All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made! (Paperback)

~ (Author) "A terse headline in Variety on September 27, 1951, told the news: MANKIEWICZ, 20TH SEVER CONTRACT..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Margo Channing, Eve Harrington (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like the movie it celebrates, Sam Staggs's All About All About Eve is good, gossipy fun. The book is exhaustively researched, from behind-the-scenes anecdotes to a talk with the original, mysterious "Eve" who sparked the dinner party conversation that inspired the magazine story that eventually became one of the best movies ever made. The book spirals outward from the movie as well, chronicling the subsequent careers of the principals (and an ingenue newcomer named Marilyn Monroe), the life of writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and even the ill-fated romance of stars Bette Davis and Gary Merrill. It is, of course, the legendary on-set cattiness that is the focus of the book's first half (Celeste Holm claims that Bette Davis responded to her initial "Good morning" with a tart "Oh shit, good manners," and the two never spoke again; cast members dish about George Sanders's then-wife Zsa Zsa Gabor), but the overall tone of the book is one of affection and a deep fascination for even the smallest aspects of the film. A true fan, Staggs analyzes the position of All About Eve in its own time and in the camp culture of today, notes its influence on innumerable subsequent films, and even chronicles the somewhat manufactured "feud" between Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead that developed over Davis's characterization of Margo Channing. To keep it from getting too weighty, Staggs punctuates the book with sidebars, paying tribute to the career of Walter Hampden, the elderly actor who presents the Sarah Siddons award, and even working in a match-the-famous-quote-to-the-French-subtitle quiz. All About All About Eve succeeds best in its main purpose--making you want to watch the movie one more time. --Ali Davis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"Fans.... They're juvenile delinquents, mental defectives. They never see a play or a movie--they're never indoors long enough!" exclaims Bette Davis's Margo Channing in the camp classic All About Eve. This seems especially ungrateful language given that uber-fan Staggs (MMII) has interviewed all of the surviving members of the cast and crew and compiled every possible fact, factoid and rumor about Joseph Mankiewicz's 1950s Oscar-winning tale of backstage back-stabbing in the Broadway theater. He details the evolution of the story, the filming, the stars' lives and the story's later incarnation as a Broadway musical. His book bears up under the weight of all this trivia not only because he has uncovered so much captivating material, but also because he uses it to illuminate larger themes. Staggs's comparison of similar dialogue from Eve and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? illustrates the complexities of cultural influence, while his investigation of whether Tallulah Bankhead was the real-life model for Margo Channing becomes a meditation on the role of the bitch-goddess-diva in popular culture. Most startling of all, he has actually tracked down the young actress who was the model for the deviously ambitious Eve Harrington and tells her alarming, lamentable story. Written in a chatty style that can be laugh-out-loud-funny (actor Hugh Marlow is described as "one of those slow-burning, carbohydrate actors who all look like versions of Gregory Peck"), Stagg's engaging study should be the last word on this enduring classic. B&w photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (June 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312273150
• ISBN-13: 978-0312273156
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #281,654 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 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

This review is from: All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made! (Hardcover)

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.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Low on bitchy, high on fun!, March 14, 2000

By	J. Gravener (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made! (Hardcover)

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).

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything you wanted to know and then some, April 26, 2000

By	Allen Smalling "Constant Reader," (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made! (Hardcover)

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.