All About Eve (1950) - IMDb IMDb 7 January 2017 5:00 AM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (written for the screen by) Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON TV 2017 Golden Globe Nominees: In & Out of Character Get a closer look at this year's Golden Globe Award nominees in real life and in the roles that earned them fame. Don't miss our live coverage of the Golden Globes beginning at 4 p.m. PST on Jan. 8 in our Golden Globes section.

View the gallery Related News a list of 31 titles created 06 Dec 2012 a list of 25 titles created 23 Mar 2014 a list of 25 titles created 06 Jun 2014 a list of 44 titles created 04 Oct 2015 a list of 41 titles created 5 months ago Title: All About Eve (1950) 8.3/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 6 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 17 nominations. See more awards » Videos A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue. Director: Billy Wilder A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity. Director: Billy Wilder When two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

Director: Billy Wilder A spoiled heiress running away from her family is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story. Director: Frank Capra Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Director: John Huston An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. Director: Billy Wilder A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife. Director: Alfred Hitchcock An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses. Director: Elia Kazan A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down. Director: Frank Capra Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime. Director: Carol Reed A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.

Director: John Ford Three World War II veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed. Director: William Wyler Edit Storyline Eve (Anne Baxter) is waiting backstage to meet her "idol" aging Broadway Star, Margo Channing (Bette Davis). It all seems innocent enough as Eve explains that she has seen Margo in EVERY performance of the current play she is in. Only Playright critic DeWitt (George Sanders) sees through Eve's evil plan, which is to take her parts and fiancé, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill) When the fiancé shows no interest, she tries for playwright Hugh Marlowe (Lloyd Richards) but DeWitt stops her. After she accepts her award, she decides to skip the after-party and goes to her room, where we find a young woman named Phoebe, who snuck into her room and fell asleep. This is where the "Circle of Life" now comes to fruition as Eve is going to get played the way she did Margo. It's all about women---and their men!

Genres: 15 January 1951 (Sweden) See more » Also Known As: $10,177 (USA) (6 October 2000) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia According to the casting director's list, future White House occupants Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan were considered for the roles of Bill Sampson and Eve Harrington. See more » Goofs At right about 51:58 into the movie, when Margo and Lloyd are talking in the kitchen, right after Margo says "Cora...still a girl of twenty", the camera that is filming the scene shakes as if it was accidentally bumped. See more » Quotes See more » Crazy Credits Eddie Fisher is credited in the cast as 'Stage Manager,' although all of his scenes were cut from the released print. This is not the the singer Eddie Fisher, but another actor. See more » Connections About EveryMan, About EveryWoman, About EveryLife 11 August 2005 | by anita_delre (United States) – See all my reviews You will see yourself in every character in this very intelligent, entrancing movie.

Though set in "the theatre," the story could just as easily have been told in a small town, a corporation  even a religious organization. Being set in the "glamorous" world of entertainment  its seems all the more timely in these days of fame, fortune and the insufficiency (almost shame) of being ordinary. The theatre setting also underscores the reality that the world is a stage, and all its people, players.

So much to study in this movie: the genuine, trusting (and romantic) human; the streetwise, good, hardworking human, who's seen it all and doesn't embrace it; the jaded, heart-hardened, deceitful loser with power, who admires the same and disdains human goodness; the ambitious sociopath who fools so many; the unsuspecting onlookers who see only the façade of success; the inescapable fact that supreme achievement has been had by very low characters; the painful passage of an aging woman into the light of knowing she's loved for being beautiful beyond her appearance, for being HER; the touching portrayal of her lover who remembers his love for her as he passes on a much younger, beautiful, talented actress; the sorrow of a (betraying) friend who discovers the frightened and lonely heart of her successful friend The dialogue is sharp and clever, barked and growled, smarmy and tender A truly human movie about being human. Go  find yourself in everyone! 35 of 44 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes 1950 Academy Awards® Winners and History "Sunset Boulevard" Many Hollywood films and nominees in 1950 had their roots in Broadway, as either their subject matter, or by the fact that the actors/actresses had first created their Academy Award-winning or nominated roles on the New York stage. The Best Picture race at the start of the decade was a race between five very different films, but one thing was for sure - one of the nominees, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's witty, theatrical, backstage comedy and expose All About Eve was the recipient of a record-breaking number of nominations - fourteen! It was the first most-nominated film with 14 bids in Oscar history. All About Eve received more nominations than any other picture in Oscar history - until James Cameron's Titanic (1997) tied the record 47 years later. The two front-runners in the race, All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard racked up a total of 25 nominations between them. All About Eve won six Oscars - Best Picture (producer Darryl F. Zanuck), Best Director and Best Writing: Screenplay (both for director/writer Joseph L.

Mankiewicz), Best Supporting Actor, Best Costume Design (Edith Head again), and Best Sound Recording. While targeting New York theatre life, the film chronicled the intermingling lives of an aging Broadway stage actress (Bette Davis), a cynical drama critic (George Sanders), a young director, a playwriter (and his wife), a pretty but untalented protege (a bit role for Marilyn Monroe), and an aspiring and talented young actress named Eve (Anne Baxter). [As an aside, the film reinvigorated Bette Davis' career, and introduced her to cast member and fourth husband Gary Merrill.] The film was full of one-liners, including one of the most famous of all time, spoken by Davis: "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" Another Best Picture nominee, director George Cukor's Born Yesterday (with five nominations and one win - Best Actress), was an adaptation of Garson Kanin's Broadway stage-play comedy about an uneducated, 'dumb blonde' mistress (Judy Holliday) victimized by a rough-hewn and rude millionaire junk dealer (Broderick Crawford).

