All About Eve (1950)
NICE SPEECH, EVE
For a film revolving around the theatre and its actors, the sound design for All About Eve was sparingly dramatic. Based on the original story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr, and adapted for the screen by writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Eve stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a forty year old Broadway actress and icon. Anne Baxter plays twenty-four year old Eve Harrington. A deceptively demure super fan of Ms. Channing, who covertly inserts herself into Margo’s life and circle of friends.
What stood out the most in Eve’s soundscape was its sparseness. I went in expecting a consistent musical underscore in the vein of a classic Hollywood drama like Imitation of Life (1959). A half hour into the film however, I realised there were long scenes in which the only sounds were the actors’ dialogue and the background ambience. The sound design was handled in the manner of a stage play that’s been adapted for the screen. I specifically thought of the 2016 adaptation of August Wilson’s Fences, which starred Viola Davis and Denzel Washington. That adaptation, too, had long scenes of actors conversing with little musical filler. I remember thinking at the time of viewing it, “This play did not technically adapt well to the screen,” as the long, dialogue heavy scenes were not cinematically engaging.
In the cinematic execution of Eve however, the film’s setting and plot line was masterfully leveraged to add a complimentary theatricality to its soundscape.
INSTRUMENTS OF YOUTH
The placement of music cues and choice of instruments was the best example of this complimentary execution. A violin/stringed instruments motif was utilised for Eve, which embodied her youthfulness and supposed innocence. A piano and wind instruments where utilised for Margo, which captured the essence of her older, more established character. The music cues were usually placed in the final seconds of a scene and culminated in dramatic crescendos, to underscore the preceding conversation and/or foreshadow something ominous. For example, the scene in which Thelma Ritter’s Birdie suggests to Margo that Eve’s loyalty may not be as well intentioned as it seems.
The first 2.5 minutes focused on the conversation of Margo, Birdie and Eve. In this instance, the wind instruments begin just as Eve backs out of the door, having made it known to Margo that she sent her own birthday telegram to Margo’s beau, Bill. This was the first time Margo’s motif was timed with Eve’s character, to underscore Birdie’s point that Eve was “studying" to become Margo. As the camera lingered on Birdie and Margo’s exchange of knowing glances, the piano and wind instruments crescendo, only to be symbolically usurped by Eve’s violin, as the scene cuts back to Margo and fades to black. A visual and auditory chef’s kiss.
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS… IT’S GOING TO BE A MUSICAL RIDE
The famous party scene in which Bette Davis delivers Margo’s iconic line, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night,” is where all the theatrical stops were pulled out for the sound design. The night starts out on a good note for Margo, until she and Bill have a disagreement over Eve. Bill thinks Eve is just a wide-eyed “kid” from a small town, who idolises Margo and is just happy to be in their circle. He tells Margo she’s paranoid to think that Eve is trying to take her place, which leads Margo to indulge in too much wine as the night goes on.
A soft piano tune plays in the background of the party as guests arrive. Margot is further outnumbered in her opinion by her friends, who also have nothing but praise for Eve. In an on-the-nose wink to the theatre theme, Margo’s playwright friend Lloyd notes there’s a “Macbeth-ish” atmosphere to the evening. Picking up on Margo’s acerbic mood, Karen, Margo’s best friend and person who orchestrated Eve’s introduction to Margo at the beginning of the film, questions, “Is it over, or is it just beginning,” With this line, the background piano music picks up its pace, with an added carnival feel to it. Cue theatre critic and Brit with the biting quips, Addison DeWitt. Unaware that Eve had already made her own introduction to Mr. DeWitt, Margo is left literally standing like a coat rack as the others go off to mingle without her.
After the coat rack indignation, Margo goes to the piano player and asks him to play the funereal Liebestraum No. 3 in A Flat Major, no doubt to match her solemn mood. The party concludes with a showdown, in which Margo’s friends let her know that her behaviour is “unattractive.” As a defeated Margo slumps up the stairs to her bedroom, the piano music in the background trails off… foreshadowing the icon’s time left in the spotlight.
“It’s about time the piano realises it has not written the concerto.”
AND SCENE
All About Eve is consistently ranked among the American Film Institute’s top 100 lists and the film was nominated for 14 Academy Awards. Alfred Newman was nominated for Best Music, Score of a Dramatic or Comedy picture, and Thomas T. Moulton won for Best Sound Recording. As a Sound Designer, the film was an example of “less is more,” and having fun with plot and theme. I came away appreciating the sporadic placement of the musical cues and how space was given for the actors’ performances to shine. Every component of Eve is an example of filmmaking at its best.