Predatory Lesbians and Killer Queens: What's Gay About All About Eve
As Pride Month 2026 winds down, I am considering one of classic cinema’s masterpieces through a gay lens. Since I first saw it in the late '80s, the 1950 black-and-white show-business saga All About Eve has been one of my favorite films. It took me until recently to realize that it is full of gay references and subtext. All About Eve is shot through with melodrama, biting wit, over-the-top performances, and sly, Sapphic winks and gay intimations from the Hays Code era. All of this may not exactly evoke Pride, but it serves as a historical window. Anne Baxter as Eve Take the cunning character of Eve, who first appears in a drab trench coat and bucket hat outside the stage door, where diva Margo Channing is performing on Broadway. Eve’s hair is a practical, butch cut. Her attire, her cold, calculating, homewrecking behavior, and, at the end of the film, her ensnaring of another young actress who will apparently take over where Eve left off in exchange for favors all s...
