Joseph Mankiewicz

Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. A four-time Academy Award winner, he is best known for his witty and literate dialogue and his preference for voice-over narration and narrative flashbacks. Also known as an actor's director, Mankiewicz directed several prominent actors, including Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Elizabeth Taylor, to several of their memorable onscreen performances.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Mankiewicz studied at Columbia University and graduated in 1928. He moved overseas to Europe, where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the ''Chicago Tribune'' and translated German intertitles into English for UFA. On the advice of his screenwriter brother Herman, Mankiewicz moved back to the United States, and was hired by Paramount Pictures as a dialogue writer. He then became a screenwriter, writing for numerous films starring Jack Oakie. He next moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) where he served as a producer for several films, including '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1940) and ''Woman of the Year'' (1942). Mankiewicz left MGM after a dispute with Louis B. Mayer.

In 1944, Mankiewicz began working for Twentieth Century-Fox, where he produced ''The Keys of the Kingdom'' (1944). He made his directorial debut with '' Dragonwyck'' (1946) after Ernst Lubitsch had dropped out due to illness. Mankiewicz remained at Twentieth Century-Fox, directing a broad range of genre films. Consecutively, in 1950 and 1951, he won two Academy Awards each for writing and directing ''A Letter to Three Wives'' (1949) and ''All About Eve'' (1950). In 1953, Mankiewicz formed his own production company Figaro, where he independently produced, as well as wrote and directed, '' The Barefoot Contessa'' (1954) and ''The Quiet American'' (1958).

In 1961, Mankiewicz took over direction from Rouben Mamoulian for ''Cleopatra'' (1963). The production was beset with numerous difficulties, including a heavily publicized extramarital affair between the film's stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Relatively late into the production, Darryl F. Zanuck reassumed control of Twentieth Century-Fox as studio president and briefly fired Mankiewicz for the film's excessive production overruns. Released in 1963, ''Cleopatra'' became the year's highest-grossing film and earned mixed reviews from film critics. Mankiewicz's reputation suffered, and he did not return to direct another film until '' The Honey Pot'' (1967).

Mankiewicz then directed '' There Was a Crooked Man...'' (1970) and the documentary '' King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis'' (1972), sharing credit with Sidney Lumet on the latter film. His final film '' Sleuth'' (1972), starring Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier, earned Mankiewicz his fourth and final Oscar nomination as Best Director. In 1993, Mankiewicz died at Bedford, New York, at the age of 83.

Early life and education

Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Franz Mankiewicz (died 1941) and Johanna Blumenau, Jewish emigrants from Germany and Courland, respectively. His siblings were Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953) and Erna Stenbuck (née Mankiewicz, 1901–1979). At age four, Joseph moved with his family to New York City, and graduated in 1924 from Stuyvesant High School. He followed his brother Herman to Columbia University, where he initially wanted to be a psychiatrist. Mankiewicz once stated, "I took a pre-med course at Columbia. Then came the part where you disembowel frogs and earthworms, which horrified and nauseated me. But we really got me was physics." Mankiewicz failed the course, and switched his major to English and wrote for the ''Columbia Daily Spectator''. He graduated in 1928 and moved to Germany. There, he intended to enroll in the University of Berlin and finish at Oxford for a potential career in pedagogy.

However, Mankiewicz abandoned these plans, and was hired as an assistant correspondent for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Sigrid Schultz, the Berlin bureau chief for the ''Tribune'', gave Mankiewicz his first assignment, which was to interview explorer Umberto Nobile. Mankiewicz earned another job, translating film intertitles from German to English for UFA, and worked a third job as a stringer for the '' Variety'' trade magazine. He relocated to Paris, which Mankiewicz described as the "three most miserable months of my life." After receiving a despondent letter from his brother, Herman encouraged Joseph to move to Hollywood.

