- DIRECTOR:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- ACTORS:
Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, Gregory Ratoff, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Bates
- PLOT:
A seeming ingenue (Baxter) attaches herself to an aging stage actress (Davis) in the hopes of rising through the ranks, whatever it takes.
- EVALUATION:
Mankiewicz's script and career-topping performances from Davis, Baxter, Sanders, Marlowe, and Ritter combine in a memorable tale of social climbing and what happens to those who are climbed over.
- WRITING:
Based on a short story by Mary Orr and containing some of the wittiest lines ever put on film.
- FILMING:
The choice of multiple narrators is rather unorthodox, but the film features relatively few visual flourishes until the final shot of Eve's new understudy (Bates) reflected hundreds of times over.
- BEST PART:
Any of several shouting matches initiated by Margo (Davis) or anything Thelma Ritter says.
- TRIVIA:
Davis and Merrill were married shortly after filming.
- STINGER:
Margo: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"
