86. One of the things I'm enjoying about this countdown is that I don't always remember who I put on the list-I have the list, and only check it once a day, to find out whose performance we will be viewing that day will be. I had completely forgotten about this fine actress, number 86, and one of the most unsung performances in a film brimming with some fantastic thespians.
The great thing about Celeste Holm in All About Eve is that she doesn't, in fact grate. Struggling for screen charisma opposite the likes of Anne Baxter's witchy Eve Harrington, George Sanders' irrepressible diva, and, well, Bette Davis (did Davis ever let someone else take one of her scenes?), Holm could have gone the easy route of making Karen Richards a whiny, loud-mouth scene stealer.
Instead, Mankiewicz has a better idea for Holm. While everyone else is traipsing around with abomination, Holm becomes the meddler with her conscience conflicting with her better judgment. When she betrays Margo, she feels bad, but she doesn't have the foolishness to tell the grand Bette Davis. Holm lets her eyes and overly calm demeanor represent her. You know she's more than what she seems, but you can't tell quite what Karen Richards is capable of. It's that threat of what could come, what lies behind the "lowest kind of celebrity" that brings about the finest form of acting: the kind that doesn't need temper tantrums and threats to appear intimidating.
I haven't seen hardly any of Celeste Holm's movies, so instead I'm going to represent that you accompany Holm's theater wife with Jane Darwell's powerful matriarch in The Grapes of Wrath and Virginia Madsen's sweet-tempered waitress in Sideways. All are down-to-earth, really special performances in grand cinema.
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