All About Eve (1950) ****

All About Eve (1950) is the quintessential ‘egomaniacal-aging-grand-dame-replaced-by-scheming-ingenue’ picture (to paraphrase Rebecca Flint Marx in their AllMovie review). Though the acting is melodramatic by today's standards, it's fitting given the theatrical setting. The cast and crew that won (and were nominated for) the many Academy Awards given to the film deserved them, for the precedent which it set. 

Of the many things I love about All About Eve, a couple worth mentioning are the fact that there's no heartwarming romance and no characters “finding themselves.” No—just cynicism, whipcrack dialogue, and acceptance of one's fate. Yet there is an undeniable playfulness to the film, thanks to director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's razor sharp script. All About Eve—now nearly seventy years old—still packs a punch and will forever remain a classic.