I don't want to cause trouble; I just want another drink

All About Eve

(1950)

Had to watch this because Terrence Rafferty told me this morning that Bette Davis's 100th birthday was coming up--next Saturday, so you still have time to get a card. It's a strange flick, too long, overwritten and overacted, simultaneously too big and too claustrophobic, which is another way of saying far too stagy, and yet . . .

Gained a new appreciation this time around for Marilyn Monroe's tiny role. She has about six lines, but she delivers each of them perfectly. More to the point, in the middle of about twenty bit roles before getting star billing, here she is given an opportunity to play off of the image of the sexpot with no talent and only as much ambition as others urge her to have. Would have been nice to see her get more shots at irony.