Behind the Scenes: All About Eve (Mankiewicz, 1950) with Bette Davis and Anne Baxter

Miss Davis, ever since I've been on this set, I've heard nothing but discussion of Eve. May I have your opinion of her? The golden girl, the cover girl, the girl next door, the girl on the moon. Time's been very good to Eve. Life goes where she goes. She's been profiled, covered, revealed, reported. What she wears and where and when. Whom she knows and where she was and when and where she's going. Eve has insatiable ambition and talent. An improbable person with a contempt for humanity, an inability to love or be loved. But how can such a woman fool so many? How does any Eve do it? It's been called one of the greatest movies ever made. We're all busy little bees, full of 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? Because that's what they are. I go and make them happy. But the heated performances and scorching screenplay... You can always put that award where your heart ought to be. ...were nothing compared to the passionate fireworks that exploded behind the scenes. What's attractive on stage need not necessarily be attractive off. All right! High art, low blows and the demons of desire. Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night. Joseph Mankiewicz's 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'll you have? A milkshake. 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 take charge. I believe I will. But what made the film a smash hit was its star, Bette 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. In 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 theater 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 a carrier star role, romantic role, sometime north of 40. Ingenues keep coming up beneath you and you keep moving on. Mankiewicz developed the story into a treatment for a film entitled Best Performance. 20th Century Fox studio chief Daryl 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 he'd go through and make notations... ...and there was a line near the beginning of the script where it 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 Jean Crane... ...but Mankiewicz insisted on another Fox contract player, 26-year-old Oscar winner Anne Baxter. I haven't seen you since the Academy Awards. Congratulations on winning that Oscar. Mankiewicz believed strongly that in contrast to Jean Crane... ...Anne Baxter had what it took to play the part, something he called bitch virtuosity. I know Eve 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 friend's hearts without knocking. To play the critical role of Karen Richards... ...the woman who unwittingly aids Eve in her ruthless climb to stardom... ...Mankiewicz chose another Oscar winner, Celeste Holm. But Holm had recently left Fox following a bitter contract dispute with Daryl Zanuck. Mankiewicz said, I'd like you to play Karen, but I don't want to make the movie unless you do. So Zanuck had to hire me back. But that was a nice moment. But the most difficult decision of all was the casting of the central character... ...Margot 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's careful planning was derailed... ...by a plot twist worthy of a backstage melodrama. Claudette Colbert ruptured her disc 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 me. Zanuck, Zanuck, Zanuck, what are you, two lovers? The outspoken and fiery actress had been the reigning queen of Warner Bros. 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' 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. Marvellous. 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... Zanuck had said, she'll never work in this town again. But that was the last time that they'd had any kind of a meeting, apparently. Swallowing his pride, Zanuck phoned the star at home. Betty picked up the phone and voiced it out on the other end and said... ...Betty, this is Daryl. She said, Daryl who? Daryl Zanuck, of course. And she said, all right, all right, whoever you are, come off it. But Davis soon realized that the man on the phone was not a prankster. Daryl Zanuck was offering her what sounded like the role of a lifetime. After reading Joe Mankiewicz's 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, Margot 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' co-stars began to speculate about what it would be like... ...to work with a notoriously temperamental actress. We were taking a plane up to San Francisco. It was a hydroplane. Very noisy. With Hugh Marlowe and Gary Merrill. So I hollered over the noise... ..."What do you think it's gonna 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. Edmund Goulding called me and said... ..."Hey, boy, you're out of your mind. This woman will annihilate you." "...She will grind you 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... ...they're her words she's saying and her thoughts she's expressing? Usually at the point when she has to rewrite and rethink them... ...but this time it was different. Davis knew better than to change Mankiewicz's flawless script. And to the director's surprise... ...she turned out to be one of the most agreeable leading ladies... ...he'd ever worked with. All her other scripts, her handwriting was on every single page. On the script of Eve, there were no notations. 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. Mankiewicz said, now here's the key to the character. Margot treats a mink coat like a poncho. Where's my coat? Right where you left it. 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 11, 1950... ...the director was astounded... ...as he watched Betty Davis become Margot 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 and the rain. Autograph fiends. They're not people. Those little beasts that run around in packs like coyotes. They're your fans, your audience. They're nobody's fans. They're juvenile delinquents. They're mental defectives. They're nobody's audience. They never see a play or a movie evening. They're never indoors long enough. The first time I ever went into a Betty Davis dressing room... ...I opened the door of the dressing room and there was Margot. The tapes on her hair, masses of cold cream on her face. 