Career

1929–1933: Paramount

In 1929, Joseph was hired by Paramount Pictures, becoming the studio's youngest hired staff writer at the age of 20. Within eight weeks, Joseph wrote titles for 1929's ''The Dummy'' (with his brother Herman), '' The Man I Love'', and ''Thunderbolt''. David O. Selznick, then an assistant to Paramount general manager B. P. Schulberg, proposed that Joseph write the dialogue to ''Fast Company'' (1929), an adaptation of the 1928 play ''Elmer The Great'' by George M. Cohan and Ring Lardner. Mankiewicz's name later appeared in the '' Los Angeles Record''s 1929 list of the ten best dialogue writers. The recognition earned Mankiewicz the assignment of writing several films, which starred Jack Oakie.

At age 22, Joseph was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for '' Skippy'' (1931), which starred Jackie Cooper. Based on the nomination, Herman petitioned to Schulberg to give Joseph a pay raise. Schulberg declined, and Herman threatened to resign. Eventually, Schulberg relinquished and signed Joseph to a seven-year contract, which earned him a weekly salary of "somewhere between $75 to $100". He co-wrote the screenplay of '' Sooky'' (1931), a sequel to ''Skippy''. Meanwhile, Joseph dated actress Frances Dee, who co-starred in '' June Moon'' (1931) and '' This Reckless Age'' (1932), which he had co-scripted.

Joseph wrote four films with Paramount Pictures in 1932, which included writing segments for ''If I Had a Million'' (1932). The segments included "Rollo and the Roadhogs" which featured W. C. Fields and Alison Skipworth as two retired vaudevillians, and "The Three Marines" with Jack Oakie and Gary Cooper. He also contributed to other segments, including "The China Stop" with Charlie Ruggles as a bookkeeper in a china stop and "The Forger" with George Raft as a run-away criminal who is unable to cash his check. After six months of courtship, Joseph became engaged to Frances Dee but one week before their marriage, Dee eloped with Joel McCrea, whom she co-starred with on '' The Silver Cord'' (1933). Feeling devastated, Joseph ran a fever and was hospitalized for a "partial nervous breakdown."

Joseph wrote an original story treatment titled ''In the Red'', which satirized the League of Nations. Paramount studio executives accused him of plagiarizing the next Marx Brothers film '' Duck Soup'' (1933), in which Herman was the film's producer. Joseph contested the charge and resigned from Paramount in December 1932. He then moved to RKO Pictures, where Sam Jaffe hired Joe and Henry Myers to complete the script, which was retitled '' Diplomaniacs'' (1933). Jaffe later hired Joseph to script ''Emergency Call'' (1933). He returned to Paramount for ''Too Much Harmony'' (1933) with Jack Oakie and Bing Crosby. Selznick selected Joseph to do uncredited rewrites for MGM's '' Meet the Baron'' (1933), which Herman had written the screenplay for.

Joseph's last Paramount film was ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1933), in which he co-authored the screenplay with William Cameron Menzies. An adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel and ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' (1871) combined into a singular film, ''Alice in Wonderland'' featured an ensemble cast of Paramount's contract stars, including Gary Cooper as The White Knight, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, and Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter. Years later, Joseph reflected: "The result was a disaster, but a well-intentioned disaster. The costumes and the headpieces were so heavy that the actors couldn't carry them, so they had doubles walking through all the master or long shots."

1934–1942: MGM

Herman began working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in March 1933, and David O. Selznick hired Joseph as a screenwriter with a weekly salary of $750. At the age of 25, Joseph co-wrote '' Manhattan Melodrama'' (1934) with Oliver H. P. Garrett, which starred Myrna Loy and William Powell. The film was a critical and commercial success, and two months into its release, federal agents shot John Dillinger as he left a Chicago theater having viewed the film. At the 1935 Academy Awards, Arthur Caesar won the Academy Award for Best Story. Meanwhile, Joseph contributed additional dialogue for King Vidor's 1934 film '' Our Daily Bread''.

