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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 210473" data-attributes="member: 7">This Covid-19 pandemic that's thrown our country into a scare, and it's got us rotating shifts at the bank where I work. Anyway, during my days off, I've decided to dive back into some of Marilyn's earlier work to give you all some of my opinions here in this thread. This past Tuesday I watched All About Eve on blu-ray for the very first time, and it reignited a flame in me concerning the passion I've always had for this film. I'm assuming that almost all of you have seen or at least heard about All About Eve and therefore have some idea of the story consists of, but I will give you a brief overview just the same. The story revolves around Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), a wannabe actress, who sleazes her way into the life of aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Meanwhile, Eve tries to creep into the lives of playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife Karen (Celeste Holm), and even Margo's director boyfriend Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill). Throughout it all, Margo's maid, Birdie (Thelma Ritter), is ever-suspicious of Eve, while the acid-tognued critic Addison Dewitt (George Sanders) eventually decides to aid Eve in her climb to the top. Marilyn Monroe with "All About Eve" writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz [ATTACH=full]20562[/ATTACH] But let's get into discussing Marilyn's performance in this classic. She plays Miss Claudia Caswell, a young actress, who critic Addison Dewitt (George Sanders) has taken under his wing. When we first see, at the famous party scene, Addison describes her as having graduated of the fictional Copacabana School of Dramatic Art. Addison sets her to woo theatrical producer Max Fabian (Gregory Ratoff), who is at the party, and who eventually decides to give her audition for his play, which stars Margo. Marilyn appears in just a few brief scenes, all totaling maybe six minutes or so of screen time. She does the most with the part, and even if she didn't evolve into Marilyn Monroe the Legend, her presence here certainly stands out as memorable and noteworthy of a young actress desperately trying to make it as a movie star.  Marilyn's small role was pivotal in her career. Johnny Hyde, her agent at the time, had pulled whatever strings he could to get her a meeting with writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who eventually gave her the part. Monroe had been fired from Twentieth Century-Fox back in 1947, and studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck was initially weary of her casting, owing to his belief that Marilyn was better suited to comedy. The cast of "All About Eve" photographed during the famous party scene. [ATTACH=full]20563[/ATTACH]All About Eve itself is a flawless masterpiece, and everyone gives a top performance. It's one of the few in Hollywood's history that is perfect in every possible aspect; the writing, the directing, the casting, the acting. It all works fabulously together. I often read into the movie's back story, merely for the enjoyment of reading about how this classic came to fruition. The film was originally conceived as a star vehicle for Claudette Colbert and Jeanne Crain, but that was not to be. Colbert injured her back while shooting on location, and Crain was dropped from considered by Mankiewicz, who felt she lacked the grit the part of Eve demanded. A host of actresses were considered to replace Colbert, among them Barbara Stanwyck, Susan Hayward, Marlene Dietrich, and Joan Crawford, before the role finally went to Bette Davis, the two-time Oscar winner who had just came off an eighteen-year stint as a contract star for Warner Brothers. The role of Eve would go to another Oscar winner, Anne Baxter. Marilyn's performance here borders on self-parody, as she is basically playing her off-screen life of being a rising actress trying to rally powerful men to advance her career. Her appearance drew favorable reviews and got her plenty of attention from several Hollywood heavyweights, among them the big boys at Fox, who signed her to a seven-year contract in December 1950. She would go on, as we all know, to be one of the greatest movie stars of the twentieth century. </blockquote>

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