This most famous of Joseph Mankiewicz's films fully exploits its considerable star power-Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Thelma Ritter, Celeste Holm, and Marilyn Monroe (in a memorable bit part) give it all they've got, and duke it out for most quotable zinger. The cautionary tale for aging actresses-beware of self-effacing ingénues with their awful designs on your career and man-is structured via flashbacks and multiple voice-overs, giving us a Rashomon-like prism-view of the enigmatic Eve. Though the delightfully sardonic, authorial Addison DeWitt (Sanders) plays voice-emcee here, there are layers of the story that he admits he can't access-and which are supplied by Margo (Davis) and Karen (Holm), who speak to a deeper, more troubling consciousness of what Eve represents. “Fasten your seat belts” for this hugely fun Hollywood-on-Hollywood send-up, a “woman's film” paean to feminine power, and a deft sketch of the pleasures and pitfalls of master-slave relations.