two of my friends (we were just little girls) lived near the house where Miss Holm was staying for the duration of her gig, so they walked over and rang the doorbell, looking for an autograph. This was a traditional ritual in this laid-back town in those laid-back times, and the actors always complied courteously as a goodwill gesture towards the local kids. The Divine Miss Holm stuck her head out of her second storey bedroom window holding an empty whiskey bottle and screamed at the kids to get the hell out of there or she'd nail them with the bottle. Needless to say, they left without their autographs. Lol. Just thought you'd like this anecdote to add to what seems like a growing anthology of Miss Holm's bad behavior. No wonder Bette let her have it.
DearDivineSimply: WOW...what a story! (as "Birdie" said in AAE...lol!). When I wrote about Celeste Holm in the original post after watching "Backstory," I never thought I'd read not one, but two, even more interesting tales about Ms. Holm. This one is downright hair-raising---not only mean, capricious, and vindictive, but evidently (on occasion, at least) drunk and verbally mean to young kids, little girls, to boot, just nicely requesting autographs. I guess the "Holm Horror Stories" just get juicier and more salacious (and, sadly, true---coming from people that either knew someone who had the disadvantage of coming into contact with her or seeing her in action, or a first-hand childhood memory!). LOL! (I think!).....Thanks for sharing this!
+Jane Hudson My pleasure. I think she met her match with Bette, who reputedly took no prisoners.
I’ve seen this movie many times. I’d always thought it was written FOR Bette. Thanks for the upload.
Bette shines in this film.
What a legend :)
My favorite actress, Bette Davis, in one of my favorite movies. What could be better?
Anne Baxter is my favorite actress because of her role in All About Eve, she was also brilliant in the Ten Commandments, and Guest in the House. She was always able to play such a sexy psychopath.
She was enormously effective in The Razor's Edge - one of my all-time favorites.
Anne Baxter was in an episode of "Columbo" with Peter Falk in the 1970's. I don't remember it well but Miss Baxter played an actress whose husband was murdered and the actress and Columbo really got along well and liked each other. Edith Head made a cameo appearance. When Columbo figured out Anne Baxter's character was the killer and told her so, she confessed. When Columbo told the actress he would take her to the police station to be charged with murder she accepted that and the last thing she said in the show was something like "Let me get my coat." Simple and down-to-earth.----If I rightly remember, when Anne Baxter died while acting in the TV series "Hotel", Bette Davis filled that opening in the cast, one "All About Eve" star filling a spot sadly left by another "All About Eve" co-star. Fun fact: Anne Baxter's grandfather was the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
I saw that episode. Anne Baxter was brilliant and campy at the same time.
+Andrew Brendan Bette opened in "Hotel." After some major health issues Baxter came on board - I believe as Bette's sister - so she got Margo's role again. ☺
LOL, oh Anne Baxter can pull off a line like : Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!
I have seen several interviews with Celeste Holme and despite the fact that I think she’s fine actress, she does not come off a very flattering light in most of her interviews. I am sure that the incident Bette Davis happened, but there is just something about her tone and manner that rubs me the wrong way, I’m sure that Bette could be a bitch, but I suspect that’s Celeste probably could be the same.
Agreed. I think Holm "never speaking to her again," over something that seemed nothing more than slightly off putting was extreme.
She must have been a Bitch to her two sons as well, since they were estranged from their mom.
I loathed cm, she was a real bitch and I pity those who had to work with her.
She was a good actress but I never liked her as a personality.
1950; Hollywood's peak? All About Eve, Ashhphalt Jungle, Born Yesterday, Sunset Boulevard, Twelve O'clock High, all superb AND box-office smasheroonies.
+Oldgittom There is a good argument that the actual peak was 1939.
+DS9Sisko My estimation, there was still a lot of great movies to come in 1939. I think 1950 was the peak since along with the great stuff, the signs of decline were also clear.
