5/18/2023 0 Comments Art of illusion in theatreRichards) already knows All About Eve, although she feigns ignorance and withholds information until the end. In Mary Orr’s story, the omniscient narrator (Mrs. Richards, on her way to get a divorce in Reno. This narrative twist in the short story reveals the true identity of the narrator who is the former Mrs. Eve has not only become famous she is going to marry the playwright, Lloyd Richards. It is not until the end that the reader discovers Eve used Mrs. Richards takes over the narration again and discloses the fact that she is married to Lloyd Richards, the playwright who has contributed to making Margola Cranston famous. When Margola Cranston’s story ends, the main narrator, Mrs. Richards’ story is the framing narrative and encases Margola’s embedded story about Eve which gives additional inside information about how Eve Harrington became a star overnight. The story opens with the main, semi-anonymous narrator, Mrs. The narrative strategy adopted by Mary Orr also uses multiple narrators to tell the story of Eve’s rise to fame. In the filmic adaptation of the short story, secrets about the actress’s enigmatic character and life are divulged through the polyphonic voice of friends and enemies in a long flashback. In both the short story and the film, focalization is on the figure of an actress. Indeed, the short story functions like a miniature script, from which Mankiewicz extracts the fundamental gist of his film, which relates the rise and fall of an unknown woman to celebrity status in Hollywood. Act III: Her fall proves to be a trick perspective Eve, by an ultimate act of duplicity, rises to fame once again when Lloyd Richards succumbs to her charm, divorces his wife and marries Eve who becomes a Broadway star overnight.Ģ Both character and narrative voice in the film mirror the theme of deceit, which orchestrates the plot in the short story. Act II: A press release reveals Eve’s sordid past, her bogus identity and she is cast out of Broadway’s paradise. Richards’ best friend, Margola Cranston, a Broadway star, studies her on the sly, and finally supplants her rival by stealing her leading role. She goes on to capture the attention of Mrs. She insinuates herself into the good graces of the wife of Lloyd Richards, a celebrity playwright. The short story, “The Wisdom of Eve,” can be summed up in three acts Act I: Eve Harrington arrives on Broadway, unknown to the world of theatre, and wins over even the most hard-core New York playwrights and movie producers. As Stephanie Harrison has pointed out in Adaptations from Short Story to Big Screen: “He saw it as the backbone for the show-business film he wanted to write and direct”(280). This radio diffusion is what probably caught the attention of Fox Studios. Mankiewicz’s tenuous financial circumstances in 1949 brought him to produce a radio drama from the hypotext for NBC. Mankiewicz’s film, All About Eve 2, was taken directly from the short story, which appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine in May 1946. Eve is portrayed as the carbon copy of the famous actress Margola, who resembles the “childish figure of a Botticelli angel” (285). The story focuses on two actresses: Eve Harrington and Margola Cranston. Narrative voice corroborates this from the outset by evoking Eve’s “snaky activities in a once-peaceful garden” (284). All quotes from the film are taken fro (.)ġ The title of Mary Orr’s short story, “The Wisdom of Eve,” 1 calls to mind the biblical temptress. 2 All About Eve, written and directed by Joseph L.1 Reference to the short story in this article is to the 2005 edition Adaptations from Short Story to (.).
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