All About Eve (1950)

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, Walter Hampden, Thelma Ritter, and Marilyn Monroe

This is a great movie, and a classic, but I will venture it did not deserve its award. It should have gone to Sunset Boulevard, the best film from Billy Wilder, one of the best directors of all time. That being said, All About Eve is a delightful film in its own right. Anne Baxter is terrifying as the young actress that will smile in your face as she stabs you in the back, overshadowing Bette Davis, who is excellent as well. George Sanders is at his slimy best as a snakelike newspaperman. I've read speculation that the Academy picked this over Sunset Boulevard because they were more eager to honor a movie that exposed the dark side of the theatre business than one that exposed the dark side of their own business. Luckily for them, snubbing one great film gave them the chance to honor another.

Other nominees: Born Yesterday (George Cukor), Father of the Bride (Vincente Minnelli), King Solomon's Mines (Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton), and Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)