George Sanders makes a cutting remark sound like something too obvious to require emphasis. We prize the precision, especially in All About Eve, though repeated casting as the cultivated cad could make him predictable.
Fi1m perspective
In All About Eve (1950), George Sanders delivers Addison DeWitt’s superior remarks as though he has never had to search for one. The lack of apparent effort is the pleasure: he gives no suggestion that a particularly good line deserves congratulation. We laughed at Addison’s condescension because Sanders makes it sound so ordinary to the man speaking. It is exact, controlled comic acting, and Sanders deserves much of the credit for making a cruel film such good company.
That ease was useful well before Addison. Sanders had led the Saint and Falcon B-series before moving into prominent supporting work, and Alfred Hitchcock used him in both Rebecca (1940) and Foreign Correspondent (1940). Jack Favell in the former helped establish the suave villain; Scott ffolliott in the latter was a rarer heroic part. Playing Lord Henry Wotton in 1945 gave his precise delivery Wildean wit to work on.
All About Eve remains the place to start because Joseph L. Mankiewicz gives that precision something substantial to do. With so much polished speech, the cast could sound as though they were all waiting to deliver the author’s next clever line. Sanders makes Addison’s superiority habitual, while Bette Davis gives Margo Channing’s vanity feeling and Celeste Holm gives Karen Richards an independent life. We can hear different people using cleverness for different reasons, rather than a company competing to sound cleverest. The flashback structure can be stiff, but Sanders is among the reasons the writing never becomes merely an exercise.
The limitation is easy to hear, too. He was often cast as upper-class cads, and the smooth bass voice and dry cynicism could make those parts seem familiar before he had done much with them. We would not mistake that familiarity for laziness, but it can reduce the surprise of an entrance. His voice work as Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (1967) found a use for the same vocal qualities in sly menace. For a second look after Addison, try the less expected hero of Foreign Correspondent.
Biography
George Sanders was a Russian-born British actor whose career in film and television spanned more than forty years. He was born on 3 July 1906 in Saint Petersburg and died on 25 April 1972 in Spain.
Sanders frequently played sophisticated or villainous characters, often drawing on his upper-class English accent and bass voice. He is known for roles including Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940), Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the voice of Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (1967). He also appeared as Simon Templar in several The Saint films and as Mr Freeze in an episode of Batman (1966).
Other notable credits include Foreign Correspondent (1940), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Village of the Damned (1960) and A Shot in the Dark (1964).
