All About Eve (1950)

The apparent story of Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter,) a starry-eyed young fan who gets to meet, then work for Margo Channing (Bette Davis,) her theater idol; who eventually gets a chance to understudy for her; then gets to impress author Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe) when his preferred lead gets 'conveniently' stuck in the middle of nowhere on an empty tank of gas; and ultimately, how she becomes an award-winning thespian.

So far, nothing in the plot is really spoiled, because the story is told in flashback (by multiple narrators) from the moment of the presentation of the acting award (the camera even holds for it.)

Apparent, because a lot of time its focus is also on the actress-whose-star-is-falling end of it (Davis.)

What is not immediately apparent, but is slowly revealed, is that this is a Broadway Backstage story about the cut-throat nature showbusiness as well.

The Biz being especially rough on a talented female who, even by the age of forty, is already having a rough time of it, having to hide or lie about her age, and feeling insecure about having to portray women much younger than her; about the personal sacrifices required to make it to the big time, (a very funny Thelma Ritter who once opened for a top bill proudly proclaims it despite now being downgraded to doing menial tasks for the star of the show); about having to hide one’s ambition in order to be allowed to sneak onto the stage (the hiding itself not quite as successful as the movie would have us believe of this supposed ingénue, especially when one has already experienced similar situations in real life; it’s fairly easy to discern these self-driven folks even when they aren’t that open about it,) about making a deal with the devil (George Sanders) only for it to result with the devil owning you; and ultimately about uselessly sacrificing what might have been genuine relationships for the sake of a shiny statuette, the victory speech sounding hollow by the time we’ve seen the true story behind it, even when there is undeniable talent behind it all.

If there isn’t …we’ll there’s always television (or, there was at the time; though the first step down from the New York stage is first Hollywood - funny, a Hollywood movie calling Hollywood product junk,) as a not-so-talented budding actress (Marylin Monroe) learns after a disastrous audition.

The film also rubs in the cyclical nature of a short shelf life in female showbusiness (unnecessarily, I would say, the point having been already well made and hardly limited to females as Dinner at Eight tragically showed for John Barrymore.)

Actors might even start young, but a fight against time is inevitably a losing one ...and there’s always a bunch of young someones set to take your spot in the lime light.

Funny, this film beating the very similarly themed Sunset Boulevard to the Academy Award.

It might be close call, but I’d still give it to Billy Wilder.

Also with Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill and Gregory Ratoff.