+Oldgittom Don't Forget From Here To Eternity ;)
Oldgittom twelve was released the year previously
Bette Davis anything! Miss her all about eve is my favourite.
This..by far...is the best movie I have ever seen ..this and "Young Frankenstein"..I can't imagine anyone else playing this role but Bette Davis.
Awesome movie
"ah and my autograph book's at the cleaners" best line ever!
how the hell did bette davis not win!!!!!
rhea mangles I know! The only thing that I can figure is that Bette Davis was playing a character very much like herself. Judy Holiday, it has been said, was a very intelligent, sophisticated lady. She played a character very much unlike herself so it was considered a better performance.
+rhea mangles It was explained i the mini-doc. SMH
+Lambieschmoo It was explained in the mini-doc. SMH
+rhea mangles too much competition and well Bette Davis was not everyone's cup of tea despite her success.
Bette Davis and Anne Baxter split the vote. In the Supporting Actress category, Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter split the vote. George Sanders, on the other hand, was the sole nominee from _All About Eve_ for Supporting Actor and he won.
I think I can see why Anne Baxter was preferred to Jeanne Crain. There is something too sympathetic about Crain even when she plays a villian.
There was nothing likeable about Eve .... you never believed her for a minute, saw through her FASTER than the fellow actors did. As far as acting, even if Anne Baxter had been nominated for Supporting ..... I'd have given the award to Celeste Holm (second best actress in the movie.) Of course Thelma Ritter should have been given an Oscar every year for just appearing in ANYTHING!
When did Jeannie Crain EVER play a villain????
Jeanne Crain always played the girl next door. That was her forte.
Thank you for this very interesting video. I learned so much about "behind the scenes" of All About Eve. I saw the movie last week while flying on British Airlines and it had me captivated!! The dialogue was so funny, and so much more entertaining and intelligent than today's movies' dialogues!!
They didn't mention how Bette Davis made Marilyn cry during filming. That should be classic Hollywood trivia.
Tell us more!
How did she make her cry?
I suspect Celeste Holm didn't quite get Bette Davis' humour. "I can't do that" (laughing on command) was clearly Bette paying her a compliment. The delivery was begrudging, comic in tone. But it was a compliment nonetheless. Also when Holm offers a polite greeting and Davis lets her know she didn't care for small talk, Holm shouldn't have been over sensitive about it ("I didn't talk to her again"). I really think Holm took offence where there was probably none, or little, intended. Davis was a little insensitive, that's all.
Exactly
Indeed! Marlon Brando reacted in the same way whenever Vivien Leigh greeted him with a cheery Good Morning on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire. By all accounts, Leigh thought nothing of it,
Totally agree
well, in all honesty, La Davis did a dang good job of laughing on command in "Baby Jane": she was in hysterics at hearing Blanche go nuts down the hallway!!
I think Celeste seems bitter and unpleasant. Not talking to Bette again was immature and says more about her than Bette. I agree it was a compliment coming from Bette, or at the very least, trying to tame some of the resentment she could probably feel coming from Celeste.
One of the best films ever! So well written and performed!
They could not have cast this film better! Davis,in her prime, was untouchable, All About Eve remains one of my favourite films of all time. She deserved, and should have won, the Oscar; not just for this film, but also for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
I recently played Bernadette Basinger in Priscilla queen of the desert the musical. I used the amazing miss Davies as my inspiration. And she truly is. Not as an impersonation but her qualities of fighting for for she wanted. Her quick whitt and determination. Thank you Bette for your wonderful legacy to actors and actresses xxx
Awesome movie, actors and characters.
What a force of nature Bette Davis was! Although I have always wondered if she may have been bi-polar, in connection to her behavior and treatment of her contemporaries and many failed marriages and outbursts. At the end of the day, she was a master of the craft to be sure!
Love Anne Baxter. So beautiful and classy looking. She WAS great in the role.
I concur (-_-)
She was Frank Lloyd Wright's niece.
