MovieChat Forums > All About Eve (1950) Discussion > What is meant by the biting of the bread...

What is meant by the biting of the breadsticks?


What's the "message" to Addison and why does Bill repeat it in order for her to leave him out of "it?" Anyone know?

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They're not breadsticks; they're scallions. Addison has just raised a glass to them, so Margo raises an onion to him. What Bill says is, "Very effective, but why take it out on me?" He then proceeds to bite one so they'll both have onion breath.


Poe! You are...avenged!

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Ah, i see. Thanks for responding!

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I thought it was celery.

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I thought it was celery.
You wouldn't once you bit into it.

From the All About Eve shooting script:

Margo responds to the toast by waving an onion with a grand flourish, then eating it.

BILL: "Very effective. But why take it out on me?"

He eats one in self-defense.



Poe! You are...avenged!

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My reply is a late, but I just saw the movie on TCM. The item was whitish (in black and white, not gray as scallions would be. Plus it was stiff not limp.
I just packed up my book about the movie or I'd have checked.

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she was carbo-loading.



"You have to live life to its full chorizo!"-Mario BataliπŸ„

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The scallion is sort of in place of a middle finger. She is basically saying "*beep* you" to Addison. The biting I'll leave to your imagination.

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Definite not a scallion - No scallion, no matter how fresh, would crunch as resoundingly as that. Not to mention its uneven shape. I have no doubt it's celery.

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If it was then the celery was just a "stand in" for the onion. Bill's line makes no sense if it was anything but an onion. Anyway, I've had huge, farm-fresh onions that big and they DO crunch like celery. Even in the script it says "onion".

"Who's running this airline?!"

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My guess is that she's referencing the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet, where a brawl starts because one character "bites his thumb" at another. The breadstick / celery stalk / leek / whatever is the stand-in for her thumb.

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I think it was Margo and Bill's way of saying "screw you!" to Addison. Back in 1951 people had a little more class regarding these types of situations. It's too bad one can't say the same today.

The dreams and beauty you find in a junkyard.

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I doubt that, because Margo is very vague about theatrical quotations. She can't remember one of Shakespeare's most famous.

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I never heard of it.

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This thread about biting into the celery sticks has gotten more replies than a lot of the "deeper" classic film threads I come across! πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

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