Mankiewicz's next project was adapting '' Forsaking All Others'' (1934) based on the 1933 play by Edward Barry Roberts and Frank Morgan Cavett. Bernard H. Hyman was the producer, and Joe was instructed to write for Loretta Young, George Brent and Frank Cavett. When Mankiewicz delivered the script, Hyman replied: "We're going to use Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery." He told Mankiewicz to arrive at Crawford's residence and read the script to her. Mankiewicz at first declined the offer, but later drove to Crawford's Brentwood home. During the reading, Crawford was delighted at the line: "I could build a fire by rubbing two boy scouts together." ''Forsaking All Others'' became a success, and Mankiewicz was assigned another Joan Crawford vehicle ''I Live My Life'' (1935), after Louis B. Mayer told Mankiewicz: "You're the only one on the lot who knows what to do with her."

In the autumn of 1935, having written three successful films, Mankiewicz personally requested Mayer to direct his own feature film. Mayer declined his proposition and instead replied: "You have to learn to crawl before you can walk." Mankiewicz was promoted to producer with '' Three Godfathers'' (1936). Adapted from the 1913 novel by Peter B. Kyne, the film is a biblically-inspired Western about three outlaws—Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan—rescuing a baby in the Mojave Desert.

Mankiewicz's next project was '' Fury'' (1936), that was inspired by a real-life mob lynching in which two suspects, held in a San Jose prison, were hanged for the murder of a department store heir. While in New York, screenwriter Norman Krasna read the story in ''The Nation'', and during the summer of 1934, he pitched the idea to Mankiewicz and Samuel Marx, who were interested in it, which prompted an early story treatment. After some time, Krasna had no recollection of the story, so Mankiewicz wrote a ten-page treatment titled ''Mob Rule'' and paid Krasner for the screen rights. Mankiewicz was assigned with Fritz Lang on a film "about a crooked D.A." but the project was shelved.

MGM general manager Eddie Mannix then handed Lang the ''Mob Rule'' treatment, with the subsequent drafts written by Bartlett Cormack. During filming, Lang had an adversarial relationship with the cast and crew, in which Mankiewicz reflected on years later, calling Lang a "a strange man" and a "terrible tyrant on the set." Released in June 1936, ''Fury'' was acclaimed by several film publications and was a box office success, catapulting Mankiewicz with his first major hit as a producer.

Mankewicz reteamed with Crawford on the 1936 film '' The Gorgeous Hussy''—her first costume drama film—as an innkeeper's daughter, with Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas and James Stewart as potential tutors. Their collaboration continued with '' Love on the Run'' (1936), a romantic comedy with two newspaper men, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone vying for Crawford. Retroactively seen as a pale imitation of ''It Happened One Night'' (1934, which also starred Gable), it was a box office success. Crawford next starred in '' The Bride Wore Red'' (1937), directed by Dorothy Arzner.

Beginning with ''Mannequin'' (1937), Mankiewicz collaborated with director Frank Borzage in a story about a Delancey Street working-class girl torn between her chiseler husband ( Alan Curtis) and a shipping magnate (Spencer Tracy). Their follow-up film, '' Three Comrades'' (1938), with Margaret Sullavan and Robert Taylor, began F. Scott Fitzgerald writing the initial script. However, Sullavan complained to Mankiewicz that her passages were unspeakable, which led to Mankiewicz and other screenwriters redrafting Fitzgerald's dialogue. Mankiewicz later joked, "If I go down at all in literary history, in a footnote, it will be as the swine who rewrote F. Scott Fitzgerald." Borzage's next film '' The Shining Hour'' (1938), starring Crawford, Sullavan and Melvyn Douglas, was well received by critics but was a box-office flop.

Mankiewicz produced ''A Christmas Carol'' (1938). At least four film versions had already existed before Lionel Barrymore, who had played Ebenezer Scrooge on the radio, prompted MGM to have his filmed version. However, Barrymore broke his hip after tripping over a cable while filming '' Saratoga'' (1937). Mankiewicz offered to delay filming for a year, but Barrymore insisted the production continue. Mankiewicz selected Reginald Owen as Scrooge, who had been hired to portray Jacob Marley. Production was completed in November 1938 and the film was screened as a holiday attraction at the Radio City Music Hall. A review in '' Variety'' wrote the film wielded "superb acting, inspired direction and top production values into an intensively interesting exposition of the Dickens story." Since its release, ''A Christmas Carol'' has become a perennial television favorite.

