All About Eve (1950), written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Theater stalker makes good, causing much off-stage wreckage. A chance for the actors to act up. A fine film, although talky.
But: fourteen Oscar nominations and six wins, #16 on the AFI list of best 100 American films? Really?
Watching it I can't help thinking about the actors:
Bette Davis: It takes courage to play an aging woman. Or for an actress to play an aging actress. I recall someone saying there are three Hollywood roles for women: (1) babe, (2) female prosecutor, (3) Miss Daisy.
George Sanders: Always deliciously evil, his off-stage persona seemed to match his performances. His autobiography was called Memoirs of a Professional Cad and his suicide note read "I am leaving because I am bored."
Anne Baxter: "Oh, Moses, Moses!"
Gary Merrill and Hugh Marlowe: seeing them together makes me want to watch Twelve O'Clock High (1949) again. Merrill married Bette Davis after this.
Marilyn Monroe: I always wish she had been allowed to play normal people. Try Clash By Night.
I've seen questions about Merrill's line when he hands Celeste Holm a drink: "You're a Gibson Girl." The joke is that (a) a Gibson is a type of mixed drink, and (b) The Gibson Girl was the turn of the century invention of Charles Dana Gibson, who drew pretty girls with hour-glass figures and friendly, slightly bemused expressions:
A bunch of theater references in the film go right by me.
Available on Blu-ray, rather nice looking.