"...no brighter light has ever dazzled the eye than Eve Harrington. Eve. But more of Eve later. All about Eve, in fact."
The film begins at the end—or near the end, at any rate, and is structured as a flashback that reveals the details of how everyone has come to attend the Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement at which Eve Harrington ascends to the throne of Broadway royalty. Addison’s voiceover narration carries an implicit promise of a narcissistic component within Eve which in term strongly suggests that everything is probably not quite as it seems in the present based on the events of the past which will be revealed.
“Three months ago I was forty years old. Forty. Four-oh.”
Pretty much the entire narrative radiates outward from what Margo obviously views—and expects others to view—as an earth-shattering event. If anything dates All About Eve, it is certainly the idea that 40 years old is equitable to decrepitude, even among Broadway actresses. While the fundamental point that roles for older actresses may be somewhat the same, the idea that 40 is the cut-off point now just seems quaint.
"She reminds me of an agent with one client."
Birdie used to work in vaudeville. Now she is a maid. Her time in show business has given her a keen eye for intuiting character, however, and she manages to see through Eve’s greatest performance long before most.
"They want you. You belong. Just that alone is worth everything."
“They” is the audience. Eve extolling the virtue of having every eye in the audience trained on the performer. It is a somewhat frightening peek into the desperation of someone needing acceptance from strangers so much that the only possible explanation is that they felt they were wanted by or belonged to their own family or other adults caretakers when they children. It is a peek into the psyche of many performers, apparently.
"Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman."
An undeniable strain of misogyny runs through All About Eve, but sometimes it gets difficult to tell whether the low opinion of women is the movie’s actual perspective or the target of its sharp arrow. Margo is convinced that by age 41 not only will her stardom be a thing of a past, but an acting career of any type. And what’s left for a woman who has aged out of the business? Not much, from the looks of it.
"You can always put that award where your heart ought to be."
In response to the perceived insincerity of Eve Harrington’s assertion that though she is off to Hollywood, her heart will always remain on Broadway, Margo levies the boom on exactly how onto Eve’s whole act she has become.
"Then you must ask Miss Harrington how to get one. Miss Harrington know all about it."
Young aspiring starlet Phoebe admits that she holds a secret desire to become a great actress and win an award just like her idol, Eve. Addison’s response kicks off what is likely to be a series of events bringing things around full cycle for the Machiavellian Miss Harrington.
"A lost lamb loose in our stone jungle."
Long before Margo comes to question whether there is an absence in Eve’s chest cavity large enough for an acting award to fill the gap where the heart should be, she take a much different view of the seemingly lost and helpless young innocent. Eve is eventually revealed as one of those lambs you wolves masquerading as a lamb you hear about.
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
Ranking just below “May the force be with you” at number 9 on the AFI list of the 100 greatest quotes from American movies is Margo’s admonition to her party guests that evening is going to get a bit more exciting. Margo has grown tired of all the attention being diverted from her to up and comer Eve and is ready to take her defense against the dark art of the conniving little so-and-so to the next level. As part of what seems to be at trend among the AFI” list of memorable quotes, this one gets misquoted quite often, though—admittedly—warning guests to get ready for a bump “ride” does seem to make more sense. What is a bumpy night, anyway? Watch the movie to find out.