One of the losing nominees was writer/co-director Billy Wilder's black comedy Sunset Boulevard (with eleven nominations and three wins - Best Writing: Story and Screenplay, Best B/W Art Direction and Set Decoration, and Best Dramatic Score by Franz Waxman), a combination horror/film noir that was both a tribute to film-making and a searing film about Hollywood and one of its fading silent screen stars of the past. [ Sunset Boulevard was also distinguished as one of about a dozen films in Academy history which had nominees in all four acting categories.] The other two nominees were the great MGM domestic comedy - director Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride (with three nominations and no wins) about the trials and tribulations of an overwhelmed father preparing for his daughter's (Elizabeth Taylor) wedding, and MGM's epic adventure film about explorers looking for a fabled African diamond mine and a lost explorer-husband - a colorful version of the H. Rider Haggard tales which was filmed on exotic location by director Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton, King Solomon's Mines (with three nominations and two wins - Best Color Cinematography (Robert Surtees) and Best Film Editing (Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig)).

Joseph Mankiewicz, the previous year's twin Oscar winner (for Best Director and Best Writing: Screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives) repeated his two Oscar wins in 1950 as director and screenplay writer for All About Eve . He became the first and only person ever to win writing and directing Oscars in consecutive years. His screenplay was based on Mary Orr's short story titled The Wisdom of Eve. Five of the cast of the Best Picture All About Eve were nominated for acting roles, but only one nominee of its cast was successful - George Sanders. Four actresses in the film were nominated and all lost). The film holds the record for having the most female acting nominees: two as Best Actress - Bette Davis and Anne Baxter two as Best Supporting Actress - Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter The Best Actor race was won by Puerto Rican-born Broadway star Jose Ferrer (with his second career nomination and his sole Oscar win) - he was a versatile, well-known stage actor/director in a virtuoso performance.

He re-created his stage role as the long-nosed, eloquent, 17th century poet-sword duellist who helps his friend win a woman's love in the film version of Edmond Rostand's classic romance directed by Michael Gordon, Cyrano de Bergerac (the film's sole nomination). (Ferrer received his first Oscar nomination two years earlier for his screen debut as the Dauphin - a Best Supporting Actor role in Joan of Arc (1948). His third and last career nomination was for his Best Actor performance as dwarf Toulouse-Lautrec in John Huston's biographical Moulin Rouge (1952).) Ferrer defeated four other well-qualified nominees: Louis Calhern (with his sole career nomination) as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the adapted play directed by John Sturges, The Magnificent Yankee (with two nominations and no wins). (Calhern was better known for his roles in It's A Wonderful Life (1946) , and Anatomy of a Murder (1959)) William Holden (with his first of three career nominations) as the opportunistic screenwriter in Sunset Boulevard (1950) .

(Holden's sole Oscar win was for Stalag 17 (1953) followed by another nomination for Network (1976) .) Holden also starred in Born Yesterday that was nominated for Best Picture. The race for Best Actress was one of the best in the history of the Academy Awards (four of the five nominees were equally deserving). The winner of the Best Actress award was rookie film actress Judy Holliday (with her sole career nomination - and sole Oscar win for her first starring film role) reprising her priceless Broadway role as "dumb blonde" Billie Dawn, the bimbo mistress of a corrupt, rude junk-man tycoon (Broderick Crawford) in Washington DC, who is tutored with culture by a young, sensitive newspaperman (William Holden). (A year earlier, Holliday played a small part in her debut film Adam's Rib (1949) .) It was the only comedic role among the nominees. Bette Davis (with her eighth career nomination) had one of the greatest, most definitive, nominated roles of her screen life as aging Broadway actress Margo Channing.

Anne Baxter (with her second and last career nomination) played the role of a scheming and ruthless younger admirer and aspiring actress Eve Harrington in the same film - All About Eve . Although both Anne Baxter's and Bette Davis' performances as competing co-stars were exceptional, they unfortunately cancelled each other out due to the shared nomination. Interestingly, their competitive tension for an Oscar was a repeat of their rivalry in the film. [Baxter had won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1945 for The Razor's Edge and so her studio 20th Century Fox unwisely placed her in the running for a lead award. She had little chance against her co-star Bette Davis or Gloria Swanson, or even Judy Holliday.

If she had been placed among the Best Supporting Actress nominees, joining nominated co-stars Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter, she might have defeated Josephine Hull, and that would have conclusively given the Best Actress award to Davis rather than Judy Holliday.] Immortal Gloria Swanson (with her third and last unsuccessful career nomination) came out of retirement and was nominated for her performance as a once-famous silent film star Norma Desmond plotting a comeback in Sunset Boulevard , one of the best films about Hollywood ever made. Another nominee was Eleanor Parker (with her first of three unsuccessful career nominations) for her hardened wife and woman-in-prison role as Marie Allen in director John Cromwell's prison drama Caged (with three nominations and no wins). George Sanders (with his sole career nomination - and Oscar win) won for his Best Supporting Actor role as the skillfully, manipulative, conspiratorial and ascerbic-tongued drama critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve . The other nominated Best Supporting Actor roles that didn't win included: Sam Jaffe (with his sole career nomination) as Doc Riedenschneider - the criminal mastermind of the safecracking job in director John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle .

(Earlier in Jaffe's career, he had played the High Lama in Capra's Lost Horizon (1937) and the title role in the classic adventure tale Gunga Din (1939)) Erich von Stroheim (with his sole career nomination) as the ex-director/valet-butler Max Von Mayerling who faithfully serves former wife/silent film queen Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard .

