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Vivien Leigh in GONE WITH THE WIND, Marilyn Monroe in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, and Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER are three examples. The fourth, making up a kind of moviestar Mount Rushmore, is of course Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE.

Despite this film's blue ribbon portfolio - it's classic script, surgical structure, and glowing performances from a star-studded ensemble, it's Davis as Margot Channing that the film is mostly, and correctly, known for. As for Davis herself, despite her astonishing turns in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, NOW, VOYAGER, THE LETTER etc etc, this role has become the trademark of her career.

Davis' peerless skills, her charisma, diction and movement, are at Olympic levels in ALL ABOUT EVE; not another of her roles enabled her to go so high without brushing caricature, or self-parody. Many have drawn paralells between Davis' real life and the fictional Margot Channing. This is cheating, simplifying - suggesting that the only way Davis could give a performance this resonant was if she was playing herself. It's not true, and Davis herself noted - in her book THIS 'N THAT - that her marriage to co-star Gary Merrill failed when they both realised they weren't anything like their characters from ALL ABOUT EVE.

What is on show here is eye-popping, spine-chilling acting, exhibits A-Z and then some in the case for Bette Davis being proclaimed greatest ever movie actress.

Predating Madonna by thirty-five years, Davis was the pioneer of modern female media iconography. The cigarette, the hair, the eyes - Davis' visual impact was rivalled only by Elizabeth Taylor. But Taylor's appeals were God-given - her genius was to use them. Davis' persona was a brilliant, self-devised, self-reflexive work of art on a par with those of Oscar Wilde or Elizabeth I.

Wrongly, Davis was often put second behind Katharine Hepburn, as in the recent AFI century of movies poll. The bland and dependable will always win out over the irregular, or the trailblazing, just ask Bill Clinton, Prince or Monica Seles, who fail to figure at the top of "all time best" popular-voted lists in their respective fields, beaten out by comparatively drab figures like Woodrow Wilson, U2 or Steffi Graf.

So what a shame Davis and Hepburn never acted together in a movie - one guess who'd have come out on top. Glassy, brittle Hepburn would have been too scared to turn up to the set! The four-time Oscar winner may have equal acting skills to Davis, but she lacks her nuclear strength of personality.

At least the great weirdo Joan Crawford was compelling enough to be Davis' victim in ... BABY JANE. Can you imagine Hepburn as the crippled sister? One look in the bedroom door at Hepburn trilling away about nature, life or love, Davis would have given one almighty eye-roll, left the house and never gone back. Hepburn was intelligently creative in a cerebral way - Davis was too, but she had equal elemental powers, commanding attention with her body, her sexuality, and her crackling aura.

Roger Ebert says, in his reviews of the 100 Best Ever Movies, that Marilyn Monroe, who appears briefly in her film debut, steals one scene from Davis. Her only scene too, and the one that begins with Davis' legendary line "It's gonna be a bumpy night!". This, then, is quite a claim.

I don't know that she loses the scene to Monroe, as much as she recognizes a kindred spirit, stands back, and waits for the up-and-coming Monroe to say her few brief lines and leave the picture. Going into competition at this point might have thrown her performance off its perfect balance; we might have seen a bit of Davis coming through. Or maybe time has added to Monroe's cameo - look! it's Marilyn Monroe! - giving her a little more significance than she actually has in this picture.

Whatever the case, I disagree with Ebert, and see Davis here as a great Lioness, calmly making sure her offspring get a chance to show themselves off as well. She seems to let Monroe have the scene, seemingly generous but really quietly confident that she has scenes of her own to spare. For my part, I never really notice Monroe's appearance. It's too soon after Eve's arrival at the party, and I'm still cramping up from laughter at the iceberg reception she gets from Margot.

As Margot, Davis outdoes everyone from theatrical Grandes-Dames to drag queens. Her Margot is the template for all female performances - maternal, and needy, but sexy and tough as well. Her ego out of control, Margot faces the impending doom of old age, and the horror of watching her looks and career go out the window. As she says, in the oft-quoted mid-film monologue - "tough business, being a woman".

It maybe so, how would I know, but if anyone was up to the task, it was surely Bette Davis, Queen of the Stars.

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originally posted: 04/04/02 17:45:04
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