Sarah Siddons painting. The film opens with a close-up of the statuette, and ends with a character holding it. Actress Bette Davis, who played Margo Channing in the film, posed as Siddons in a 1957 re-creation of the Reynolds portrait staged as part of the Pageant of the Masters. In April 2010, BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour Drama" presented "Sarah Siddons: Life in Five Sittings", a radio drama by David Pownall about the long relationship between Siddons and artist Thomas Lawrence, in five 15-minute parts. When the film "All About Eve" was released in 1950, the "Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement"
Bette Davis film was described by Bosley Crowther as "interminable", and he noted that "of all the miserable dilemmas in which Miss Davis has been involved ... this one is probably the worst". It failed at the box office, and the studio lost nearly $1 million. While making "June Bride" (1948), Davis clashed with co-star Robert Montgomery, later describing him as "a male Miriam Hopkins... an excellent actor, but addicted to scene-stealing". The film marked her first comedy in several years, and earned her some positive reviews, but it was not particularly popular with audiences, and returned only a small profit. Despite