All About Eve suffers no shortage of fascinating topics when it comes to analysis. The film is remarkably well-crafted in keeping a tight rein on the narrative track while still offering enough room to explore themes theme ranging from the sacrificial element deemed a necessity for women to succeed in business to the ideological flaw in capitalism that puts a greater premium upon ruthless competition than collaborative results to get to the top.
The film effectively postulates a worldview that American society—and by definition any society mirroring it—is systematically misogynistic due to what is viewed as an absolute necessity to maintain the patriarchal order. Women are allowed to choose not to be traditional wives and mothers and pursue success and happiness in the workplace. Women are even given opportunities to reach levels of success superseding men. The important thing, however, is that women allowed and given these things. Success can be attained, but only—eventually, inevitably and inexorably—at the behest of at least one man somewhere along the line.
When the film was released just before the dawning of the Eisenhower era of the 1950s, this would hardly have been viewed as shocking and for most women in the theater watching the film it really would not have mattered much anyway. After all, most housewives in 1950 could well have told you that at least one man certainly exerted great control over their pursuit of happiness. The really odd thing about All About Eve is that is a movie that seems to be speaking directly to those who at least want to consider something other than being a housewife and mother. Of course, this may well be due to the movie being released at one of those quite unusual junctures in time. Like never before and for what would be the last time for another couple of decades, many of those housewives in the audience had been working women just a few short years earlier. The depletion of the male workforce due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II meant that for the first time in its history, America actually had an entire generation of women sharing the collective experience of heading out of the home to go to work every day. And then, just as suddenly, that generation was sent home and not exactly urged to come back soon.
So All About Eve was in many ways an example of a film being made by the perfect filmmaker for the perfect audience at the perfect moment. Here was a generation of woman who were familiar with doing something besides taking care of a home and raising and family. Those same women were given the opportunity to become mothers and housewives. By the release of All About Eve, much of its target audience had done both: been working women and homemakers. They thus became a peculiar and idiosyncratic generation unto themselves who actually had experience in both types of workplaces and yet did not necessarily have to sacrifice one or the other to do. And yet, they are also a generation that were given this unique opportunity only on account of men making it possible. When men left to become soldiers, other men told them they were welcome to come to work. When soldiers returned home to become civilians again, those same told them to go home because now they dispensable.
All About Eve became one of the top grossing box office hits the year and when the Oscar nominations were announced, stunned the world with an unprecedented 14 nominations. That record would stand unopposed for almost half a decade when it was finally matched by Titanic. The movie remains in solid critical standing, supporting the respect shown by Oscar voters. Unlike many other movies from its era, however, it is one which has seen its audience and familiarity dwindle just a little more with each successive generation. The opening of the floodgates in the working world for women and its subsequent dating on that score may something to do with, yet more than half a century later Bridget Jones and other film characters were still asking the same basic question: can a woman have it all? And, if so, can she have it all without being like Eve?
