Sep

3

Anne BaxterI just saw All About Eve for the first time. The film, made in 1950, holds up well, other than a very few scenes that now read as over-the-top. It was well-written and clever, scripted by Joseph Mankiewicz (1909-1993), starring all the venerable stars of the age: Anne Baxter, Bette Davis, Celeste Holm, George Sanders, Gary Merrill, Thelma Ritter and Marilyn Monroe — even Eddie Fisher in a tiny role.

The code of film ethics at the time forbade overt mention of the subtle philogender goings-on between Eve (Baxter), Margo (Bette) and Celeste Holme, and between Addison and unnamed presumed other men. But it was indicated, if you have the sensibility to note its telltales.

What dawned on me as I saw the meretricious opportunist Eve Harrington, "born Gertrude Slusjcowich," as George Sanders's character says with acid deconstructional relentlessness, was that she pretended a sincerity she never knew, she lied at every opportunity to advance herself, she connived behind the scenes and feigned innocence when caught, she was a Janus-faced royal rhymes-with-rich who cannibalized anyone she could feed off, yet who unaccountably won a few hearts of proles watching her without much 20:20 insight: She is, in short, the incarnation of America's presumptive 44th President.

The George Sanders character, Addison DeWitt –though flawlessly cynical, analytical and too reflective by half to embody anyone who should want to come within a mile of Eve, yet wants to become her possessor (for want of a better term). Why, after he dissects her horribleness, should he then pursue affiliation with such a reprobate? Perhaps one could ask America's 42nd President…


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