(Earlier in his acting career, he appeared in Grand Illusion (1937), and his directorial masterpiece was Greed (1924) ) [Reportedly, von Stroheim was insulted by his supporting nomination and threatened to sue Paramount] Jeff Chandler (with his sole career nomination) as pacifist Apache Indian leader Cochise in director Delmer Daves' Broken Arrow (with three nominations and no wins), a pro-Indian western starring James Stewart Edmund Gwenn (with his second and last career nomination) as a benevolent counterfeiter named Skipper in director Edmund Goulding's comedy Mister 880 (the film's sole nomination) Josephine Hull (with her sole career nomination - and Oscar win) won the Best Supporting Actress award for her re-created role (from Broadway) as Stewart's exasperated, distraught, long-suffering sister Veta Louise Simmons in Harvey.

(Hull earlier had also re-created her stage role in the un-nominated film comedy about a poison-serving Aunt, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) .) The other Best Supporting Actress nominees included Nancy Olson (with her sole career nomination) as aspiring screenwriter and ingenue Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard , and Hope Emerson (with her sole career nomination) as sadistic prison guard Evelyn Harper in Caged. Two co-stars of All About Eve were nominated: Thelma Ritter (with her first of six unsuccessful career nominations) as Birdie (Bette Davis' maid), and Celeste Holm (with her third and last career nomination) as Karen Richards. As a footnote, rising sex starlet Marilyn Monroe was featured in two nominated films (although un-nominated herself) - as the dumb blonde stereotype character of Miss Casswell ("an actress - a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art") in All About Eve , and in a cameo role as Louis Calhern's mistress in The Asphalt Jungle . She also made her first and only Academy Award ceremony appearance this year, presenting the Technical Achievement Oscar.

Edith Head won two Best Costume Design awards this year, one for a color film (Samson and Delilah), and one for a black and white film ( The last of the big studio bosses received an Honorary Award, MGM's Louis B. Mayer, "for distinguished service to the motion picture industry." Oscar Snubs and Omissions: The most obvious omissions in 1950 involved British director Carol Reed's three-time nominated thriller The Third Man . Although justly awarded the Best Cinematography Award (to Robert Krasker for his striking visuals) and nominated for Best Director and Best Editing, the film was not nominated for Best Picture, or Best Actor or Supporting Actor (for Orson Welles as the evil Harry Lime) or Best Screenplay (for Graham Greene's intelligent and suspenseful script), or for Anton Karas's zither theme music. An odd choice was made for Best Foreign Film -- René Clément's The Walls of Malapaga (Fr/It). Quite a few superb acting performances were neglected this year, including: Marlon Brando as paraplegic WWII veteran Lt.

'Bud' Ken Wilozek in Fred Zinnemann's The Men (with only one nomination for Carl Foreman's Best Writing, Story and Screenplay) Gregory Peck as mustached, aging gunslinger Jimmy Ringo in Henry King's noirish western The Gunfighter (with only one nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story) Clifton Webb (with three previous career nominations in 1944, 1946, and 1948 - all of which lost) as the stern but loving patriarch and "efficiency expert" Frank Bunker Gilbreth in Walter Lang's Cheaper By The Dozen (with no nominations) Alec Guinness in a virtuoso performance as eight different murder victims in an aristocratic clan in Robert Hamer's comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (UK) (with no nominations) Kirk Douglas as jazz trumpet player Rick Martin, Doris Day as band singer and Rick's supportive wife Jo Jordan, and Lauren Bacall as disturbed and self-loathing Amy North in director Michael Curtiz' Young Man with a Horn (with no nominations) Joseph Cotten as pulp writer Holly Martins in Carol Reed's Sterling Hayden as small-town jewel crook Dix Handley in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle James

 Stewart as vengeful Lin McAdam in Anthony Mann's adult-psychological western Winchester '73 (with no nominations) Director John Huston was nominated for the astringent The Asphalt Jungle , but his film was neglected and un-nominated in the Best Picture category.

Two other performances deserved at least some recognition: Nicholas Ray's great film noir In A Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart as a hard-drinking, violent screenwriter and Gloria Grahame as a sympathetic love interest. Although Spencer Tracy was nominated for Father of the Bride , he and Katharine Hepburn were both denied Oscar nominations for their inspired pairing as dueling husband/wife lawyers in Adam's Rib (the film's sole nomination was for its original screenplay). And both John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara were overlooked in John Ford's un-nominated Rio Grande, Ford's third and last in his celebrated 'cavalry' trilogy. All About Eve Movie Review & Film Summary (1950) | Roger Ebert Tweet Growing older was a smart career move for Bette Davis , whose personality was adult, hard-edged and knowing. Never entirely comfortable as an ingenue, she was glorious as a professional woman, a survivor, or a bitchy predator. Her veteran actress Margo Channing in "All About Eve" (1950) was her greatest role; it seems to show her defeated by the wiles of a younger actress, but in fact marks a victory: the triumph of personality and will over the superficial power of beauty.

She never played a more autobiographical role. Advertisement Davis' performance as a star growing older is always paired with another famous 1950 performance -- Gloria Swanson's aging silent star in "Sunset Boulevard." Both were nominated for best actress, but neither won; the Oscar went to Judy Holiday for " Born Yesterday ," although Davis' fans claimed she would have won if her vote hadn't been split, ironically, by Anne Baxter, who plays her rival and was also nominated for best actress. When you compare the performances by Davis and Swanson, you see different approaches to similar material. Both play great stars, now aging. Davis plays Margo Channing realistically, while Swanson plays Norma Desmond as a gothic waxwork. " Sunset Boulevard " seems like the better film today, maybe because it fits our age of irony, maybe because Billy Wilder was a better director than Joseph Mankiewicz . But Davis' performance is stronger than Swanson's, because it's less mad and more touching. Daviswasa character, an icon with a grand style, so even her excesses are realistic.

