Storyline: When a common girl is more than what she seems when she finds a mentor in a successful theater actress.
Why this movie is a classic: This movie is one that Bette Davis felt drawn to doing, mostly because of one of the main characters, an aging theater actress Margo Channing. Davis felt kinship toward Margo because, like her, Margo was coming to grips with the fact that her life in front of an audience might be coming to an end due to her age (the character is supposed to be 40 years old, around the same age Davis was at the time). During this point in her career, Davis was having trouble finding roles that catered to older actresses that still allowed her to play provocative and alluring (most of these roles were–and still are, in a sense–geared toward younger actresses). The arrival of Eve Harrington (Ann Baxter), a young woman who idolizes Margo but also has aspirations of becoming an actress, brings Margo’s insecurities about her age and job security into full view. In short, this is one of Davis’ quintessential roles. Also, this is the first movie that Marilyn Monroe ever cast in; she plays another rising actress who uses her feminine wiles to get to the top (info from TCM).
