Anne Baxter makes eagerness hard to ignore, and occasionally hard to believe. We value her intelligence and precise delivery, though All About Eve reveals how readily the effort can show beside Bette Davis.
Fi1m perspective
Eve Harrington pays attention to Margo Channing with an earnestness that is difficult to relax around. In All About Eve (1950), Anne Baxter plays the admirer whose interest gives her access to Margo’s circle. We felt uneasy watching her attend to Margo, because Baxter makes apparently flattering attention seem faintly oppressive. It is useful acting for a film about people who enjoy being admired, although the wide-eyed innocence can look too carefully rehearsed.
Her early supporting work allowed for more than this particular kind of intensity. She played Lucy Morgan in Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), then Sophie MacDonald in The Razor’s Edge (1946), her breakthrough. The former made room for quieter acting; the latter gave her the emotional loss that she could convey so forcefully. Those parts are worth remembering when Eve’s studied eagerness threatens to become our entire idea of Baxter.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz uses the difference between Baxter and Bette Davis rather than trying to disguise it. Davis’s confidence as Margo makes Baxter’s effort more conspicuous, but it also explains why Eve’s attention might be welcome: here is someone prepared to take Margo as seriously as Margo takes herself. The danger is that we notice the performance before we believe the admirer, and Baxter does not always avoid it. We recommend the film strongly because its writing makes that uncertainty interesting, asking how clearly anyone can see a person who flatters them.
Her precise diction and dramatic flair had room to expand as Nefretiri in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). There, the force of the delivery also suggests the limitation of sustaining the same intensity for too long. Later assignments did not always use her skills fully, and television took up more of her work. Her return to Broadway in Applause (1971) put her in Margo Channing’s part, an intriguing reversal of her position in All About Eve. Start with All About Eve, and watch how much Baxter does with the apparently simple business of listening.
Biography
Anne Baxter (7 May 1923 – 12 December 1985) was an American actress who appeared in Hollywood films, on Broadway and in television. Born in Michigan City, Indiana, she was the granddaughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. She made her Broadway debut at the age of 13 and studied acting with Maria Ouspenskaya before signing a contract with 20th Century Fox in 1940.
She received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her supporting role as Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge (1946). Baxter earned a nomination for Best Actress for her performance as Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950). Other notable film roles include Lucy Morgan in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Nefretiri in The Ten Commandments (1956) and appearances in I Confess (1953) and The Blue Gardenia (1953). She also worked in television, including episodes of Columbo and Batman.
Baxter died in New York City following a stroke.