@@SymphonyBrahms Yes
I can’t believe they would consider anyone else beside Bette Davis!!!
god I love this type of story . I must have watched this five or six times
17:30 "I . CAN´T . DO . THAT!"... oh my... i laught so hard.
One of my all time favorite movies, Bette Davis at her finest!
Bloody brilliant film, Bette Davis at her best, in fact the whole cast was amazing 👏👏👏👌
Amazing. If Baxter, a truly great actress in her own right, hadn't been selfish and made fiction a reality, both Davis and Baxter would have won Academy Awards that year. And Davis is again sabotaged by another colleague, Crawford, and robbed of an Academy Award for Baby Jane. Unbelievable.
I think they were jealous. Everyone knows Bette Davis was the greatest actress of all time. RIP
Bettie Davis and Marilyn 💕
I can't imagine anyone else playing Margo Channing! Davis was perfect.
you can always tell a younger user. . . that is Celeste Holm, NOT Celeste Holmes. That one is Sherlock.
Another amazing Backstory (always so well-produced). I have never been anything but totally pleased with any that I've ever seen.
Great Actress Davis , and not many women of her day as good looking as she was would have taken on roles that made them look less than gorgeous on screen,She had a lot more than just a pretty face.
Oh one of the best .. ever...the script, the players simply wonderful
I love this movie, one of my favorites!
Bette Davis should have won the Oscar
Not sure why her marriage of 10 years to Gary Merrill was called less enduring. Of the 4 husbands she had, she was married to Gary for the longest period of time.
i agree, 10 years is not bad at all.
per sebra really 10 yrs in Hollywood is 20 in real life... hardly a failure
MrDavfit
or maybe like 70 years in dog years? tee hee
Kate Hyde lol
well she broke up a marriage to marry him and it didnt go the long haul?
"A milkshake"...man when she said things like that with those eyes she was devastating
If Anne Baxter had been nominated in the SUPPORTING category & had won and Bette Davis had won in the LEAD category, it would have mimicked Vivien Leigh & Hattie McDaniel's wins in GWTW. In both films, each star's performance benefited from playing opposite the other.
Is that just ...... a joke??? Anyway, it WAS a joke when they GAVE the Oscar to Hattie McDaniel instead of Olivia DeHavilland. A ridiculous tribute to Hollywood liberalism long before its time.
oh stfu
Mike Willing This I agree with. McDaniel’s win also set the tone for subsequent African-American winners who won for playing stereotypical roles.
Betty was just magical actress!! I get so invested in her performances she had a magic that made you feel like part of the movie.
Of course Bette should of won the Oscar...this is a performance of a lifetime and one of the best in the history of film..no one could do this again is the true pinnacle of talent and power..She owned the screen..She should of knocked Ann Baxter on her butt for taking the Oscar from her..Ann insisted on being nominated the best actress role when it clearly was a supporting role..bette got robbed for this and Whatever Happened to Baby Bane
This is an amazing movie, so incredibly well written and performed. Watch it today and it still seems so fresh and stinging.
I love Celeste Holmes as I do Bette. But I feel she was far too sensitive to Bette's comment. Also Celeste said in another interview something quite different; that when she said "Good Morning"! Bette said " oh shit sweet and cheery". I actually think underneath Celeste didn't like Bette before the picture. As stated here by Ann Baxter and Celeste everyone got along very well.
She was also great in an episode of Columbo, Old Fashioned Murder, as Mrs Brandt, very memorable, very amusing!
I agree, Tarn - If the worst thing that happened was that comment and being called a bitch by Davis at some point, it was hardly the "horrible treatment" she implies. It should also be noted that she never made these comments just prior to Davis's death.
I agree that Holm was intimidated by Davis to begin with - why else refer to her as "the Queen Bee" without ever having met her?
MetFan37, "why else refer to her as "the Queen Bee" without ever having met her?"
Davis' reputation preceded her. Everyone knew how she's like on set and off regardless of whether they have met or worked with her.
Tarn Sand Q