Eve Harrington
Our introduction to Eve is delayed; by the time the camera shows her to us, Addison
DeWitt has introduced us to the other characters, the camera has shown their faces
and (lack of) responses to the clichéd effusions of the ancient actor who is
presenting the Sarah Siddons Award to her. It is clear that she is not part of the
group formed by the others; the script tells us she is ‘beautiful, radiant, poised, exquisitely gowned. She stands in simple and dignified response to the ovation’. But, Mankiewicz has visually undercut the old actor’s words.
What we see does not accord with what we hear. The freeze frame of the shot which ends this scene does at least two things: it captures Eve with outstretched hands reaching for the award, suggesting that she is grasping, greedy; it also pauses the film so that Karen can take us back to explain what led to this point. However, we are suspicious of Eve, and ready to identify more with Karen as we accompany her through her memory. Eve is the star of the night, has everything she wants, appears demure, beautiful and successful, but surfaces, the film suggests already, are not always trustworthy.On the night Eve crosses the threshold into the theatre and Margo Channing’s dressing room, she is far from the glamorous figure basking in the glow at the awards dinner. Her clothes are shabby, stained, crumpled; her hat and coat make her almost seem androgynous. Karen leaves her outside, and inside, Eve, Margo calls fans; fiends, beasts who run in packs like coyotes, juvenile delinquents, mental defectives. Yet when this young woman—‘kind of mousy, trench coat and funny hat’ comes in, Margo invites her to stay. From her first words, calculated to generate guilt, to the delivery of the performance of her life story, Eve offers these cynical people not only what they expect from someone who looks like her, but what they would expect from a play, which to most of them is equated with reality. Birdie is the only one who is not cast under the spell of Eve’s acting; she disrupts the performance by crossing in front of Eve, while her comments undermine what Eve says.
Immediately, Eve insinuates herself into Margo’s life. The shots at the airport show
her intrusion; although her words tell Margo and Bill she will give them time together,
the camera shows her come between them, and after Bill’s departure, she replaces
him as she and Margo walk away from the camera. Bill calls Eve ‘kid’ and ‘junior’, but
Mankiewicz depicts Margo and Bill as more gullible and childlike than Eve, who is
only very rarely shown acting or speaking spontaneously.
The transformation of Eve is signified by her clothes. Margo gives her some of her
own clothes, a handing over of identity. By bending all her efforts to become Margo,
Eve negates her own identity. Her usefulness makes it easy for the others to use
her, and while her history of watching Margo is obsessive, the others do not really
look at her at first. It would be interesting to discuss to what degree Eve is a victim of
a culture which sees success in such shallow terms, and the film’s ending could
suggest that Eve’s ‘success’ is fleeting, her replacement ready.
Mankiewicz emphasises Eve’s soft, gentle manner and her vulnerable ‘sincerity’, so
effective in fooling Lloyd and Bill especially. Yet only once does Eve really cry, just
before she performs on stage in Wilkes Barre, and these are tears of fury and
frustration. The first time we see Eve react honestly and spontaneously is after Bill
rejects her attempt to seduce him. She allows Addison DeWitt to see more of her.
Why?
How harshly should we judge Eve? She lives in a society in which those who are not
born into privilege must ‘make it’ any way they can, in which a woman is expected to
be ‘feminine’ and attractive, notions enforced by some of the film’s language—the
theatre (and the world?) is a ‘jungle’, Eve is a bee—Margo calls her ‘honey’. Until
she is as successful and powerful and autonomous as Margo, Eve cannot say what
she means. Some innocence remains, however. In Wilkes Barre, she seems naïve in
her belief that Lloyd will leave Karen. She still must learn.
At the end of the film, Eve has journeyed from a degree of innocence to a state of
knowingness. To what extent is Mankiewicz associating her with the biblical Eve who
tempted Adam with the fruit? Addison DeWitt shuts the door of her apartment after
handing the statuette to Phoebe, locking them in there together. She is isolated,
apart from another version of her younger self who, like Eve, will cannibalise her idol.
She seems passive, has nowhere else to go, except to Hollywood.
• When does Eve first arouse doubts as to her real character in our minds?
• Is Eve evil?
• Draw up a list of parallels between Eve and Phoebe. Are there any differences?
VATE INSIDE STORIES 2014—ALL ABOUT EVE
KEY QUOTES FROM EVE HARRINGTON
• "...acting and make believe began to fill up my life more and more. It got so I
couldn't tell the real from the unreal. Except that the unreal seemed more real
to me." - Eve
• "I think that part of Miss Channing's greatness lies in her ability to pick the
best plays."
• "When you're a secretary in a brewery, it's pretty hard to make-believe you're
anything else. Everything is beer."
• "And then one night, Margo Channing came to play in Remembrance and I
went to see it. Well, here I am."
• "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the
footlights and wrapping you up."
"I'll never forget this night as long as I live, and I'll never forget you for making
it possible."
• "Lloyd loves me, I love him...I'm in love with Lloyd...Oh Addison, won't it be
just perfect? Lloyd and I - there's no telling how far we can go. He'll write
great plays for me, I'll make them great."
• “To know, every night, that different hundreds of people love you. They smile,
and their eyes shine. You've pleased them. They want you. You belong. Just
that alone is worth anything.”
• “ I'm afraid Mr. De Witt would find me boring before too long.”
• (To Bill): "[The makeup's] for you."
• “One pretty good performance by an understudy - it'll be forgotten by
tomorrow.”
• (to DeWitt) “You take charge.”
• (To Karen) "If I play Cora, Addison will never tell what happened, in or out of
print. A simple exchange of favors. I'm so happy I can do something for you
at long last."
(To Karen) "Your friendship with Margo - your deep, close friendship. What
would happen to it, do you think, if she knew the cheap trick you played on
her for my benefit?"
• (To Karen) "How long...before people forgot what happened and trusted you
again? ...it would be so much easier for everyone concerned if I would play
Cora.”
• (To Karen) “I'd do much more for a part that good.”
• “Isn't it strange…? I thought I'd be panic-stricken, want to run away or
something. Instead, I can't wait for tonight to come, to come and go”
• “[Tomorrow]” will bring me everything I've ever wanted. The end of an old
road. The beginning of a new one…paved with…stars”
• “The setting wasn't romantic, but Lloyd was…He'd left Karen.”
• (To DeWitt) “Champion to champion.”
• “I had to get in to meet Margo! I had to say something, be somebody, make
her like me!”