Applause (TV 1973)

An aspiring actress, whose sugar-coated appearance belies her ruthless drive, worms herself into the life of an aging star and schemes to replace her on the stage as the star of a new play.

Directors:

Ron Field, Bill Foster

Writers:

Betty Comden, Adolph Green,

Stars:

Lauren Bacall, Larry Hagman, Penny Fuller

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys.

Cast

Cast overview:
Lauren Bacall	...	Margo Channing
Larry Hagman	...	Bill Sampson
Penny Fuller	...	Eve Harrington
Sarah Marshall	...	Karen Richards
Robert Mandan	...	Howard Benedict
Harvey Evans	...	Duane
Rod McLennan	...	Buzz Richards
Debbie Bowen	...	Debbie
Bob Sherman	...	Bert (as Rob Sherman)
David Knight	...	Peter
James Berwick	...	Stan

Storyline

An aspiring actress, whose sugar-coated appearance belies her ruthless drive, worms herself into the life of an aging star and schemes to replace her on the stage as the star of a new play.

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Plot Keywords:

aspiring actress | based on film | treachery | based on stage musical | remake | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 March 1973 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A television version of the 1970s Broadway musical with the London cast.

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Connections

Version of All About Eve (1950)

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Soundtracks

"One Hallowe'en"
Music by Charles Strouse
Lyrics by Lee Adams
Sung by Penny Fuller

User Reviews

It's not perfect, but it's a lot of fun!

I wanted to see this movie for years and finally found a copy this year. Well, the actual production left something to be desired. The sets seemed cramped, and the whole thing has kind of a thrown-together feeling to it, but that's easy enough to overlook. The musical was obviously a lot of fun to make and all of the actors seem to really be enjoying themselves.

Lauren Bacall shows her usual dramatic star-power, but (Tony Award or no Tony Award) the woman really can't sing. Fortunately, for her part at least, it really doesn't matter. She's a strong enough actress that she can put emotion behind the lyrics and it doesn't really matter if it matches the melody or not. Larry Hagman plays Bill - but he seems almost wasted, having very little to do until the end. Penny Fuller was a fairly good Eve, but she was definitely no Anne Baxter. Still, I doubt Anne Baxter could have sung as well as Fuller did. Her last number was very impressive.

The real surprise to me was English actress Debbie Bowen completely stopping the show with the title song "Applause." She nailed it. I never even knew she could sing, and she nearly steals the entire show with just that one number. Very impressive talent, too bad she seems to have disappeared from the entertainment world. She was the one to watch in this movie.

The rest of the supporting cast is mostly forgettable. The plot line is pretty faithful to "All About Eve" although the script does seem to nicey it up a little too much. Why did they get rid of one of the best characters in the movie - Addison DeWitt? George Sanders won the Oscar for that role, it was probably the most intelligent character in the whole story. For a long time the audience is kept sympathizing with Eve and hating Margo, which is not the way the story is supposed to go at all. The end is rather abrupt and doesn't really come across as satisfying. But the music alone is a great, great asset to this. It's worth watching if you can find it.