One of the finest examples of cocktails enhancing a film is writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 masterpiece All About Eve. The story of a Broadway legend, the people in her orbit, and the ruthless newcomer she takes under her wing, it stands out as one of the finest films ever made about the Broadway theater. A crackling script lets the larger than life Bette Davis rip and tear into everyone and everything around her, aided almost always by a steady stream of Martinis and Champagne. Whether it’s at a birthday party at her penthouse, or dinner at the exclusive Cub Room inside the Stork Club, cocktails are an essential prop for Miss Davis’ character Margo Channing – much like a cigar was an essential prop for George Burns.

Here is a small segment from one of the best sequences (in a film full of best sequences!): the party for Margo’s boyfriend Bill that Eve has planned behind Margo’s back. It takes place in Margo’s palatial penthouse, and throughout the lengthy sequence Margo is rarely seen without a glass in her hand. She downs a Martini as punctuation to just about every line!