Beauty vs Beast: All About Actresses
Monday, March 2, 2015 at 3:17PM Howdy folks it's Jason from MNPP here with this week's round of "Beauty vs Beast," wherein we ask you to take sides between infamous cinematic tête-à-têtes... if you've got a seatbelt I'm suggesting right here outta the gate that you might wanna fasten it because, as the saying goes, bumps ho. Yup, it's All About Eve time. I don't really have an excuse for choosing All About Eve this week - the film does turn 65 this year but that's not until October. Bette Davis' birthday is in April. Anne Baxter's birthday is in May. The 106th anniversary of writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's birth was three weeks ago, we could pretend it's an overdue hurrah for that? Sure. A belated good job on this movie, Joe! Really though any time is a good time for All About Eve. To paraphrase a certain somebody, All About Eve looked great sixty-five years ago and it'll look great twenty years from now. I hate men.
Reader Comments (13)
I'm Team Phoebe if I'm being totally honest.
Rooting for Daughters of Margo Channing is one of my primary occupations.
How can anyone be Team Gertrude Slojinski?
While I'm generally all about a conniving, backstabbing, social/star climber, I am not all about Eve in this poll, because I am all about Margo, that is Bette Davis. Good lord I LOVE this movie. Every line, performance, just damn element of it is on the money, but damnit if Davis isn't doing something even well beyond greatness here. She moves a 10 to an 11, which is hard when you're surrounded by all those unhappy rabbits.
LOL, @ Paul Outlaw. Who knows considering bons mots like, "Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman." (Margo Channing FTW!)
I mean, come on. Isn't it obvious?
I would have considered Team Karen, but even still would almost certainly gone for Team Margot.
Team Margo- one of the greatest films ever made about the theater.
All About Eve is an ensemble that ends up feeling like a one woman show. THAT'S how powerful Bette Davis is is in every gesture, quip and sashay. One of the greatest performances in American film history and it's unbelievable that one of her Oscars wasn't for this iconic role.
Team Margo--she's the real deal, a real star--Eve's a black hole!
Team Birdie!
par - A vote for Team Birdie is a vote for common sense!
I mean, yeah, Margo Channing. FTW. But I'm voting for Eve because poor Anne Baxter is always overshadowed by Bette Davis in this, and she has the FAR trickier part. And she does great, sly work in it. One of the most undersung performances of all time, in one of film's greatest ensembles.
But really, Team Addison DeWitt.
Anybody's who's not on the Margo train, all I can say to them:
"Everybody has a heart. Except some people."
Bette forever!
How could she not win an Oscar for this? One of the Top Five best performances ever by an actress. And the most cunning thing she pulls off is fooling everyone that she is playing herself, when in fact she's giving one of the most profound, layered, full-range turns in cinematic history.