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 Margot's brassy self-confidence... ...or with her professional anxiety about reaching the age of 40. Forty. Four-oh. But Betty and Margot also shared another, much more personal bond. 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 Margot shared something else... ...very important and common. Their taste in men. The biggest bonus of all was seeing this very good-looking man. A very hairy man, as she used to say. She loved hairy men. And she saw this hairy man coming towards her and said, 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 as represented in the film. Heaven help me. I love a psychotic. Davis and Merrill 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 100 percent. The production team moved back to the Fox soundstages 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 night. The party also marked the first appearance of an attractive blonde... ...whom Zanuck had fired from the studio two years earlier... ...for being unphotogenic, 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? Because that's what they are. Now go and 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 in the East like the sun. Veteran cynic George Sanders also made a grand entrance at the party... ...as critic Addison DeWitt, the character closest to Mankiewicz's heart. We're a breed apart from the rest of humanity, we theater folk. We are the original displaced personalities. You won't have to read his column tomorrow if you just heard it. I don't agree, Addison. That happens to be your particular abnormality. All of Dad's venom, disdain... ...and I use 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 in him. With its air of urban sophistication and backstage backstabbing... ...it was only a matter of time before rumors began to fly... ...that the actors filming All About Eve... ...were as contentious offscreen as they were on. But according to the film's cast members... ...rumors of catty behavior behind the scenes just weren't true. You're supposed to be at one another's throats... ...and cut the atmosphere with a knife and that sort of thing. There was nothing like that. There was no cattiness on the set at all. Do you think Joseph Mankiewicz would have stood still... ...for a kind of 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, and there's Betty, and 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 bitch. Okay. Oh, relax, kid. It's just me and my big mouth. It's just that you get me so mad sometimes. But Holm got the last laugh... ...while filming the scene in which her character realizes... ...that Eve's master plan has backfired. I don't want to play Cora. What? Now, wait a minute. You're always so touchy about plays. It isn't a part. It's a great part and a fine play. But not for me anymore. Not for a foursquare, upright, downright, forthright married lady. What's so funny? Nothing. Everything. Everything's so funny. Davis was startled by Holm's ability to laugh on command. She said, I can't do that. And I said, I'm sure you could if you tried. She said, no, I can't. And at that point, McEvoy said, would you like to do it again? And I said, sure. So, off I went. And it was then that I realized... ...that Joe had been aware of how difficult Betty had been to me. Do you know who I'm going to be? A cowboy? A married lady. With a paper to prove it. No more make-believe offstage or on. By the end of filming, Betty Davis had made the same decision as Margot Channing. She would marry her younger leading man. But unlike Margot, 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. Guided by the sure hand of writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz... ...the shooting of All About Eve was completed in mid-June 1950. On July 28th, Betty Davis and Gary Merrill were married in Mexico... ...just hours after Merrill's divorce was final. And on October 13th that same year... ...the world got to meet Margot 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 Eve. Getting a novel salute from the neighboring Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel... ...as the film's producer Daryl F. Zanuck and his wife... ...lead a host of celebrities... ...including the picture's writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz... ...to the opening. Hail for her performance in All About Eve... ...Betty Davis attends with her mother... ...while title role player Ann Baxter brings hubby John Hodiak. Next day, Betty Davis, with a marine escort... ...returns to the scene of triumph... ...to be immortalized in the Chinese theater's famous cement. A tribute to her outstanding performance in All About Eve... ...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. Ann Baxter wanted 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. There's a staggering number of nominations... ...that 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 Ann Baxter... ...and Sunset Boulevard's 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, if Fox were 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 seemed determined to imitate art one last time... ...as the actress who played Betty's arch-enemy... ...convertently ruined her chances of winning an Oscar. Ann 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 Eve. 