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Direct film viewShowing master rank #64 on its own—not above the ranking.
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Master Rank balances Greatness, Engagement, and Ease. Sort by Greatness for the artistic-canon view.

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View All About Eve film page
Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List

Spoiler-free premise

An ambitious young admirer enters the life of a celebrated stage actress.

Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free

Young admirer Eve Harrington is welcomed into the circle of Broadway star Margo Channing. As Eve becomes Margo's assistant and understudy, her apparent humility gives way to calculated efforts to acquire Margo's roles, relationships, and status.

Why it belongs

All About Eve transforms backstage ambition into verbal combat, with an ensemble whose wit by degrees exposes insecurity, age, loyalty, and betrayal.

Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case

Mankiewicz fashions the drama from entrances, glances, dressing-room hierarchies, and acid dialogue, while Bette Davis and Anne Baxter make performance itself ambiguous: sincerity, ambition, insecurity, and theatrical technique continually borrow one another's masks.

Institutional reference ranks

Sight & Sound211IMDb Top 250145AFI 10028
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score

Great Cinema Master List scores

Greatness9.6
Engagement9.2
Ease8.7

English · Not Rated
Narrative Feature
Mood: Gripping