The movie, written by Mankiewicz, begins like "Sunset Boulevard" with a narration by a writer - -the theater critic Addison DeWitt ( George Sanders ), bemused, cynical, manipulative. He surveys the room at a theatrical awards dinner, notes the trophy reserved for Eve Harrington (Baxter), and describes the survivors of Eve's savage climb to the top: her director Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill), her writer Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), Lloyd's wife Karen (Celeste Holm), who was her greatest supporter. And the idol she cannibalized, Margo. As the fatuous old emcee praises Eve's greatness, the faces of these people reflect a different story. Advertisement The movie creates Margo Channing as a particular person, and Eve Harrington as a type. Eve is a breathless fan, eyes brimming with phony sincerity. She worms her way into Margo's inner circle, becoming her secretary, then her understudy, then her rival. Faking humility and pathos is her greatest role, and at first only one person sees through it: crusty old Birdie ( Thelma Ritter ), Margo's wardrobe woman. "What a story!" she snaps.

"Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." Margo believes Eve's story of hard luck and adoration; no actor has much trouble believing others would want to devote their lives to them. Good, sweet Karen also sympathizes with the girl, and arranges to strand Margo in the country one weekend so that Eve can go on as her understudy. Karen is repaid when Eve tries to steal her playwright husband, after an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to steal Margo's fiancé, Bill. He is played by Merrill (Davis' real-life husband), who turns her away with a merciless put-down: "What I go after, I want to go after. I don't want it to come after me." Eve is a universal type. Margo plays at having an ego but is in love with her work -- a professional, not an exhibitionist. She's the real thing. But the sardonic tone of the film is set by Sanders, as DeWitt. He's the principal narrator, and with his cigarette holder, his slicked-down hair and his flawless evening dress, he sees everything with deep cynicism.

He has his own agenda; while Eve naively tries to steal the men who belong to the women who helped her, Addison calmly schemes to keep Eve as his own possession. Sanders, who won the Oscar for best supporting actor, lashes her in one of the movie's most savage speeches: "Is it possible, even conceivable, that you've confused me with that gang of backward children you play tricks on? That you have the same contempt for me as you have for them?" And: "I am nobody's fool. Least of all, yours." Advertisement Glittering in the center of "All About Eve" is a brief supporting appearance by Marilyn Monroe. This film, and John Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle" earlier the same year, put her on the map; she was already "Marilyn Monroe," in every detail. She appears at Margo's party as DeWitt's date, and he steers her toward the ugly but powerful producer Max Fabian (Gregory Ratoff), advising her, "Now go and do yourself some good." Monroe sighs, "Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?" It has been observed that no matter how a scene was lighted, Monroe had the quality of drawing all the light to herself.

In her brief scenes here, surrounded by actors much more experienced, she is all we can look at. Do we see her through the prism of her legend? Perhaps not; those who saw the movie in 1950, when she was unknown, also singled her out. Mankiewicz helped create her screen persona when he wrote this exchange after the Monroe character sees Margo's fur coat. "Now there's something a girl could make sacrifices for," Monroe says. Advertisement The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1950 | News from the Boston Becks News from the Boston Becks The life and times of Erik, Veronica and Thomas 14 July, 2010 The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1950 [7] Comments Four of All About Eve's Oscar nominees (Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Bette Davis) as well as a young actress named Marilyn Monroe The 23rd annual Academy Awards, for the film year 1950 . The nominations were announced on February 12, 1951 and the awards ceremony was held on March 29, 1951.

Best Picture: All About Eve Sunset Blvd. Most Surprising Omission: The Asphalt Jungle Best Eligible Film Not Nominated: The Third Man Rank (out of 82) Among Best Picture Years: #63 The Race: Carol Reed’s The Third Man had been a big British hit in 1949, but didn’t make it to the States until 1950, where it got rave reviews and the theme became a hit record. It was soon followed by a much bigger film. The industry preview for Sunset Blvd., the new Billy Wilder film got mixed reviews. Barbara Stanwyck wept and kissed the hem of Gloria Swanson’s dress. Louis B. Mayer insisted that Wilder should be tarred and feathered. Wilder, standing close by, said “I am Mr. Wilder and you can go fuck yourself.” The film opened to brilliant reviews, rivaled only by All About Eve, the new film from 1949’s double Oscar winner: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

John Huston, the double Oscar winner from 1948 was also back with his new heist film, The Asphalt Jungle and Jimmy Stewart’s new film, Harvey, opened to rave reviews. The final Best Picture contender was George Cukor’s Born Yesterday, starring 1949’s Best Actor: Broderick Crawford. The first awards went to Sunset Blvd., winning Best Picture and Actress from the National Board of Review, though Best Director went to John Huston. The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve followed on the NBR list as #2 and #3. All About Eve came out on top at the New York Film Critics, winning Picture, Director and Actress. Next up was the Writers Guild and by declaring All About Eve a Comedy, they managed to award both it and Sunset (Asphalt Jungle and Born Yesterday both had to settle for nominations). Sunset and Eve were both nominated for Picture and Director at the Globes (as was Born Yesterday). Harvey was in for Picture in place of Asphalt, though it was in for Director. Sunset turned out to be the big winner, taking home Picture, Director and Actress (though not Screenplay which went to Eve).

