All About Eve a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has been selected by the American Film Institute for many of their 100 Years lists. When AFI named Bette Davis #2 on its list of the greatest female American screen legends, "All About Eve" was the film selected to highlight Davis' legendary career. The Writers Guild of America has ranked the film's screenplay as the fifth greatest ever written. The film opens with the image of a fictitious award trophy, described by DeWitt as the "highest honor our theater knows: the Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement." The statuette is modelled after
All About Eve Wisdom of Eve" (1946). In the story, Orr gives the girl a more ruthless character and allows her to succeed in stealing the older actress' career. Bergner later confirmed the basis of the story in her autobiography "Bewundert viel, und viel gescholten" ("Greatly Admired and Greatly Scolded"). In 1949, Mankiewicz was considering a story about an aging actress and, upon reading "The Wisdom of Eve," felt the conniving girl would be a useful added element. He sent a memo to Darryl F. Zanuck saying it "fits in with an original idea [of mine] and can be combined. Superb starring role