Mankiewicz's classic tale of female rivalry in the late 1940s New York theater world offers as much insight into gender games and role-playing today as it did then. In trademark Mankiewicz flashbacks, three characters narrate the swift rise of Eve Harrington from stagestruck unknown to adulated star, and how she mercilessly exploits the good intentions of those who allow her entrée into this world. Bette Davis's Margo Channing is a star plagued by insecurities over approaching middle age in a profession that privileges youth and in a relationship with a younger man who is her director. Eve, played by Anne Baxter, is her antithesis: behind her naive surface is an innate understanding of female insecurity and how to manipulate it for her own ends. The theater becomes a disturbing metaphor for the comedies that surround male-female relationships (Margo and her lover/director break up on stage) and for society's expectations of women.-Lisanne Skyler