All About Eve (U)

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, young Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great veteran actress Margo Channing. Eve manoeuvres her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation, and sets about causing turmoil in Margo’s personal life – all under the watchful eye of cynical theatre critic Addison DeWitt.

While her role as aspiring actress Claudia Caswell is a small one, All About Eve was a key early milestone in Marilyn Monroe’s career. The classic Monroe character is already taking shape here: Miss Caswell is blonde, beautiful, seemingly naïve and not-so-bright. She is the perfect, frivolous foil to the serious actorly pretensions of Eve and Margo, and an easy target for the acid barbs of Addison DeWitt.

Monroe would have the last laugh, though. She plays dumb just as smart as anyone, and steals her few scenes from vaunted co-stars like Bette Davis and George Sanders. The aspiring actress would go on to bigger and better things.