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 had made a spectacular comeback... ...and would forever be identified... ...with the great Margot Channing. Unfortunately, her marriage to Gary Merrill... ...was less enduring. The couple divorced after ten years. In a way, that should have worked... ...except she said to me... ...that something peculiar happened... ...that he married Margot Channing... ...not Betty Davis... ...not Bill Sampson... ...not Gary Merrill. But whatever regrets Betty Davis may have had... ...about her backstage romance... ...no one could deny that All About Eve... ...re-established her as one of Hollywood's greatest stars... ...and established Margot Channing... ...as one of the most memorable characters... ...in the history of cinema. My father was a writer-director... ...of motion pictures. He would always use the term writer first. He considered himself a writer first... ...even though he won two Oscars... ...for writing and two Oscars for directing. Maglitz came out here... ...at the beginning of talking pictures... ...and at the end of silent pictures. He started by writing titles... ...for silent movies. And he then started writing scripts. And he wrote and he wrote and he wrote. He then became a producer... ...and then he ended up as a director. So he had experienced it all... ...and he knew his craft. If Joe Maglitz had never done another film... ...other than All About Eve... ...his reputation would still be secure. What makes All About Eve tick? There's a lot of things that make that movie tick. All About Eve is Joe's finest script. It contains his most brilliant... ...congreve-like literary wit. I remember being at drama school in London... ...and All About Eve was playing. And I've never been more impressed... ...by something as I was by that. I don't know what it was, but it was magical. But I never knew that I was going to meet him or anything. But it just somehow, it was something... ...I can't describe it, really. It's the brilliant writing of the story itself... ...the creation of the characters... ...the way that Nankowitz cast the film... ...with such perfect people for every role. Definitely class was an issue... ...that Joe Nankowitz was concerned about. And that is reflected in... ...definitely in his work from Dragonwyck on. I want my girl married in a church like a good Christian. I'll have no hole-in-corner wedding here. She has nothing ready, no wedding gown. For once, we will let the ceremony outshine the costume. Whatever dress Miranda wears... ...will be forever cherished as her wedding gown. A lot of pretty words. Too many for me. It makes his film stand out, though... ...from a lot of the rest of Hollywood cinema... ...when he was kind of at his peak. It is my good fortune that you've known so few valets. Diello, please. I've spoken to you about this before. You're a valet to the British ambassador, not to me. Now, sit down and tell me the gossip. There's not a tremendous amount of interest... ...on the part of most filmmakers, most studios... ...during this time of making films... ...in which class conflict is one of the basic elements... ...that drives the film forward. Your bet. How much you got in front of you? $11,000. That's my bet. Okay. What do you got? Ace. High. You next? Jack. Nine. You win. Fifth? Yeah, if you're all out of champagne. In Letter to Three Wives, you have three marriages... ...that happen at three different levels of society. The part of Letter to Three Wives... ...that Joe Mankiewicz loved the most... ...in writing and in directing... ...was the part of Linda Darnell... ...being together with her mother and sister. You don't own that bathroom. There's other people in this house. But you're such a quiet little thing, dear. One never knows you're above. I still think it's disgusting. Shall we say the lower-class types? He loved those people. He loved that group of people that... He grew up on the Lower East Side himself... ...and his family was certainly not well-to-do. And he loved to observe and interact... ...with wonderful characters. It's just a small town. Everybody gets to know everybody... ...if you don't mind crossing the track. And it makes his films, I think... ...much more interesting to contemporary audiences... ...because he was interested... ...in the kind of stratification... ...and the meaning of that... ...and the dramatic potential... ...of working with that in stories. You're smart. Plenty smart. We gonna talk about business now? Let's look at the view for a while. Miss Lipke's leaving next week. And if Miss Goldberg moves up... ...you'll need a new assistant supervisor. He is interested... ...in the concept of ambition. Many of his films involve plots... ...that regard ambitious characters... ...trying to get ahead. That theme of people having to bring... ...themselves up and do things... ...that is definitely one of his themes... ...that he liked to dwell upon. That was his forte... ...was social satire... ...and male-female combat. Mankiewicz came really... ...from a theatrical background... ...of the theater... ...and the way plays are constructed. And he wanted to make movies in the same way. And he wanted the story to be told... ...clearly and intelligently... ...by interesting and fascinating actors and characters. His movies are perfect examples... ...of films at their best... ...where the visuals are at their worst. Or at least at their least interesting. A lot of people fault Mankiewicz... ...because they feel that he really was not... ...a very good cinematic director. That he didn't ever master the camera very well... ...and that sort of thing. Well, maybe he wasn't as brilliant as others... ...in terms of his use of camera... ...and lighting and editing... ...and sound and film and so forth. But he can hold his own with... ...the literate aspects of cinema. And people don't give enough credit to that. It's not easy to write a film... ...that is as smart and as witty... ...and so forth... ...as it is to compose a great shot... ...or to light a film... ...in a particularly striking way. And I think he was a better stylist... ...than a lot of people do. His least successful films... ...were the films that demanded action... ...and a lot of visual aspects. Because the visual parts didn't really interest him. It was the people and their minds... ...and their psychology... ...and what made them tick. That's what fascinated him. And those were his best films.