THE MOVIEGOER

"All about Eve" is a wittily contrived film about theatrical people's values. Its characters are a temperamental veteran stage actress (Bette Davis), an unscrupulous young girl named Eve who wants to be a stage star (Anne Baxter), and a handful of other arty folk including a director, a producer, a writer, and a columnist.

This film is somewhat ambiguous; for you cannot be sure whether it is comical or serious in its intent. It is certainly amusing when saucer-eyed Miss Davis rants, raves, and rollicks about her lavish apartment, tossing her long head of hair from left to right. Yet there seems to be a message beneath all the frivolity. The message is this: many of the people who get to the top on Broadway are rotten to the core. Their success is built on a foundation of selfishness and deceit.

The girl who calls herself Eve Harrington appears at first to be sweet and sincere. Bette Davis is so anxious to help her succeed that she takes her on as a secretary and helper. Miss Davis's sympathy is soon transmuted to scorn and dread. The eventual efforts of the veteran actress to prove to her unsuspecting director sweetheart that Eve is evil only makes him redouble his efforts to help the girl. When Eve tries to seduce him he finally wakes up.

Perhaps Hollywood has used the humor of this movie to cushion a blow at theatrical novels. The surprising ending of the film seems to suggest that crime can pay--on Broadway--and you will leave the theatre thoroughly amused and perhaps a bit horrified.