The Results: The Best Director race was full of the expected: Wilder, Mankiewicz, Huston, Reed and Cukor. But The Asphalt Jungle and The Third Man were out of the Best Picture race in place of two films that had no almost no precursors: Father of the Bride (which only had a WGA nomination) and King Solomon’s Mines (which had none). Harvey had to settle for two acting nominations. (By the way, how much better were the Director choices? If the 5 Best Director choices had been the 5 Best Picture choices, instead of ranking 63rd, this year would rank 4th among Best Picture years). Sunset had 11 nominations, including all 4 acting categories, but had to settle for second place to All About Eve‘s record 14 nominations (including 5 acting nominations). Again they were in different Screenplay categories, but they were competing directly against each other in 9 categories. The total nominations boded well for Eve.

They would split their competition (Sunset would win 3 total – Screenplay plus two directly competitive categories and neither would win Actress, Supporting Actress, Editing or Cinematography), but Eve would take home the biggest prizes – Picture and Director, as well as Supporting Actor among its 6 total Oscars. And in spite of the precursors neither film won Best Actress. That went to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. Nominated for a record 14 Oscar nominations: All About Eve (1950) All About Eve Release Date: 13 October 1950 My Rating: **** My Rank: #3 (year) / #46 (nominees) / #17 (winners) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Davis), Actress (Baxter), Supporting Actor (Sanders), Supporting Actress (Holm), Supporting Actress (Ritter), Score The Film: Is there a more deliciously snarky character in all of film history than Addison DeWitt?

As he is so sublimely played by George Sanders, he comes in and takes over All About Eve (actually, he had it from the beginning, seeing as how he is the opening narrator) and never lets go. He watches all of the proceedings of the film with a detached sardonic wit, his withering phrases taking down anyone who gets anyone near him. No wonder Margo Channing would say “I distinctly remember, Addison, crossing you off of my guest list.” Addison, of course, replies “Dear Margo, you were an unforgettable Peter Pan. You must play it again soon.” Perhaps that has something to do with why Bette Davis didn’t win the Oscar. Not, perhaps, because Anne Baxter stole some of the votes away. Perhaps because George Sanders stole the film away. So the question then becomes, why doesn’t he win the Nighthawk Award? Or even come in second (he comes in third). Because the race for Best Supporting Actor in 1950 is the single best race in any category in any year. It is the only place where three different actors earn 9’s for their performance.

My actual winner is Erich von Stroheim, for his perfectly droll butler, painfully supporting the woman he still loves in place of the career he once had, so reminiscent of von Stroheim himself. Then there is the non-nominated Orson Welles in The Third Man, with some of the greatest delivery of lines in the history of film. So poor George Sanders comes in third. But that’s pretty much the case across the board for All About Eve. It is comes in third for Picture and Director (behind Sunset and Third Man), third for Actress (Baxter, finishing behind Swanson and Davis), third for Supporting Actress (Holm behind Nancy Olson and Josephine Hull). Sanders does an amazing thing in this film. He dominates. This is so amazing when you look at the film itself. There is Bette Davis, in perhaps her greatest performance as Margo Channing, the aging actress who became a star at age four and has always stayed a star. There is Anne Baxter, in what is easily the best performance of her career (even including her Oscar) as Eve Harrington, the young up and coming schemer who starts out worshiping Margo before stealing the stage out from underneath her.

There is Celeste Holm, married to the poor playwright (“All playwrights should be dead for three hundred years,” Margo yells at him at one point). There is Thelma Ritter, the devoted servant to Margo (when asked if she has a message for Tyrone Power, she says to just pass on her number and “I’ll give him the message myself). There is even Marilyn Monroe as a young ingenue, with looks that nearly melt the screen. But in the midst of all these powerful scheming females, Addison DeWitt looms large in a way the other males can not. Hugh Marlowe as the playwright is simply bossed off the screen. And Gary Merrill as Bill never seems to be up to earning Margo’s love (“Bill’s thirty-two. He looks thirty-two. He looked it five years ago, he’ll look it twenty years from now. I hate men.” she complains). But somehow Addison is still the conductor, moving pieces around for his own pleasure. For without him, would there really be that young ingenue at the end dressing herself in Eve’s clothing? This is a great film, a smart, interesting and sometimes funny film, dripping with sarcasm and layered in brilliant acting.

It is simply too bad that it has to settle for third place in this amazing year. The greatest film ever made: Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. (1950) - the poster spells out Boulevard but the actual title shot in the film doesn't Sunset Blvd. Release Date: 10 August 1950 My Rating: **** My Rank: #1 (year) / #1 (nominees) / #1 (all-time) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor (Holden), Actress (Swanson), Supporting Actor (von Stroheim), Supporting Actress (Olson), Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup The Film: In a quick summation, this is how amazing a film this is. It is well acknowledged that it is one of the greatest screenplays ever written, full of amazing quotable lines, including one of the greatest closing lines in film history. It absolutely satirizes and pays homage to Hollywood at the same time, acknowledging the debt it owes to older films while mercilessly skewering the industry which is paying its way. Yet, it could be watched as a silent film.

Watching it again, this time listening to the commentary, so that I couldn’t hear the actual dialogue I realized how amazing it is outside of the script itself. It is brilliantly edited, filled with amazing shots and his acting so superb, so sublime, that it doesn’t matter if any words can be heard at all. Their faces say everything. Norma Desmond certainly would have approved and perhaps it owes a lot of that to the fact that Swanson and von Stroheim began as silent actors and learned how to make their expressions say far more than any dialogue could. But there is the dialogue. Think of how quickly it can shift gears. Within one page of the great lines that every film fan knows: “You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in pictures. You used to be big.” “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” (followed by the great cynical line that everyone always forgets: “I knew there was something wrong with them.”), we get the hilarious line “Ssh! You’ll wake up that monkey.” It’s the kind of line I think I might say. Let’s face it. I’ve always wanted to be Indiana Jones or Sam Spade. But in many ways I am Joe Gillis.

