standing room and ambition

{Scenes from "All About Eve"}

THE VOICE OF ADDISON DE WITT:

Eve.  Eve, the golden girl.  The cover girl, the girl next door, the girl on the moon...Time has been good to Eve, Life goes where she goes - she's been profiled, covered, revealed, reported, what she eats and when and where, whom she knows and where she was and when and where she's going...

ADDISON has stopped applauding, he's sitting forward, staring intently at Eve...his narration continues unbroken.

ADDISON'S VOICE:

...Eve.  You all know all about Eve...what can there be to know that you don't know...?

As he leans back, the APPLAUSE FADES IN as tumultuous as before.  Addison's look moves slowly from Eve to Karen.

KAREN -- leans forward now, her eyes intently on Eve.  Her lovely face FILLS THE SCREEN as the APPLAUSE FADES ONCE MORE - as she thinks back:

KAREN'S VOICE:

When was it?  How long?  It seems a lifetime ago.  Lloyd always said that in the Theater a lifetime was a season, and a season a lifetime.  It's June now.  That was - early October...only last October.  It was a drizzly night, I remember I asked the taxi to wait...

...

EXT.  ALLEY - CURRAN THEATER - NIGHT

Karen moves toward the stage door.  She passes a recess in the wall - perhaps an exit - about halfway.

EVE'S VOICE (softly):
Mrs. Richards...

Karen hesitates, looks.  Eve is barely distinguishable in the shadow of the recess.  Karen smiles, waits.  Eve comes out....Her large, luminous eyes seem to glow up at Karen in the strange half-light.

KAREN:
So there you are.  It seemed odd, suddenly, your not being there...

EVE (very intense, and sincere):
Why should you think I wouldn't be?

KAREN:
Why should you be?  After all, six nights a week - for weeks - of watching even Margo Channing enter and leave a theater --

EVE:  I hope you don't mind my speaking to you...

KAREN:
Not at all.

EVE:
I've seen you so often - it took every bit of courage I could raise --

KAREN (smiles):
To speak to just a playwright's wife?  I'm the lowest form of celebrity...

EVE:
You're Margo Channing's best friend.  You and your husband are always with her - and Mr. Sampson...what's he like?

KAREN:
Bill Sampson?  He's - he's a director.

EVE:
He's the best.

KAREN:
He'll agree with you.  Tell me, what do you do between the time Margo goes in and comes out?  Just huddle in that doorway and wait?

EVE:
Oh, no.  I see the play.

KAREN (incredulous):
You see the play?  You've seen the play, every performance?
(Eve nods)
...But, don't you find it - I mean apart from everything else - don't you find it expensive?

EVE:
Standing room doesn't cost much.  I manage.

Karen contemplates Eve.  Then she takes her arm.

KAREN: 
I'm going to take you to Margo...

EVE (hanging back):
Oh, no...

KAREN:
She's got to meet you --

EVE:
No, I'd be imposing on her, I'd be just another tongue-tied gushing fan...

KAREN (insisting):
There isn't another like you, there couldn't be --...by the way, what's your name?

EVE:
Eve.  Eve Harrington.

--------------------------
MARGO'S VOICE:
That same night we sent for Eve's things, her few pitiful possessions...she moved into the little guest room on the top floor...

...
MARGO'S VOICE:
The next three weeks were out of a fairy tale - and I was Cinderella in the last act.  Eve became my sister, lawyer, mother, friend, psychiatrist and cop - the honeymoon was on...

INT.  MARGO'S LIVING ROOM -- DAY

It's one floor above street level.  A long narrow room, smartly furnished.

Eve sits at a desk, arranging a stack of letters which she carries to Margo, with a pen.  Margo sits comfortably by the fire with a play script. 

Birdie comes in with a tea tray which she sets on a low table before the fire.

The phone rings.

Birdie and Eve both go for it.  Eve gets there first.

---------------------------------
INT.  MARGO'S BEDROOM -- DAY

Margo is propped up in bed, still reflective.  Birdie comes in with her breakfast tray and a "hi" which gets a "hi" from Margo.  Birdie begins straightening things; Margo takes a sip of orange juice.

MARGO:
Birdie --

BIRDIE:
Hmm?

MARGO:
You don't like Eve, do you?

BIRDIE:
Do you want an argument or an answer?

MARGO:
An answer.

-- No.
-- Why not?
-- Now you want an argument.

-- She works hard.
-- Night an' day.
-- She's loyal and efficient --
--Like an agent with only one client.

MARGO:
She thinks only of me...
(no answer from Birdie)
...doesn't she?

BIRDIE (after a pause):
Well -- let's say she thinks only about you, anyway...

MARGO:
How do you mean that?

Birdie stops working and looks at Margo.
BIRDIE:
I'll tell you how.  Like -- let's see, like she was studyin' you, like you were a play or a book or a set of blueprints.  How you walk, talk, think, eat, sleep --

MARGO (breaks in, sharply):
I'm sure that's very flattering, Birdie, and I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it!

There is a sharp, brisk knock.  Eve comes in.

EVE:
Good morning!

Margo says "good morning"; Birdie says nothing.

------------------------
Excerpts from the Script for "All About Eve" -- written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.  1950.  Re-released, 1967.

-30-