As the cinetrix sat through her nth screening of All About Eve yesterday, a tiny but telling element leapt out of the mise-en-scene. A harp. Or, more accurately, its case, stenciled with the legend "HANDLE with CARE" and a miniature of the massive instrument presumed to be inside. See for yourself.
When Karen first ushers Eve backstage to meet her idol, Margo, the harp case hovers benevolently in the background. [Sound familiar?] In hindsight, it suggests Karen's fragility to come, but at this point the well-meaning playwright's wife in her naivete probably thought ironclad Eve was the fragile one.
Its second appearance occurs in the Margo-narrated section, just after Bertie has acidly observed that Eve shouldn't cross the touchier-than-a-tenor wardrobe mistress. Margo rushes from her dressing room and catches Eve taking bows, holding Margo's costume across the front of her body. The reverse reaction shots show Margo smiling indulgently. For now.
The gloves come off and the harp comes out of its case after Eve reads with the hapless Miss Caswell--a performance Lloyd Richards hails as being filled with "music and fire," Addison DeWitt informs the late-arriving Margo. Eve has emerged from her protective shell and made her bid for center stage, a development reinforced visually by the harp's placement. Note how it becomes the axis of action as Lloyd and Margo argue.
The harp--echoing the spectre of Eve--lurks behind the Code-dodging lovers' bed Margo shares with Bill.
Bill leaves her, and the harp, in disgust after Margo admits to her sexual insecurity and jealousy of the younger actress.
Margo with her rival waiting in the wings.
Margo may be onto something. The harp, and Eve, aren't quite done with Bill. After the understudy steps into Margo's role on stage, she makes a play to take it off stage as well, rolling up on an unreceptive Bill as Addison--and that damn harp case--eavesdrop outside the dressing room door.
Score it as an incomplete forward pass.
The harp and its case disappear from the mise-en-scene after that, perhaps because Addison, determined to play Eve for all she's worth, is the one character who knows the packaging labeled "Handle with Care" is nothing more than a bit of artful misdirection.
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Aged in wood
Paging Harpo Marx.
As the cinetrix sat through her nth screening of All About Eve yesterday, a tiny but telling element leapt out of the mise-en-scene. A harp. Or, more accurately, its case, stenciled with the legend "HANDLE with CARE" and a miniature of the massive instrument presumed to be inside. See for yourself.
When Karen first ushers Eve backstage to meet her idol, Margo, the harp case hovers benevolently in the background. [Sound familiar?] In hindsight, it suggests Karen's fragility to come, but at this point the well-meaning playwright's wife in her naivete probably thought ironclad Eve was the fragile one.
Its second appearance occurs in the Margo-narrated section, just after Bertie has acidly observed that Eve shouldn't cross the touchier-than-a-tenor wardrobe mistress. Margo rushes from her dressing room and catches Eve taking bows, holding Margo's costume across the front of her body. The reverse reaction shots show Margo smiling indulgently. For now.
The gloves come off and the harp comes out of its case after Eve reads with the hapless Miss Caswell--a performance Lloyd Richards hails as being filled with "music and fire," Addison DeWitt informs the late-arriving Margo. Eve has emerged from her protective shell and made her bid for center stage, a development reinforced visually by the harp's placement. Note how it becomes the axis of action as Lloyd and Margo argue.
The harp--echoing the spectre of Eve--lurks behind the Code-dodging lovers' bed Margo shares with Bill.
Bill leaves her, and the harp, in disgust after Margo admits to her sexual insecurity and jealousy of the younger actress.
Margo with her rival waiting in the wings.
Margo may be onto something. The harp, and Eve, aren't quite done with Bill. After the understudy steps into Margo's role on stage, she makes a play to take it off stage as well, rolling up on an unreceptive Bill as Addison--and that damn harp case--eavesdrop outside the dressing room door.
Score it as an incomplete forward pass.
The harp and its case disappear from the mise-en-scene after that, perhaps because Addison, determined to play Eve for all she's worth, is the one character who knows the packaging labeled "Handle with Care" is nothing more than a bit of artful misdirection.