I have been since the first time I saw this film. The line that haunts me is “I knew your name. I’d always heard you had some talent.” “That was last year. This year I’m trying to make a living.” This film may turn the film world into the grotesque, encapsulated in a performance by Gloria Swanson that draws on everything she ever did and leaves it all behind, but in the end, it is a film that is frighteningly real. Think of the performances. William Holden plays a writer who supposedly had some talent but now just needed some work, not unlike his own career, which flourished in 1939 with Golden Boy, but had been languishing ever since (and ironically, he stepped in for Montgomery Clift, who left the film because it was too real — after all he was living with a much older woman at the time). Gloria Swanson had indeed been one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the Silent Era, but had pretty much disappeared during the transition to sound, namely because Joseph Kennedy, who had been producing her films, left Hollywood.

In fact, the film they watch in the mansion is Queen Kelly, the film that Kennedy abandoned and had never been released by the time of Sunset Blvd. (in fact it would not see an actual release until 1985 and still was not complete). Then there is Erich von Stroheim, who indeed had directed many of the best early films, only to have his career destroyed and being forced to move on to acting full-time. There are even the multitude of Hollywood personalities who play themselves, like Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton (how great would it be to have a man known as The Great Stoneface as your bridge partner). But there is also the story itself. It has much to say about the process by which good films can be made (the way Joe and Betty work), the way people will sell themselves on the cheap to keep themselves going (or to keep their car from being repossessed) and the behavior of stars. In the tabloid era, we’re well familiar with the last part, but the first parts are equally true. And in the end, it isn’t ridicule the film is heaping on Hollywood. It is tender loving care.

This film cares about what has become of Norma and the way the world has let her become this grotesque creation. Yes, the film is dark and sardonic and clever and filled with sharp wit and brilliantly smart and incisive, but it is also tender and compassionate. It cares about these characters. And it is filled with all those other masterful parts. The wonderful shots, from the smoke filled room when the camera is rolling to the darkness enveloping Joe and Max as they discuss Norma and her history. The brilliant way the editing moves through different parts of the story. The amazing mansion brought to life. The wonderful costumes. The magnificent Franz Waxman score. And of course that marvelous acting. I give this film the awards the Oscars should have bestowed upon it. It is a film about Hollywood, a pure film made for movie lovers. And still, after all this time, in my opinion, the single greatest film ever made. King Solomon's Mines (1950) - an Africa triptych disguised as an adventure film King Solomon’s Mines Director: Compton Bennett / Andrew Marton Writer: Helen Deutsch (from the novel by H.

Rider Haggard) Producer: Sam Zimbalist Stars: Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr Oscar Nominations: Picture, Editing, Cinematography (Color) Length: 103 min Release Date: 24 November 1950 My Rating: *** My Rank: #37 (year) / #386 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Sound Editing The Film: King Solomon’s Mines was the first of four films in the 1950’s to do something that has not been done since: to get nominated for Best Picture without any precursors. None of the four (Decision Before Dawn, Three Coins in the Fountain and Love is a Many-Splendored Thing are the other three) received any Golden Globe nominations, any BAFTA nominations or any critics awards and none of them were nominated by either the Directors Guild or the Writers Guild (none of them were nominated for Director or Screenplay at the Oscars so that makes sense). All of them are rather surprising nominees, mostly forgotten now (and except for Decision, completely undeserving). Perhaps King Solomon’s Mines is still thought of as a great adventure film.

But in a very real sense it isn’t an adventure film at all. It’s a documentary – one of those Disney nature films about the wilds of Africa. Perhaps that’s what got it nominated. It is a big film filled with epic shots of the African savanna (it did win Best Cinematography after all). And there is, ostensibly, the story about Allen Quartermain and his trip with the lovely woman searching for her husband to go find the legendary mines of King Solomon. But the story doesn’t really have that much to it. It’s mostly just an excuse to film a lot of Africa that had never been on screen before. And it looks wonderful. But to nominate it for Best Picture? That’s going a bit too far. It’s got some decent moments of adventure and some great shots of animals that audiences in 1950 were probably stunned to be able to see, especially in color. And of course Deborah Kerr looks wonderful. But that’s really all there is to it.

One of the worst Oscars ever: Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950) Born Yesterday My Rank: #40 (film) / #391 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: none The Film: Judy Holliday is decent in the role of a blonde airhead girlfriend of a mobster. He wants her to learn the ability to fit into society so he hires a reporter to teach her to be more couth. She gives the kind of performance that seems to mock what Marilyn Monroe would later become and certainly was the influence for Jennifer Tilly’s performance in Bullets over Broadway. It’s a decent comedic performance. Not great, but certainly not bad. So why is it I label it one of the worst mistakes the Academy has ever made? Well, that’s easy. Because she was decent, not bad and she won in the same year as two of the greatest performances in the history of film: Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. and Bette Davis in All About Eve. It’s possibly that Davis and Anne Baxter split votes. But how the hell did Holliday beat Swanson? That I will never understand.

