大象传媒

Fasten your seat belts folks!
With 90 years of the Academy Awards to choose from, Paul Gambaccini is back with a swashbuckling, all singing, all dancing, behind the scenes new series of AND THE ACADEMY AWARD GOES TO... digging up the stories behind the greatest Best Picture Oscar winners - reflecting the world in which they were made.

With "La La Land" a hot favourite at this year's awards, with 14 nominations, Gambaccini takes as his first subject a similarly feted film from 1950.

"All About Eve" was Bette Davis's come back picture, as she took on the role of Margo Channing, a Broadway star on the wrong side of 40. Davis had been Hollywood divinity, but the previous year she had won Worst Actress of the Year from the San Francisco Critics Circle.

Even back then navel gazing was a favourite Hollywood obsession, and the Academy had to weigh up the merits of two films about show business - "All About Eve" and "Sunset Boulevard".

With 14 nominations and 6 wins, "All About Eve" carried the day - but the night was a keen disappointment for Davis, who was hoping for a third Oscar, as her co-star, Anne Baxter, would cancel out her chances of winning Best Actress.

Michael Merrill, Davis's son, recalls her bitter disappointment, but it's still his favourite film - "Because it was how my mother and father met each other".
Gary Merrill, Davis's on screen love interest, would become her 3rd husband.

Paul also hears from Cheryl Bray Lower - biographer of director Joseph L Mankiewicz, Ed Sikov - author of "Dark Victory - The Life Of Bette Davies", film writer David Thomson, critic Larushka Ivan Zadeh, and Professor Toby Miller.

Is it all about Eve, or all about Bette Davies?

Producer: Sara Jane Hall.

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