Bette Davis excels as an aging diva in the six times Oscar Winner. Sit back and ‘Fasten your seatbelts, it‘s going to be a bumpy night‘ Davis gives one of the performances of her career portraying aging stage diva Margot Channing with a painful air of authenticity: the camp star, still awesome but aware of the ravages of time and the threat of younger actresses snapping at her heels.

What she needs is someone to follow her around, look after her and worship her, and that person seems to arrive in the form of Eve (Baxter), an apparently innocent, adoring fan. But of course appearances can be deceptive, and we know from the opening scene that somehow the mousy, unassuming Eve has herself become a big star. Mankiewicz triumphs as writer and director.

The piece fizzes with energy and the bitchy lines flow, largely from Davis‘ wickedly crooked mouth. The entire cast is on top form (Marilyn Monroe makes an early, fleeting cameo appearance), although among the actors only Sanders won an Oscar for his superb turn as the louche theatre critic, Addison De Witt, who also serves as the film‘s narrator. Verdict
One of Hollywood‘s finest backstage dramas. If nothing else Davis should have been rewarded for services to the tobacco industry.