It possibly does color the film for me, but given me appreciation for George Cukor and that William Holden is one of my favorite actors of all-time, I don’t think it does. The film just isn’t all that great. Holliday is okay, but her character is so god damn annoying, Crawford was almost mimicking his performance from All the King’s Men and Holden displays none of the charm or talent that is so evident in Sunset Blvd. The script never rises above the average. It’s the kind of thing you would have expected Joe Gillis to be pitching to Mr. Sheldrake and that would have been rejected. How did Father of the Bride get nominated over The Asphalt Jungle and The Third Man in 1950? Father of the Bride My Rank: #63 (year) / #453 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: none The Film: Oh what a glorious piece of crap. I didn’t remember disliking it so intensely the first time around. Nor did I think of poorly of it the first time around. But looking at it again, watching the performances, listening to the lines, and it really is a piece of crap.

There is very little about this comedy that is remotely funny. There is certainly nothing witty in the script. Yet somehow, in a year with The Third Man and The Asphalt Jungle and Harvey this film rose to the top and managed to get nominated for Best Picture. Here’s the film in a nutshell: a beautiful young woman is getting married. He father frets about it, about the preparations, about paying for it, about meeting the potential in-laws. In the end, the wedding goes fine and he gives her away and there’s even a sequel (Father’s Little Dividend). But it’s all just a bunch of whining. He’s a well-to-do man who’s upset that no one wants to drink his martinis. He frets about the son-in-law, who seems like a perfectly fine guy with a fine job. The whole film is an example of the whining of the upper middle class. It has nothing substantial to say, has one of the weakest Spencer Tracy performances (which somehow got Oscar nominated over Sterling Hayden and Joseph Cotton) and a stupid, annoying script that somehow also managed to get Oscar nominated. Don’t waste your time. Hell, even the re-make isn’t as annoying as this.

Share this: 1000+ images about All About Eve 1950 on Pinterest | July 15, Film director and Costume design Bette Davis, Ann Baxter and George Sanders in All About Eve See More 1000+ images about Film 1950 on Pinterest | Deborah kerr, Actresses and Jungles Forward Joseph L. Mankiewicz~ was a film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve (1950), which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J. Mankiewicz who also won an Oscar for co-writing Citizen Kane (1941). See More Greatest Films of 1950 All About Eve (1950) , 138 minutes, D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Much-loved, lengthy, acerbic drama of theatre life about a young actress who insinuates her way into Broadway stage star's life. Wit and sarcasm reign supreme (e.g., "Fasten your seat belts.

It's going to be a bumpy night") and George Sanders is perfect as Addison De Witt - a cynical, egotistical columnist/critic. The literate Best Picture-winning film features Bette Davis as aging, bitchy accomplished star Margo Channing who takes the seemingly-naive and innocent fan Eve (Anne Baxter) under her wing. As the film opens, the rising, unscrupulous star accepts an award for best newcomer on the Broadway scene. Then, in a flashback, we see the shameless starlet insinuating herself into the life of her idol, and scheming to steal her theatrical roles and her lover Bill (Gary Merrill). By ruthlessly exploiting the older woman's kindness and hospitality, she manages to achieve her present success while almost destroying the veteran star in the process. The ending of the film returns to the awards banquet to find the starlet clinging to her trophy, with another fan in the wings. Also with Marilyn Monroe in a bit part. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) , 112 minutes, D: John Huston A classic noirish thriller, an adaptation based on a novel by W. R.

Burnett, about a mastermind, aging, ex-convict criminal Doc (Sam Jaffe), who comes out of retirement (prison) for one last jewel robbery with an assemblage of underworld characters - Kentucky horse-farm loving Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) with tough-girlfriend Doll (Jean Hagen), and sleazy lawyer partner Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern) who plans to fence the jewels to support his expensive habits (e.g., an affair with seductive mistress Marilyn Monroe - in a cameo role). The heist unravels quickly and everything falls apart when an alarm accidentally sounds and the safecracker is mortally wounded by a stray bullet. While Emmerich commits suicide, and others are either jailed or wounded, Doc's creepy voyeurism for a young girl dooms him during his escape. Dix reaches his childhood Kentucky farm but expires in a field surrounded by horses. Born Yesterday (1950), 103 minutes, D: George Cukor Cinderella (1950), 76 minutes, D: Disney Studio D. O. A.

(1950), 83 minutes, D: Rudolph Mate Father of the Bride (1950) , 94 minutes, D: Vincente Minnelli The File on Thelma Jordon (1950), 100 minutes, D: Robert Siodmak The film noirish story centered around mysterious, duplicitous and treacherous femme fatale Thelma Jordon (Barbara Stanwyck) - as evidenced by the film's tagline: "...SHE'LL LIE...KILL OR KISS HER WAY OUT OF ANYTHING!" Thelma captured the emotionally-dependent heart of unhappily-married assistant District Attorney Cleve Marshall (Wendell Cory). Cleve's wife Pamela (Joan Tetzel) was more loyal to her wealthy father, and she constantly criticized him, pushing him to heavy drinking. Thelma chose Cleve as the duped fall-guy when she came to the office of chief investigator Miles Scott (Paul Kelly) to report robberies at her home.

She engaged in an adulterous and illicit (but genuine) love affair with Cleve, telling him: "Maybe I'm just a dame and didn't know it." She had even confessed to him, falsely, that she was lovelessly married and recently separated from shady jewel thief Tony Laredo (Richard Rober) - when in fact they had planned the crimes together. The misguided and self-deluding "fall guy" DA threw aside his family, future, and honor and helped to defend Thelma after her wealthy Aunt Vera Edwards (Gertrude Hoffman) was murdered. DA Cleve helped Thelma to reconstruct an 'untouched' version of the crime scene, so that neither of them would be suspected of foul play for tampering with evidence. Thelma claimed to Cleve that Tony committed the murder during the robbery of her aunt's valuable emerald necklace, and made it look like an outside job. In reality, Thelma was the cold-blooded, calculating murderess. There was also suspicion about an unseen accomplice dubbed "Mr. X" (Cleve himself), who had assisted Thelma.

