Bette Davis sealed her fate as an icon of camp with these famous words at the start of All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” The film established the image we still have of her, imitated by generations of female impersonators, Bette the ball-breaker, the queen of all bitches, chewing up the scenery and chain-smoking in short, vicious drags.

But All About Eve isn’t simply a film for camp aficionados. It’s far greater than that. Released in 1950, the film was nominated for a record 14 Oscars – an achievement not matched until Titanicsome 47 years later. It went on to win six awards, including Best Picture, and still holds the record for the film with the highest number of female acting nominations, with two for Best Actress (Davis and Anne Baxter) and two for Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter). And 57 years after it was first released, it remains the quintessential depiction of ruthless ambition in the entertainment industry, head and shoulders above more contemporary satires such as The Player or Swimming With Sharks.

It’s also an extremely modern film in the way it pathologises the relationship between celebrity and fan-dom. Long before Jessica Walter started stalking Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me, All About Eve gave us Anne Baxter as an obsessed fan, Eve Harrington, worming her way into Davis’s dressing room. Davis plays the Broadway actress Margo Channing, and their initial meeting confirms everything we think we know about female stars and the women who worship them. Margo is tough and monstrous, her tone harsh and her face plastered in cold cream. Eve is sweet, softly spoken, modestly dressed. Only later do we learn that she’s a ruthless vixen, and that Margo’s exterior hides an aching vulnerability.

In a twist that is also very modern, possibly even postmodern, the relationship between the two women develops under the watchful eye of Addison DeWitt, a cold-hearted, fruity-toned theatre critic, played with great relish by George Sanders. (It’s hard to say who has the longer claws, DeWitt or Shere Khan, the tiger voiced by Sanders in Disney’s The Jungle Book.)

Like many a critic before him, DeWitt assumes the role of omnipotent narrator, guiding us through the story and pausing the action at crucial moments to voice his opinions. It’s DeWitt who promises to tell us “all about Eve”, though even he is surprised at the lengths she goes to in her pursuit of fame. In one renowned scene, Sanders is seen shepherding a young and unknown Marilyn Monroe, whose own life story later became a cautionary tale to all aspiring actresses.

The critics were quick to recognise All About Eve as a blistering critique of the star system, fronted by a woman who had redefined an actress’s place in Hollywood. It was the first film Davis made after terminating her 19-year association with Warner Brothers, where she had fought and lost the battle for script approval.

At 42, she was widely perceived to be past her prime, and her last few films had performed badly at the box office. Her final film for Warner Brothers, Beyond the Forest, in 1949, was described by one critic as “an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career”, while Hedda Hopper remarked: “If Bette had deliberately set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle.”

In Margo Channing she finally found a character she could sink her teeth into. It’s hard to imagine now, but Davis wasn’t the first choice for the role. She got the part only when Claudette Colbert was forced to withdraw because of a severe back injury. Rumour has it that the writer and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz then rewrote the script with Davis in mind, making the character more abrasive.

In any case, she made the role her own, investing Margo with just the right degree of pathos and all the grit for which Davis herself was famous. Many felt that she identified with Margo’s predicament as a strong career woman in desperate need of a man – a theory apparently confirmed with the publication of her autobiography, The Lonely Life, in 1961.

Coincidentally, All About Eve wasn’t the only major Hollywood film about the pitfalls of the entertainment industry released in 1950. The film’s biggest competitor that year was Sunset Boulevard, starring Gloria Swanson as an ageing movie star holed up in her Hollywood mansion. Like Davis, Swanson was a survivor of the studio system, but her performance lacks the depth and subtlety Davis brought to Margo Channing. In fact, it’s closer in spirit to the performance Davis gave 12 years later as the former child star in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Now that really was camp.

All about Bette: the life and loves of a screen goddess

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School, where she was the star pupil.

Broadway debut in 1929 with Broken Dishes, later hired by Universal in 1930.

Signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers Pictures in 1932.

Married “Ham” Nelson, who was grilled by the press about his $100-a-week wage, with Davis reportly earning $1,000 a week.

After more than 20 films, her role in Of Human Bondage (1934) earned her major critical acclaim. She gave “probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a US actress,” Life Magazine said.

Began to establish her career with several well received performances, including The Man Who Played God (1932).

Attempted to free herself from her Warner contract in 1937. After a well publicised legal case, Davis stepped into the most successful period of her career.

In 1961 Davis placed a “job wanted” ad in the trade papers.

Received an Oscar nomination in 1962 for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Lifetime Achievement Award presented to her in 1977, followed by a Best Actress Emmy in 1979.

Died October 6, 1989, in France. Many of her fans refused to believe that she was gone.

Words by Natalie Baker

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