37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book on Hollywood that reads like a novel., March 1, 2000
By A Customer
Juicy, irresistible reading. A great story about one of the great movies that's also the story of Hollywood in microcosm. It's packed with larger-than-life characters like Bette Davis, George Sanders, Darryl Zanuck, and of course Marilyn Monroe, and plenty of lesser-known but no less fascinating figures, like Elizabeth Bergner, the real-life Margo Channing upon whom the original story was based. It's also an intriguing mystery (was there a real Eve and who was she?)with an intriguing, satisfying wrapup--and with an ironic twist at the end. And the author tells his story in a unique, dramatic way, in the form of a novel, and weaves actual quotes in a way that you'll find hard to believe--but they're all documented. Amazing. All in all, one of the best and most enjoyable Hollywood books I've ever read. It would make a great movie.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Low on bitchy, high on fun!, March 14, 2000
ALL ABOUT EVE is one of my most favorite films ever, and when I saw this book on the shelf at work (I won't mention which bookstore I work for), I had to get it! That was 2 days ago, and I have not been able to put the book down! All of the behind the scenes scoops and sidebars of background and tangent items makes this book a must have for not only fans of the film, but of fans of film-making. This not a book of just bitchy quips and over-adoration on the part of the author. Rather, Mr. Staggs presents a book about a film that was about the theater (or Hollywood). I cannot gush about this book enough. Please read it (I am not getting paid to say that).
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you wanted to know and then some, April 26, 2000
All About Eve is a cult film, a camp classic and an all-around tremendous movie that won six Oscars in 1950. It influenced the making of motion pictures to come and was the inspiration of the play "Applause." Somehow nobody wrote THE book on "All About Eve," its inspiration, its making, its reception and following, and how it lives on today--not until now. Now we have All About "All About Eve" and it's everything a fan could want.
Author Sam Staggs did a huge amount of painstaking research for this book, especially noteworthy because all of this fifty-year-old movie's principal players are dead (with one notable exception: Celeste Holm, who would not grant him an interview). Staggs locates the kernel of the movie in a magazine story, "The Wisdom of Eve," about a conniving young woman who befriends and then betrays an insecure older actress, "Margola Cranston." He goes beyond the magazine story to find the actual, real-life "Eve" figure and interviews her, finding that life and art are not necessarily the same.
All About "All About Eve"'s book jacket calls the film "the bitchiest film ever made." (There is room for disagreement--what about "Stage Door"? "The Women?" "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"?)
But the movie was a solid career-starter for Marilyn Monroe as Miss Caswell, "a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Arts." Otherwise, Staggs' thesis is controversial, and probably makes Celeste Holm furious: "For others in the cast--Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Gary Merrill, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, and for [writer/director Joseph] Mankiewicz himself--All About Eve was the climax. . . . If not for this movie, half the cast would be forgotten." Pretty harsh stuff.
After its thunderous critical and box-office success, "Eve" went on to become the movie that never really faded from conscious-ness thanks to revivals and TV broadcasts. As Staggs says, "[t]he subtext has beguilded several generations of devotees, largely gay men, who have 'read' the film as though it beamed a limelight into the closet of their hearts." Margo Channing, woman on the edge; Birdie Coonan, the buddy with common sense; and Addison DeWitt, serpentine critic, have their camp charms delineated here.
Some critics have said that at 340 pages of text All About "All About Eve" may be too much of a good thing. Take this simple test: Of course everyone knows that "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night" comes from the movie. Do you also thrill to lines like "Shucks, and I sent my autograph book to the cleaners," "Eve evil, Little Miss Evil," or "The minutes will fly like hours"? If you do, then this book is for you. It's a great read, and to turn Addison DeWitt's quip rightside-up where it belongs, the hours will fly like minutes.
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