Thelma became a prime suspect - she was charged for the murder (her Aunt's recently-rewritten will in her favor was a major factor). Love-struck DA Cleve took up the prosecution on her behalf, quietly hired defense attorney Kingsley Willis (Stanley Ridges) for Thelma, and manipulated the case to her favor. He circumvented revealed evidence of a dark life of blackmail, gambling, and relationship with her husband-partner-in-crime Tony, and she was found not guilty. After a post-trial rendezvous of Thelma with Tony, the couple planned to flee and live off her Aunt's inheritance. When Cleve arrived to be with Thelma, she told him that Tony had reappeared from Chicago for her ("I've always loved him...You must have known it, except you didn't want to know"). She admitted that Cleve had been set up to help defend her ("You were the fall guy, Cleve, right from the beginning"), and that she had killed Vera ("I'd like to say I didn't intend to kill her, but when you have a gun, you always intend if you have to").

After Tony knocked out Cleve from behind, Tony and Thelma fled together to go "as far away as possible." She struggled with accomplice Tony as he drove, trying to injure him with a burning-hot dashboard cigarette lighter. He died when their car crashed over a cliff and caught fire, while Thelma was hospitalized. During her deathbed scene, she made a full confession to Miles, but refused to identify "Mr. X." As she expired, she told Cleve: "You don't suppose they could just let half of me die?" Miles realized that Cleve was the mysterious "Mr. X." Gun Crazy (1949/1950) (aka Deadly is the Female), 87 minutes, D: Joseph H. Lewis A cult, noirish love-on-the-run tale based on MacKinlay Kantor's story, pre Bonnie and Clyde , about a reckless couple fatally attracted to their firearms - and each other. One of the best B films ever made.

After serving in the Army, gun-loving Bert Tare (John Dall) meets trick sharp-shooter femme fatale Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins), portraying Annie Oakley in a Wild West carnival side-show - they are perfect companions. The two wild, amoral lovers marry - when financially strapped, they turn to a series of exciting cross-country robberies. One unnerving sequence is shot non-stop from a camera planted in the back seat of their getaway car. Their amour fou ultimately leads to their tragic end in a foggy swamp, brought down by their violent, jarring, reckless natures. The Gunfighter (1950), 84 minutes, D: Henry King Harvey (1950), 104 minutes, D: Henry Koster George Sanders - IMDb IMDb Actor | Soundtrack | Writer George Sanders was born of English parents in St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked in a Birmingham textile mill, in the tobacco business and as a writer in advertising. He entered show business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio and theatrical understudy.

His film debut, in 1936, was as Curly Randall in Find the Lady (1936)... See full bio » Born: a list of 42 images created 19 Sep 2012 a list of 25 people created 03 Aug 2013 a list of 35 people created 07 May 2015 a list of 25 images created 10 months ago a list of 32 people created 8 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of George Sanders's work have you seen? User Polls Won 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards » Known For The Jungle Book Shere Khan the Tiger (1967) 1971 Mission: Impossible (TV Series) Armand Anderssarian 1966 Daniel Boone (TV Series) Col.

Roger Barr 1965 The Rogues (TV Series) Leonard Carvel 1958 Schlitz Playhouse (TV Series) John York Singer in Public Bar (uncredited) Hide Soundtrack (4 credits) 1967 The Jungle Book (performer: "That's What Friends Are For (The Vulture Song)" (1967) - uncredited) 1953 Call Me Madam (performer: "Marrying for Love", "The Best Thing For You Would be Me", "Finale: You're Just In Love/Something to Dance About") 1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray (performer: "La Ci Darem La Mano" (excerpt) - uncredited) 1942 The Falcon Takes Over (performer: "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" - uncredited) Hide 1970 The Hollywood Squares (TV Series) Guest Appearance 1967 The Hollywood Palace (TV Series) Himself - Sketch Actor 1959 Frances Langford Presents (TV Series) Himself 1958 Women in Love (TV Movie) Himself - Host 1957-1958

 What's My Line?

(TV Series) Himself - Guest Panelist / Himself - Mystery Guest 1956 Ford Star Jubilee (TV Series) Himself 2003 Living Famously (TV Series documentary) Benjamin Ballon 2000 Ex-S (TV Series documentary) Himself 1999 Film Breaks (TV Series documentary) Eric Norvel Actor 'All About Eve' (uncredited) 1995 Arena (TV Series documentary) Himself - Episode dated 10 December 1971 (1971) ... Benjamin Ballon from film A SHOT IN THE DARK Related Videos Novel: "Crime On My Hands" (w/ Craig Rice , uncredited) See more » Publicity Listings: 4 Print Biographies | 1 Portrayal | 8 Articles | See more » Alternate Names: Did You Know? Personal Quote: A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they be.

See more » Trivia: Withdrew from the lead in the Broadway-bound musical version of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" called "Sherry!" (with Dolores Gray ) during its Boston tryout in March 1967 when his wife Benita Hume was diagnosed with bone cancer. He was replaced by Clive Revill . The show was a quick failure on Broadway, and Hume passed away that November. See more » Trademark: Deep smooth voice See more » Star Sign:

Question: For which film in 1950, starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, did British actor George Sanders win the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor?
Answer: ALL ABOUT EVE