
Out now on Blu-ray is All About Eve (20th Century Fox), a gorgeous edition of this classic, award-winning 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz film that brilliantly shows the ruthless ambition behind the theater world. Bette Davis, in the role of a lifetime, is the difficult stage star Margo Channing who takes major fan Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) under her wing, much to her regret. George Sanders plays the acid-tongued theater critic Addison DeWitt, Celeste Holm as the Karen Richards, wife of a noted playwright. Even Marilyn Monroe shows up in a bit part. It's perfection from beginning to stunning end and the dialogue crackles with sardonic wit. This Blu-ray includes great documentaries on the making of the film and director Mankiewicz, but one of the more interesting shorts is about the "real" Eve Harrington -- a character based on a short story by Mary Coswell Orr. Orr says she wrote the part of Eve after hearing the story of her friend- famed Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner and a young, aspiring fan named Martina Lawrence. As Margo Channing says, clutching a martini, as she ascends a staircase: "Fasten your seat belts, It's going to be a bumpy night."