The film co-stars George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, and Hugh Marlowe, and features Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates and Walter Hampden.

She tells an engrossing story of growing up poor in Wisconsin and losing her young husband, Eddie, in the South Pacific during World War II.

Eve skips the after-party and returns home, where she encounters Phoebe, a teenage fan who slipped into her apartment and fell asleep.

When she is alone, Phoebe puts on Eve's elegant cloak and poses in front of a floor-length mirror, holding the award and bowing.

While performing in The Two Mrs. Carrolls during 1943 and 1944, Bergner allowed a young fan to become part of her household and employed her as an assistant, but later regretted her generosity when the woman attempted to undermine her.

In the story, Orr gives the girl an even more ruthless character and allows her to succeed in stealing the older actress's career and the husband of the unnamed female narrator.

In 1949, Joseph Mankiewicz was considering a story about an aging actress and, upon reading "The Wisdom of Eve," felt that the conniving girl would be a useful element.

"[10] Among the actresses originally considered to play Margo Channing were Mankiewicz's original inspiration Susan Hayward, who was rejected by Zanuck as "too young", Marlene Dietrich, dismissed as "too German" and Gertrude Lawrence, who was ruled out when her lawyer insisted that she not have to drink or smoke in the film and that the script would be rewritten to allow her to sing a torch song.

Margo had been originally conceived as genteel and knowingly humorous, but with the casting of Davis, Mankiewicz revised the character to introduce abrasive qualities.

Crain was at the height of her popularity and had established a career playing likable heroines; Zanuck believed that she lacked the "bitch virtuosity" required by the part and that audiences would not accept her as a deceitful character.

Marilyn Monroe, relatively unknown at the time, was cast as Miss Casswell, referred to by DeWitt as a "graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art."

Monroe won the part after a lobbying campaign by her agent,[13] despite Zanuck's initial antipathy and belief that she was better suited to comedy.

[13] Smaller roles were filled by Gregory Ratoff as the producer Max Fabian, Barbara Bates as Phoebe and Walter Hampden as the host of the award ceremony.

Film critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times loved the picture, stating that "a fine Darryl Zanuck production, excellent music and an air of ultra-class complete this superior satire.

"[19] Boxoffice.com stated that it "is a classic of the American cinema – to this day the quintessential depiction of ruthless ambition in the entertainment industry, with legendary performances from Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and George Sanders anchoring one of the very best films from one of Hollywood's very best Golden Era filmmakers: Joseph L.

The site's critics consensus reads: "Smart, sophisticated, and devastatingly funny, All About Eve is a Hollywood classic that only improves with age.

Rebecca Flint Marx, in her Allmovie review, notes the antagonism that existed between Broadway and Hollywood at the time, stating that the "script summoned into existence a whole array of painfully recognizable theatre types, from the aging, egomaniacal grand dame to the outwardly docile, inwardly scheming ingenue to the powerful critic who reeks of malignant charm.

"[16] Roger Ebert, in his review in The Great Movies, says Eve Harrington is "a universal type", and focuses on the aging actress plot line, comparing the film to Sunset Boulevard.

[24] Similarly, Marc Lee's 2006 review of the film for The Daily Telegraph describes a subtext "into the darker corners of show business, exposing its inherent ageism, especially when it comes to female stars.

She can take up the position of the angry bitch, the drama queen who holds court (the deliberate camp that Susan Sontag finds in this film).

[27][28][29] In 1990, All About Eve was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

The statuette is modeled after the famous painting of Siddons costumed as the tragic Muse by Joshua Reynolds, a copy of which hangs in the entrance of Margo's apartment and often visible during the party scene.

[43] A radio version of All About Eve starring Tallulah Bankhead as Margo Channing was presented on NBC's The Big Show by the Theatre Guild of the Air on November 16, 1952.

Bankhead and many contemporary critics felt that the characterization of Margo Channing was patterned on her, a long-rumored charge denied by both Mankiewicz and Davis,[44] but attested by costume designer Edith Head.

[48] Several decades later Davis called Channing "the essence of a Tallulah Bankhead kind of actress" in an interview with Barbara Walters.

The cast also featured Alan Hewitt as Addison DeWitt (who narrated), Beatrice Pearson as Eve Harrington, Don Briggs as Lloyd Richards, Kevin McCarthy as Bill Samson, Florence Robinson as Birdie Coonan, and Stefan Schnabel as Max Fabian.