I've always wondered if Margo ever found out that Eve tried to steal Bill?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — General Discussion
mariakelly-04164 — 9 years ago(October 28, 2016 02:46 AM)
I've always wondered if Margo ever found out that Eve tried to steal Bill?
And what would happen if/or Margo DID find out? I think it would have been a VERY bumpy night.
Any other theories? -
Doghouse-6 — 9 years ago(October 31, 2016 06:59 AM)
The only ones from whom Margo could have heard about it would have been Addison (who was listening outside the door) or Bill himself. Either way, it would only have confirmed for Margo the suspicions she already harbored about Eve, and with which she had already confronted Bill.
Eve's overt play for Bill took place while Margo was still out of town, while she and Bill were on the outs over Margo's accusations, and it was right after Addison's column praising Eve's performance the very next day that Margo and Bill reconciled. So if Bill had brought it up at all, it would likely have been in the nature of an admission that Margo's suspicions had been right after all. But I don't know what benefit he might have thought there'd be in such an admission, since pretty much everyone besides Addison had already turned against Eve, so my guess is that he would have chosen to let the matter rest.
Poe! You areavenged! -
mariakelly-04164 — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 05:13 PM)
ANYONE who loves All About Eve always makes sense!
BTW, in the scene where Eve tries to seduce Bill, she said something to Bill that he shouldn't run away from his attraction to (see must have been ON something) to her.
Now I have watched this movie at least fifty times, and I Know in the scene she's talking about, that NEVER happened! What's your opinion about this?
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy! -
Doghouse-6 — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 11:35 AM)
Thanks for asking. Just to refresh both our memories, I'll use the dialogue for reference, and insert a few thoughts along the way.
BILL: "With work and patience, you'll be a good actress, if that's what you want to be."
EVE: "Is that what you want me to be?"
BILL: "I'm talking about you and what you want."
EVE: "So am I."
BILL: "What have I got to do with it?"
EVE: "Everything."
BILL: "The names I've been called, but never Svengali. Good luck."
Bill's being very professional but, still considering her
"a kid,"
is not taking her too seriously from a personal standpoint. Eve is doing what she has (with Karen and Margo), or will do (with Lloyd and Addison), with everyone of any influence from whom she can benefit: appealing to whatever aspect of their personality and/or position is most vulnerable to flattery. Knowing Bill has walked out on Margo, she calculates that this is the time to make her move with him.
EVE: "Don't run away, Bill."
BILL: "From what would I be running?"
EVE: "You're always after truth on the stage. What about off?"
BILL: "I'm for it."
EVE: "Then face it. I have. Ever since that first night here."
BILL: "When I told you what every young actress should know?"
He's now sensing what's coming, but is still keeping his distance by being casual and offhand.
EVE: "When you told me that whatever I became, it would be because of you."
BILL: "Makeup's a little heavy."
I love that last line. He continues to speak in professional terms, but it now has an additional metaphorical twist: he's telling her that the meaning she wants him to believe she read into his brief lecture, as well as her approach, are excessive, but she charges ahead:
EVE: "And
for
you."
BILL: "You're quite a girl."
That's the moment in which he finally allows himself to see her fully, and understands her not as the
"kid"
he thought she was, but as the scheming opportunist that she is. While I think he's gained a certain professional appreciation for her cold-blooded ambition, he's personally repelled by the way it manifests itself, so he now feels free to rebuff her directly and explicitly. And with his parting line, drops the hint that signals as well his understanding that he's nothing to her but a professional stepping stone, and any further emotional appeal is wasted:
BILL: "Don't cry. Just score it as an incomplete forward pass."
Just a side note: while it gets the meaning across, Bill's sports metaphor coming out of nowhere has always felt a little out of place to me. I'd have expected something more theatrical, like "Just consider it a lesson about not overplaying your scene," or something like that. But no matter. Maybe Mankiewicz thought a football term would be more widely understood by audiences.
Anyway, it's pretty much along the same lines as the story Eve later concocts for Addison about Lloyd (after she'd lured him to her hotel by feigning illness):
"He woke me up at three o'clock in the morning, banging on my door. He couldn't sleep, he said. He'd left Karen. Couldn't go on with the play or anything else until I promised to marry him."
The only difference there is that, instead of trying to "seduce her audience," she's playing to one that she's calculated will admire her cleverness.
As Addison says,
"Still just the theatre, after all."
Poe! You areavenged! -
mariakelly-04164 — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 12:22 PM)
Thanks for that great response to my question. And while er we are on the subject of Lloyd (kind of) Do think that Lloyd ever slept with Eve? I've always felt that in the awards scene (the last one) where Eve thanks Lloyd, the guilty look on his face gives me the impression. What do you think?
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy! -
Doghouse-6 — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 02:17 PM)
I've kind of gone back and forth on that question over the years. Lloyd does look a little sheepish when Eve mentions him in her acceptance speech, and it's hard to tell how truthful she's being when she describes their night together to Addison:
"EVE: "We sat and talked until it was light. He never went home."
ADDISON: "You sat and
talked
until it was light?"
EVE: "We sat and talked. I want a run of the play contract."
That last line could be interpreted as taking Addison into her confidence that she had no intention of "putting out" for Lloyd until she had him hooked into marriage. But it can also be interpreted as just another part of the front she's putting up for him. Either way, he doesn't seem to buy it.
In the end, I'm not sure it makes much difference, and any of us can arrive at whatever conclusion we wish, but since Addison is
"nobody's fool"
and has everything else figured out, I guess what's good enough for him is good enough for me.
Poe! You areavenged!