All About Eve (1952)

Amazon.com Video Essentials206205
Showered with Oscars, this wonderfully bitchy (and witty) comedy written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz concerns an aging theater star (Bette Davis) whose life is being supplanted by a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ingenue (Anne Baxter) whom she helped. This is a film for a viewer to take in like a box of chocolates, packed with scene-for-scene delights that make the entire story even better than it really is. The film also gives deviously talented actors such as George Sanders and Thelma Ritter a chance to speak dazzling lines; Davis bites into her role and never lets go. A classic from Mankiewicz, a legendary screenwriter and the brilliant director of A Letter to Three Wives, The Barefoot Contessa, and Sleuth. --Tom Keogh

Video Description
From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington (ANN BAXTER) is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing (BETTE DAVIS). Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend (GARY MERRILL), her playwright (HUGH MARLOWE) and his wife (CELESTE HOLM). Only the cynical drama critic (Oscar winner GEORGE SANDERS) sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit. THELMA RITTER and MARILYN MONROE co-star in this acclaimed classic, which won six Academy Awards and received the most nominations (14) in film history.