Watch Ever Since Eve For Free

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

EVER SINCE EVE (Warner Brothers, 1937), directed by Lloyd Bacon, stars comedienne Marion Davies in what proved to be her final screen appearance. With her career dating back to the silent era of the 1920s, ranging from drama, historical costume epics and later occasional musicals during the sound era, many agree that Davies was at her best when it came to comedy, especially the available silent Hollywood story titled SHOW PEOPLE (MGM, 1928). Even in sentimental drama as PEG O'MY HEART (MGM, 1933), Davies could be quite appealing. Leaving her home base of MGM by 1934, she settled for Warner Brothers where she starred in four productions before EVER SINCE EVE made it her last before retirement. Whether this was intentional or not is uncertain, for that approaching the age of 40, it would be a matter of time before Davies might turn to  character parts or mother roles. Though EVER SINCE EVE is not a Biblical tale of Adam and Eve, it's only a movie title with a song number bearing that title, but no character in the story named Eve. It's a story about a pretty secretary named Marge posing as a homely girl so not to have her male bosses doing more than dictating on company time.Set in San Francisco, California, the story opens by the building of the Peace and Purity League where five pound boo volumes of "The History of Peace" are thrown out the window landing on the sidewalk to a crowd of pedestrians below. The camera soon captures Marge Winton (Marion Davies) quitting the firm after Mr. Mason (Harry Hayden) "was giving dictations but was a little too fast." Her next place of employment for Henderson, Barton and Lowell Imports finds her going through the same routine with the company presidents, Henderson (William B. Davidson), Barton (Pierre Watkin) and Mr. Lowell (John T. Murray), all wanting her to work overtime and in private. At the Johnson Employment Agency, Marge learns of a publishing company hiring only homely women to keep the male workers on their jobs and not on their pretty secretaries. Turning herself into an ugly ducking, Marge takes the position under the male figure of a woman president, Abbie Belldon (Louise Fazenda), who assigns Marge as stenographer under Freddy Matthews (Robert Montgomery), an author whose book is due for completion by May 1st. Matthews delay in meeting the deadline is caused his jealous girlfriend, Camille Lancing (Marcia Ralston), who takes up much of his time playing around. After Marge quits, he soon realizes she's the most efficient stenographer he ever had. Wanting her back in his employ, he comes to her place of residence where he meets the pretty Marge, posing as her roommate, Sadie Day (Patsy Kelly), which stirs up confusion with Sadie's plumbing boyfriend, Jake Edgall (Allen Jenkins). Afraid of losing her job, Marge becomes Sadie, followed by a relationship of love. In order to get his book finished or else face a $30,000 lawsuit, "Sadie" leaves Freddy and heads for Monterey. Unable to forget "Sadie," though ignoring his deadline, Freddy leaves for the Monterey Tavern to find Marge, who stirs up further confusion trying to be two people at the same time without arousing suspicion.Among those in the cast featured are: Barton MacLane (Al McCoy, Jake's boss); Frank McHugh (Mike McGillicuddy, employee under Miss Bellkon using the name of "Mabel DeFlaven); Frederick Clark (Alonzo, Freddy's Butler); Charley Foy (The Bellboy);  and Mary Treen (The Employment Clerk), among other. Brief song interludes include: "Shine On, Harvest Moon," "The Wreaths of Flowers," "Ever Since Eve" (by Jack Schroll and M.K. Jerome); and Spanish dance performed by uncredited couple. The pleasing title song is also underscored during title credits and story Overlooking the fact that there was an earlier film bearing the EVER SINCE EVE title for Fox Films (1934) starring George O'Brien and Mary Brian, the one thing about this EVER SINCE EVE should have been was being an exceptional comedy, but somehow became a misfire upon release. Though the casting and comedy lines are well cast and constructed, when released at the time here screwball comedies were on the rage, EVER SINCE EVE didn't seem to warm up to either movie going public or critics possibly because of Davies' unattractive presence of either looking like a comic strip character, or a pale comparison to silent screen actress Colleen Moore in horn-rim glasses and long bangs. Comedienne like Lucille Ball in later years could and would get away with becoming unglamorous types such on television, as this and accepted and adored with laughter by her viewers. It's a wonder how the public might have accepted other leading ladies as Jean Arthur, Carole Lombard or Jean Harlow in the same situation? The plot is formula material, which is no surprise here. Robert Montgomery (on loan from MGM) is quite acceptable as the author with who'd rather have his eyes on attractive women than finishing his novel; while Patsy Kelly, as usual, adds amusement getting a quota of laughs with her one-liners. Barton MacLane, usually a serious actor, is briefly shown as one to date Marge, only to run the opposite direction after seeing her new image.Never distributed to home video, EVER SINCE EVE does deserve a look, especially for it being Marion Davies' farewell performance, whenever it turns up on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (**)

