All About Eve is showing at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Damariscotta, Maine this Thursday, March 6, at 7:00 pm, and again at 2:00 pm on Friday, March 7, as part of the ‘Lights, Camera, Classics’ film series.
The backstage drama gained an all-time record 14 Oscar nominations, while Marilyn earned a presenting gig at the 23rd Academy Awards. But in a shock result, leading lady Bette Davis lost the Best Actress race to a relative unknown. Her main rival was Gloria Swanson, but the nominees also included new faces like Eleanor Parker (Caged) and Bette’s own co-star, Anne Baxter (as Eve.)
Film historian Jeannie MacDonald, who introduces the screenings, has described one of the most contested battles in Hollywood history…
“In 1950, Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson launched big-screen comebacks in All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard with scenery-chomping performances that instantly made them front-runners in the Oscar race for Best Actress … Nine years younger than Gloria, Bette credited All About Eve with resuscitating her comatose career … Fortunately, Bette knew a killer script when she read one – and Joseph L. Mankewicz’s witty, Oscar-winning screenplay was a bullet-train ticket back to the ‘A-List.’
Swanson and Davis both played actresses, though it’s tricky to grade the performances against each other … If you watch both films, you will see two legends at the tops of their games. They don’t so much play Norma and Margo as vanish within them. They swipe every scene. Own every frame. Sunset Boulevard may have been William Holden’s breakout role, but it’s Gloria who commands your attention. Same with Davis. She’s surrounded by a stellar cast, delivering one brilliant Mankiewicz line after another, but even Marilyn Monroe can’t upstage the riveting Ms. Bette.
On Oscar night, odds makers weren’t sure if Davis or Swanson would prevail. Instead, newcomer Judy Holliday won Best Actress for Born Yesterday.”
The Marilyn Report 