The good : strong performances by Bette Davis, Celeste Holmes and Thelma Ritter .
The bad : Anne Baxter has always seemed affected in her acting and here she seems too phony to fool so many people seasoned in the business for so long. Only Thelma Ritter's Birdie has her pegged from the start. ( Ritter or Holmes were Oscar deserving. I would go with Ritter since she hadn't won and she stands out in the cast here ) A different actress playing Eve might have made it more believable.
The ugly: obviously looking at in through the rear view mirror is tricky but the way George Saunders character theater critic Addison DeWitt blackmails Eve makes the skin crawl. Yes Eve was horrible but was she that bad ? Compared with the rest of them? Not so much. She was only mildly a bit worse than most of them and on par with Margo. Addison was the worst. Only Birdie is all that good. The so called scandal is pretty trite even back then and in the entertainment world her scandal from her hometown would blow over by lunch. Her being tied to Addison that way seemed most uncomfortable even frightening.
The mixed: the script is sharp with cutting dialogue and observations but the plot is thin and Eve's so called scandal seems pitiful they couldn't come up with something more than an affair with a married boss ? That probably covered most of the people they knew. What if Eve had a child she abandoned? A possible murder suspect? Then your cooking!
The questionable: Margo and her fiancé are less than convincing and Margo is going to be less ambitious and satisfied with less star status and more of a homebody?
It also runs a bit long for what it is ( over two hours) . Under two hours would have made the story tighter and more interesting . Sharper .
Still can't deny it's well made and mostly well acted.
The bad : Anne Baxter has always seemed affected in her acting and here she seems too phony to fool so many people seasoned in the business for so long. Only Thelma Ritter's Birdie has her pegged from the start. ( Ritter or Holmes were Oscar deserving. I would go with Ritter since she hadn't won and she stands out in the cast here ) A different actress playing Eve might have made it more believable.
The ugly: obviously looking at in through the rear view mirror is tricky but the way George Saunders character theater critic Addison DeWitt blackmails Eve makes the skin crawl. Yes Eve was horrible but was she that bad ? Compared with the rest of them? Not so much. She was only mildly a bit worse than most of them and on par with Margo. Addison was the worst. Only Birdie is all that good. The so called scandal is pretty trite even back then and in the entertainment world her scandal from her hometown would blow over by lunch. Her being tied to Addison that way seemed most uncomfortable even frightening.
The mixed: the script is sharp with cutting dialogue and observations but the plot is thin and Eve's so called scandal seems pitiful they couldn't come up with something more than an affair with a married boss ? That probably covered most of the people they knew. What if Eve had a child she abandoned? A possible murder suspect? Then your cooking!
The questionable: Margo and her fiancé are less than convincing and Margo is going to be less ambitious and satisfied with less star status and more of a homebody?
It also runs a bit long for what it is ( over two hours) . Under two hours would have made the story tighter and more interesting . Sharper .
Still can't deny it's well made and mostly well acted.