The cinematic swan song of Marion Davies is mostly run of the mill but contains some sparkling supporting performances and some funny gender- based situations. For one thing, the film makes the visual point, perhaps even stale for 1937, that female unattractiveness is connected to straight or severely styled hair, round-rimmed eyeglasses, lack of lipstick and bulky clothing – the look Davies adopts to get hired by Louise Fazenda's publishing house which prefers homely employees. Robert Montgomery, as the irresponsible fiction writer to whom Davies is assigned, has a washed-out quality here, as if he had grown weary of playing wealthy party boys. Davies, though too old and too laid back, is inoffensive. The oomph comes from the physically and vocally robust Fazenda and three other players: Frederic Clark as Montgomery's impeccably civil butler; Marcia Ralston (strikingly similar to Joan Crawford and Merle Oberon in looks) as Montgomery's fiery tempered girlfriend; finally, Patsy Kelly as Davies's roommate has a way with a good-natured wisecrack.

Ever Since Eve (1937) ** (out of 4) This politically incorrect but mildly entertaining film turned out to be Marion Davies final movie as she would retire at the age of forty. Warner threw her an excellent supporting cast and a nice director but none of it would really matter in the end as the film really fails to live up to what it should have been. Davies plays a beautiful secretary who is getting tired of her bosses hitting on her so she makes herself "homely" in order to get a real job without being harassed. Her latest boss (Robert Montgomery) has a deadline on a novel he must finish so the ugly Davies has to keep him working, although the beautiful one is falling for him. While watching the film I couldn't help but think of TOOTSIE but this one here is certainly far from a classic. The movie remains entertaining from start to finish but for a comedy there are very few laughs to be had here, which is a shame because there's a great cast here. Not only do we have Davies and Montgomery but we have Warner contract players like Frank McHugh, Patsy Kelly and Allen Jenkins. The three supporting players end up getting more laughs than the two leads with Jenkins stealing the film playing the usual dumb character we've all come to love. Davies is a tad bit too old for her role even though she's still very easy on the eyes. You do have to give her credit because there have been all kinds of famous people to do the ugly duckling roles but not really turn themselves very unattractive. Davies at least goes all out and transforms herself to the point where you can't recognize her. Some might be unhappy that Davies spends most of the film as the ugly character but I think she deserves credit for it. Bacon's direction never really comes alive as the movie never contains enough energy or laughs to keep moving. Fans of the cast will certainly want to check this out but others should stay clear.

This is a film where you must completely turn off your brain in able to enjoy it. Apparently members of the Marion Davies cult must have no problem turning off their brains, as 52.2% of the people who have rated this film gave it a 10. This, for a film that is a tad silly and was never meant as "high art"--even by Miss Davies. Plus, it turned out to be such as disaster at the box office (following several other recent disasters) that she called her career quits following this film.It's a shame really, as she is neither as bad an actress as some have claimed over the years (though she did some bad films--particularly in the 1930s) nor was she the greatest or among the greatest stars of her era either. The truth lies somewhere in between. With lovely films like SHOW PEOPLE and THE PATSY, she demonstrated that she could do well with good material. But, with films like CAIN AND MABEL and OPERATOR 13, she could also be sunk by junk scripts.Here with EVER SINCE EVE, she is given an adequate script but just wasn't the right person for the role. Marion might have done better with a script that accepted that she was no longer the young star she had once been. Having a 40 year-old woman play a woman who men chase after like the wolf from a Tex Avery cartoon is pretty silly. Miss Davies didn't look that bad for 40, but she clearly was not the beautiful starlet she was in the 1920s--she'd put on a few pounds (as we all tend to do) and just looked every bit her age. Yet, every man that met her in the film instantly began sexually harassing her at every turn--she was supposed to be that hot and desirable.As a result of constant sexual harassment, in the film Marion comes up with a perfect remedy for all these unwanted advances. She would put on old fashioned glasses and dress like a sex-less old lady. And, instantly, all the unwanted suitors left her alone! This is pretty silly, as Marion STILL looked like Marion--even with the glasses and ugly business suit. It reminded me of the Wonder Woman TV show. With her glasses on and hair up, no one thought Lynda Carter was beautiful. Then, without the getup, everyone would drool uncontrollably at her! Heck, even wearing concrete or a box, Ms. Carter was majorly smokin'! Miss Davies, while not quite as amazing, still was ridiculous under all that getup--it just wasn't convincing. Nor, unfortunately was the romance that developed later in the film with Robert Montgomery.As for Patsy Kelly, she was one of the loudest and most obnoxious actresses of the 1930s. Here, she is up to her usual standards of acting. It's a shame she's in the film, as Marion was handicapped by having this lady as her supporting actress. Allen Jenkins, often pretty good in films, wasn't particularly helpful here, either.So, overall, it's a silly piece of fluff and I am probably being very generous in giving it a 5. However, despite a silly plot, it is watchable and fun here and there.By the way, I have noticed that other reviewers who did not adore this film were flooded with "not helpfuls". Too bad, as some of these reviews are very good and well thought-out--like mystn's.