By 1938, Katharine Hepburn had been labeled " box office poison" by box office exhibitors after several unsuccessful films. Hepburn departed Hollywood and starred as Tracy Lord in Philip Barry's 1939 play '' The Philadelphia Story''. It became one of the year's successful Broadway plays, and Howard Hughes secured the film rights enabling Hepburn to forge a screen comeback. Several Hollywood studios declined to produce the film on the basis of Hepburn's box office record and male actors who demurred being potentially outshined by her. Louis B. Mayer took Hughes's offer on the assurance that Hepburn should appear with "two important male stars."

Cary Grant and James Stewart were cast in the leading male roles, while George Cukor was hired to direct. At Hepburn's insistence, Donald Ogden Stewart wrote a faithful adaptation of Barry's play, though he added two brief scenes based on Mankiewicz's suggestions. Mankiewicz claimed credit for the film's opening scene—a silent comic prologue featuring Grant and Hepburn in a tableau of their temperamental and fracturing marriage. Released in December 1940, ''The Philadelphia Story'' was a critical and commercial success, making it Mankiewicz's biggest hit as a producer. At the 1941 Academy Awards, the film earned six Oscar nominations, including one for Outstanding Production for Mankiewicz. James Stewart won the Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as Odgen Stewart winning for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Mankiewicz reteamed with Hepburn on the romantic comedy ''Woman of the Year'' (1942). Deriving inspiration from his father and newspaper columnist Dorothy Parker, Ring Lardner Jr. had written a story outline before collaborating with Garson and Michael Kanin. Both men drafted a 99-paged script, tentatively titled ''The Thing About Women'', which they showed to Hepburn. Eager to make it her next film, Hepburn presented the script directly to Mayer, who then consulted Mankiewicz for his opinion. He was enthusiastic for the script, believing it had been written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

Retitled ''Woman of the Year'', the premise involves Tess Harding, a high-browed foreign affairs reporter, pitted against Sam Craig, a sports columnist. Spencer Tracy was Hepburn's first choice, though he was initially unavailable until ''The Yearling'' (1946) was cancelled. Mankiewicz introduced the two stars, who at the time had never met before. Hepburn greeted Tracy, commenting, "I fear I may be too tall for you, Mr. Tracy." "Don't worry," Mankiewicz chimed in, "He'll cut you down to size." George Cukor was also unavailable as he was directing '' Two-Faced Woman'' (1941) so at Hepburn's behest, George Stevens was loaned out to MGM from Columbia Pictures.

During test screenings, preview audiences distained at the original ending, which had Tess accepting her newfound role as a housewife. Stevens, Mankiewicz and Mayer agreed a new ending was needed, with Tess attempting to make breakfast but failing miserably. Hepburn deplored the new scene, but test audiences responded favorably. Released in February 1942, ''Woman of the Year'' was praised by film critics for the chemistry between the stars. At the 1943 Academy Awards, Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, while Michael Kanin and Lardner Jr. won for Best Original Screenplay.

By 1942, Mankiewicz was romantically involved with Judy Garland. As a vehicle for Garland, he began adapting S. N. Behrman's 1942 play ''The Pirate''. The adaptation was never completed, but eventually became a 1948 musical unrelated to Mankiewicz's involvement. To reduce Garland's dependency on prescription medicine, Mankiewicz advised her to seek psychiatric therapy sessions with Ernst Simmel. Garland's mother Ethel Gumm reported the incident to Mayer, who later called Mankiewicz into his office. There, Mayer chastened him for his involvement, stating, "You mustn't mess with our property." The two fell into an argument, and Mankiewicz decided to quit MGM negotiating for an early termination with one year left on his contract. Mankiewicz's final productions at MGM were '' Reunion in France'' (1942) starring Joan Crawford and John Wayne, and ''Cairo'' (1942) with Jeanette MacDonald—the latter film Mankiewicz had his producing credit removed at his request.

