All About Eve while "Harrison's Reports" called it "a fascinating, continually absorbing story about Broadway theatrical people, given a mature treatment and penetrated with realistic dialogue and flashes of slick, sardonic humor." John McCarten of "The New Yorker" called it "a thoroughly entertaining movie." Writing in 2000, film critic Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" praised the film, saying Bette Davis' character "veteran actress Margo Channing in "All About Eve" was her greatest role." Boxoffice.com stated that it "is a classic of the American cinema – to this day the quintessential depiction of ruthless ambition in the entertainment industry, with legendary performances
Bette Davis film as "an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career". Hedda Hopper wrote: "If Bette had deliberately set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle." The film contained the line, "What a dump!", which became closely associated with Davis after it was referenced in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", and impersonators began to use it in their acts. Davis filmed "The Story of a Divorce" (released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1951 as "Payment on Demand"). Shortly before filming was completed, producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the role of the aging