All About Eve (1950) Smokes on the Criterion Collection
On November 26, 2019, the Criterion Collection released All About Eve on Blu-ray. Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed the film starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, and George Sanders.
‘All About Eve’ Criterion Synopsis
In Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s devastatingly witty Hollywood classic, backstage is where the real drama plays out. One night, Margo Channing (Bette Davis) entertains a surprise dressing-room visitor: her most adoring fan, the shy, wide-eyed Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). But as Eve becomes a fixture in Margo’s life, the Broadway legend soon realizes that her supposed admirer intends to use her and everyone in her circle, including George Sanders’s acid-tongued critic, as stepping-stones to stardom. Featuring stiletto-sharp dialogue and direction by Mankiewicz, and an unforgettable Davis in the role that revived her career and came to define it, the multiple-Oscar-winning All About Eve is the most deliciously entertaining film ever made about the ruthlessness of show business.
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Special Features
- 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Two audio commentaries from 2010, one featuring actor Celeste Holm, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s son Christopher Mankiewicz, and author Kenneth L. Geist; the other featuring author Sam Staggs
- All About Mankiewicz, a feature-length documentary from 1983 about the director
- Episodes of The Dick Cavett Show from 1969 and 1980 featuring actors Bette Davis and Gary Merrill
- New interview with costume historian Larry McQueen
- Hollywood Backstories: “All About Eve,” a 2001 documentary featuring interviews with Davis and others about the making of the film
- Documentaries from 2010 about Mankiewicz’s life and career; “The Wisdom of Eve,” the 1946 short story on which the film is based, and its real-world inspiration; and a real-life Sarah Siddons Society based on the film’s fictional organization
- Radio adaptation of the film from 1951
- Promotion for the film featuring Davis
- Plus: An essay by critic Terrence Rafferty and “The Wisdom of Eve”
New cover by Greg Ruth
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20th Century Fox released All About Eve on October 27, 1950. Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed the film starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, and George Sanders.