Brilliantly written and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, All About Eve is one of the most intelligent movies ever. It hardly matters that most people probably won't get all the theatrical allusions; I certainly didn't. Read 'All About All About Eve' to really get behind the script. All the performances were superb. In fact, none of the performers were ever as good again, except for Marilyn Monroe, who played a small but delicious part. I particularly liked George Sanders as the supremely cynical Addison De Witt, who was pulling everybody's strings. He deserved his Oscar. It was unfortunate that Bette Davis did not receive the Oscar, but between Anne Baxter, as Eve, and the equally brilliant Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, the vote split and it went to Billie Holliday (who?). The only drawback in this movie is the last scene in Eve's rooms. It seemed tacked-on like an afterthought, and was not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the movie. 