Ladies with an Attitude, Fellas that were in the Mood
Julie Burchill, one of Britain's greatest living bitches, recently wrote an article on the death of propah bitching. She, of course, mentions one of the classiest bitchfests of all times:
"Though the great bitches of Hollywood were dressed to kill and magnificently shallow, there was something incredibly honest about them - whether they were real, like Bette Davis, or imaginary, like her character Margo Channing in All About Eve. In the old days, a bitch came on with all guns blazing, talons sharpened and a neon sign a mile wide above her head: No loyalty expected or given. She may have been a gold-digger, a back-stabber or a ball-breaker - but she was never a hypocrite. She got a tremendous kick from being a bitch and didn't care who knew it."
I was lucky to catch All About Eve on Film4 yesterday afternoon (better Sunday matinee film impossible). My braincells got a much desired massage from its one-liners, its slowburning storyline, its brilliant performances. The film's slow pace is at odds with what is produced nowadays, and something I'm not used to. But I don't have a problem with Golden Age movies: I can comfortably sit through nearly three hours of dialogue that might be better suited for the stage as long as the lines come quick and fast when they need to, shredding everyone and everything in sight. Somewhere, at the back of my mind, Madonna's "Vogue" was on repeat.
I'd forgotten that Marilyn Monroe has a small part in the film, playing a young, dumb starlet (see the background of the photo above). Looking back now, we can enjoy the irony that the conniving and ambitious Eve, desperate to marry a famous playwright, predicts in some ways Marilyn's own marriage in real life to Arthur Miller. In a film club, one could talk about life imitating art, or the film's points on what women need to do in order to climb the ladder of success. For those who have never seen it, the film tells the story of an established actress (Bette Davis) who takes on a devoted fan as her assistant, little realising how ambitious and unscrupulous the mousy girl is. Cue lots of intrigue, martinis and backstabbing. It's a shame they no longer make films like it. Let's just hope nobody ever has the "smart" idea to re-make it.