Movies from the Heart—All About Eve

Last week’s The Shop Around the Corner gave us a story that was all frills and fun. This week’s All About Eve [1950] by Joseph Mankiewicz and Mary Orr gives us lots of fun moments—but in a more serious, sometimes even conniving way.

The trailer for this film is particularly interesting because it’s another of Hollywood’s attempts to tell the story of the film through a fake interview. It’s fun to watch the reporter at the beginning of the trailer reciting his—clearly—written lines while Bette Davis recites hers as if they were exactly what she was thinking at the moment. But she’s an actress and that’s her job.

The other thing the trailer does is blur the line between real life and the movies. Bette Davis—the actress—is being asked by a reporter—a real reporter, not an actor—what she thinks of Eve. And Bette Davis proceeds to talk about Eve as if she was a real person, one we could all talk to, have dinner with, etc. It’s kind of fun to see the lengths to which the promotion department at the studio in 1950 will go to make their preview seem like an authentic evaluation of a fictional character by sort of pretending that she is real. Sound convoluted? Take a look at the trailer.

This film won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Writer and Best Director. It was a critical as well as an audience hit.

What was it that made it so good? Well, watch it. What stands out to you? For me it’s the intricacies of the relationships between people. Just when you think you have a character figured out some bit of them morphs a bit into someone else. And the plot—think you know who the good guys and who the bad guys are in this relationship- oriented comedy/drama? Wait awhile and the players will surprise you.

Most of all, though, when it comes to that thing that makes the film stand out, it's its dialogue. It’s sharp and witty. And would you believe, it’s JUST as sharp and witty today as it was when it was written. I kid you not. Nearly 74 years later it absolutely sparkles in the dialogue department.

Dialogue is tricky. As a writer, you can be brought in just to “punch up” the dialogue—in other words, try and give it some of that sparkle that makes for good repartee.

As an exercise, pick a scene from this film and write out the dialogue line by line, then study it. What makes it sparkle? You’ll note how brief the exchanges are between people—no one give speeches. And you’ll also note how surprising the dialogue is at times—it’s not predictable.

If you could incorporate just those two characteristics into your dialogue—quick scenes and unpredictability—you’d be well on your way to giving the dialogue in your writing that All About Eve sparkle.

Next week, let’s start the year off by going on an adventure, in The African Queen.

Copyright © Diane Lake

31Dec23

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