Here is another edition of the 'on set' photo series. This time it comes from the set of the 1950 picture All About Eve. I must say it, it is quite a photo...
In one photo, you get some of Hollywood greatest actors: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Marilyn Monroe, Celeste Holm, George Sanders, and Gery Merrill. I never noticed that Monroe is the only one not wearing a dark color. I wonder if that was done on purpose? Maybe to make her stand out in this very small early role?
Something I have always thought about is how different this film would have been without Bette Davis. She was not the first choice to play the role of Margot Channing. Greats such as Tallulah Bankhead, Susan Hayward, Marlene Dietrich were early considerations for the role. Claudette Colbert was actually cast in the role, but had to pull out after a back injury on another film. In my mind, All About Eve is actually 'all about Bette Davis'.
Oh lordy! I don't even want to *think* about AAE without Bette in it! Marlene would have been all wrong and while I can see Tallulah in the role but Susan Hayward would have made it a whole different sort of picture, and not for the better. In our (modern day) minds, Margot Channing is SO inextricably linked with Bette Davis that it's hard for us to conceive that the producer could have cast anyone but her!
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