This film has been sitting in my list for a while now but reading up news on the recent Oscar season led me to some lists ranking the most deserved winners of the award and I was surprised to note how highly it is usually regarded. Indeed this film has an absurdly high rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is considered a highly significant American film.

Margo Channing is a veteran and celebrated stage actress who is agonizing about growing old. One evening her best friend Karen Richards brings an ardent fan, Eve Harrington, to meet her after noticing that she has been to every one of Margo’s shows. After hearing Eve’s story about how she found a renewed purpose in life upon seeing Margo’s performance, the actress invites Eve to live with her and be her assistant. She turns out to be a diligent worker, becoming an indispensable part of Margo’s household, impressing Margo’s long-time boyfriend, the director Bill and Karen’s husband, the playwright Lloyd. Eventually Eve becomes so helpful that Margo grows suspicious of her especially when she sees how ardently Eve hopes to be actress herself. Her friends try to dismiss her fears as paranoia and blame her ego, but is Eve really an innocent ingénue as she claims or a manipulative liar who has deftly positioned herself to replace Margo?

I don’t think that it’s much of a spoiler to say that Eve really is more than she appears and the film gives plenty of hints in any case. Even with this in mind, the film seems to have a bit of a split personality and despite its title isn’t actually all about Eve. About half of it is about Margo’s fears of growing too old to be a leading actress and how this would affect her relationship with Bill. The other half is about the real Eve and the many layers of deceit that she has woven in order to become a successful actress, especially after meets the theatre critic Addison DeWitt who turns out to be something of a kindred spirit. Though they’re linked by being about actresses in theatre, they’re really distinct arcs and I for one felt that Margo’s story was the more interesting, especially as the actress who plays her, Bette Davis, is better what with her forceful personality and fiery tongue. I suppose Eve’s story is supposed to be intriguing but it’s telegraphed so much that there isn’t much of a sense of mystery even if the change in tone feels very abrupt. I don’t think it’s very plausible either but it does do its job conveying just how far some actresses will go in order to achieve stardom.

To be fair, I rather enjoyed the dialogue and I think the film goes in a direction that is unusual for its time. It’s also amusing that every character here keeps denigrating Hollywood movies and hold up the theatre as the higher art form when this is of course itself a Hollywood movie. Another plus point is that Marilyn Monroe has a minor role in this and it’s cool how she plays another sort of very hungry young actress, albeit a stupid one compared to Eve. But overall I don’t get why this would be considered a great film. It’s especially strange when you consider that Sunset Boulevard about a retired film star who fantasizes about returning to the acting world was released in the same year. I consider it superior to this one in just about every way.