Product Description

ALL ABOUT EVE is the classic, Oscar-winning tale of devious ambition that revived the career of failing Bette Davis, introduced a starlet by the then unknown name of Marilyn Monroe and produced some of the most talked about off-screen dramas in Hollywood history. With humour, grave and loving detail. Staggs' chronicle begins with the previously-unpublished story of the real-life stage actress and her less-than-sincere understudy who inspired Margo Channing and Eve Harrington. Staggs details the studio's struggles to revise the screenplay and provides us with a delicious play-by-play of the film's dueling divas, as well as Davis's on-set romance with Gary Marrill. With scathing backstage quips ALL ABOUT EVE will entertain and inform both the novice and the most dedicated buff.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #358908 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
"This is the best movie book I've ever read. I devoured it in one sitting. Staggs may not have invented the genre, but he's certainly perfected it." --Florence King, author of "Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady"
"Stagg's gossipy goulash celebrates all of Eve's incarnations, from the original tale...to the Broadway musical Applause...[He] provides thoughtful film analysis and a thrilling final coup: an interview with the real Eve." --"People"

Customer Reviews

A must have background of this movie, and of the theatre.
Sam Staggs' background of All About Eve is a thoroughly researched and expertly written account of the classic 1950 "behind-the-scenes" theatre movie. Not only does he sketch the actual making of the movie with fascinating insights into the day to day filming, he gives a well rounded biography of the central character's origins in the theatre. Add to that an appendix of pretty much every person named in the film this book covers the making of the movie PLUS a look into the theatre, which is what makes the movie itself a unique filmic/theatrical experience. My only misgiving is a rather tawdry and perhaps esoteric dialogue between an apparently "typical" video audience: the book neither needs it nor benefits from it, and to misquote the Eve's nemesis, Addison De Witt, it's not worthy of it. That said this is a fantastic read, and a must for any fan of the film, or indeed anyone interested in film and theatre - treasure it!