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ALL ABOUT EVE
Fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy night! -- Bette Davis as Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE
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This DVD review 
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DVD
reviews are Copyright © 2003 THE CINEMA LASER and may not be copied
or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. |
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There
is very little one can say about ALL ABOUT EVE ($20) that hasn’t
already been said- countless times. Therefore it is quite possible that
there will be a sense of familiarity running through this review of the
Academy Award Winning Best Picture of 1950. Without a doubt, ALL ABOUT
EVE is one of the smartest and best-written films in the history of
the cinema. Much of writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s witty, acid
tongued dialogue simply crackles, resonating in one’s mind before
inducing a sharp, biting laugh. Of course, there is a possibility that the
dialogue might not have flown quite so high had it not been for the pitch
perfect delivery of the film’s accomplished cast, especially Bette Davis
and George Sanders. Bette Davis was seldom better than in her Oscar
Nominated role as Broadway diva Margo Channing. Then again, neither was
Oscar Winner George Sanders as the venomous theater critic Addison DeWitt.
The
plot of ALL ABOUT EVE tells one all about Eve Harrington (Anne
Baxter), a star struck fan of Margo Channing, who ingratiates herself into
the life of the aging Broadway actress. At first, Eve seems perfect like
the perfect employee, always ready, willing and eager to meet all of Margo’s
needs- including those she didn’t know she had. However, Margo begins to
suspect that Eve is too good to be true, and when it is seemingly too
late, everyone discovers that Eve was in truth a master manipulator, who
took everyone in Margo’s circle of friends for a ride they won’t soon
forget. The sublime cast of ALL ABOUT EVE also features Celeste
Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, Marilyn
Monroe and Thelma Ritter.
20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment has made ALL ABOUT EVE available on
DVD in a wonderful looking full screen transfer that frames the movie in
its proper 1.37:1 aspect ratio. This terrific transfer comes from newly
minted black and white film elements that have also been further cleaned
up through video restoration. This edition offers a huge improvement over
the previous DVD and Laserdisc releases of the film. Resolution is far
better and the image is much cleaner looking- displaying only the most
minor of blemishes. Additionally, the grain structure is much finer and
contrast is significantly improved. Blacks have a terrific inky quality,
while the whites appear crisper. Darker sequences provide have greater
detail, unlike the previous editions, which had a murky quality. Digital
compression artifacts never make their presence known on this cleanly
authored DVD.
ALL
ABOUT EVE comes with a pleasant sounding Dolby Digital stereo
soundtrack, which sounds more like artificially thickened monaural than
actual stereo. Most of the background hiss and surface noise has been
cleaned away, leaving a crisp, clean sound. Of course, one should note
that ALL ABOUT EVE earned an Academy Award for Best Sound in 1950,
although the relevance of that fact is probably lost due to the fact that
the recordings are more than half a century old and do not hold a candle
to today’s state-of-the-art digital soundtracks. Still, ALL ABOUT EVE
is a dialogue driven film, and the soundtrack renders each and every
syllable of Mankiewicz’s wonderfully witty verbiage with total clarity
and complete intelligibility. French and Spanish language tracks are also
encoded onto the DVD, as are English and Spanish subtitles.
The
basic interactive menus provide access to the standard scene selection and
set up features, as well as a few supplemental features. ALL ABOUT EVE
features two separate running audio commentaries; the first is with the
director’s son Christopher Mankiewicz, actress Celeste Holm, and
Mankiewicz biographer Kenneth Geist, while the second features author Sam
Staggs, who wrote All About All About Eve. Both commentaries
are very interesting and cover the production of the film and
personalities involved in detail. However, on the first track, Holm is
heard from very little and this particular commentary might have been a
bit more cohesive if all three parties had been recorded together. Another
supplemental highlight is the AMC Backstory: All About Eve,
a twenty-four minute program that offers another look back on the making
of this Academy Award winning classic. Two short promotional clips with
Bette Davis and Ann Baxter are also provided on the DVD, as are various
MovieTone News clips pertaining to ALL ABOUT EVE and a theatrical
trailer. Closing out the supplements is a restoration demonstration that
compares the current DVD release of ALL ABOUT EVE to previous video
incarnations.
ALL
ABOUT EVE remains one of the sharpest, most intelligent and
entertaining films ever made; after all it does still hold the record for
the most Academy Award nominations- 14, a feat that has only been equaled
by TITANIC. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has done an
impressive job with the DVD, making ALL ABOUT EVE look far better
than it has in quite some time. Additionally, the DVD offers some very
nice supplemental features, making the disc (with internet discounting) a
genuine bargain. If you are a movie buff or a Bette Davis fan, you must
own this edition of ALL ABOUT EVE.