1943–1952: 20th Century Fox

By August 1943, Mankiewicz had signed with Twentieth Century-Fox, stipulating his contractual right to write and direct. As a follow-up to '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), Mankiewicz selected A. J. Cronin's 1941 novel ''The Keys of the Kingdom'' as his first production. Rewriting a script by Nunnally Johnson, the tale centered on Father Francis Chisholm, a humble Scottish Catholic priest, in his thirty-five years as a missionary in a small Chinese village. Gregory Peck was cast in the lead role while Ingrid Bergman was the studio's first choice as the Reverend Mother Maria-Veronica. When Bergman became available, Mankiewicz pleaded with Darryl F. Zanuck to instead cast his then-wife Rose Stradner. The film opened in December 1944 to mixed reviews, though it garnered four Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck.

Meanwhile, Twentieth Century-Fox acquired the screen rights to Anya Seton's gothic romance novel '' Dragonwyck'', with Ernst Lubitsch as the director. However, Lubitsch collapsed from a heart attack while filming '' A Royal Scandal'' (1945). While recuperating, he decided instead to produce and have Mankiewicz direct '' Dragonwyck'' (1946). By May 1944, Gregory Peck and Gene Tierney were cast in the leading roles, but Peck dropped out to star in '' Duel in the Sun'' (1946) and was replaced by Vincent Price.

''Dragonwyck'' tells of Nicholas van Ryn, the proprietor of the Dragonwyck estate, who poisons his invalid wife and marries his cousin Miranda, in hopes of bearing an heir. When their infant son dies, Nicholas copes with opium and schemes to murder Miranda, who falls for a local doctor. Displeased with Mankiewicz's creative decisions, Lubitsch removed his name from the production credits. "We differed about some of the direction," Mankiewicz explained, "mostly about where I put the camera." A review in ''Variety'' applauded ''Dragonwyck'' as a "psychological yarn, its mid-19th century American feudal background being always brooding with never a break in its flow of morbidity. Yet, it is always interesting if somewhat too pointed at times in its fictional contrivance." The film earned $3 million in box office rentals in the United States and Canada.

'' Somewhere in the Night'' (1946) originated from Marvin Borowsky's short story "The Lonely Journey". While Zanuck was in Europe, Anderson Lawler came across the story, which impressed Zanuck. Back in the United States, Lawler presented an adaptation script by Howard Dimsdale to Mankiewicz, who was eager to direct his second film. A ''film noir'', John Hodiak plays an amnesiac war veteran who searches for a detective named Larry Cravat, whom he discovers was involved in a murder over $2 million in Nazi funds funneled into Los Angeles.

Over a course of eighteen months, Mankiewicz directed three adaptations by Philip Dunne—'' The Late George Apley'' (1947), ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1948), and '' Escape'' (1948)—each film "done in rapid succession, not of my writing, in which I concentrated upon learning the technique and craft—indeed, upon dissociating myself as far as possible from the writer's approach." Adapted from John P. Marquand's novel of the same name, ''The Late George Apley'' was first produced as a play by Marquand and George S. Kaufman. Fox purchased the film rights for $275,000, with Ronald Colman and Peggy Cummins as the title character and Eleanor Apley, George's daughter.

Adapted from R. A. Dick's 1945 novel, ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' stars Rex Harrison as the ghost of a sea captain unsuccessfully seeking to frighten Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney), a young widow who has rented her house, at the turn of the century. During filming, Tierney's first two days were reshot at Dunne and Zanuck's request, as Dunne had envisioned her as a "straightforward, practical woman" compared to Tierney's initial quirkier characterization. More reshoots were done when Richard Ney was replaced with George Sanders. Upon its release, film reviewers praised Harrison and Tierney's performances. ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Black and White). Mankiewicz reteamed with Harrison in ''Escape'' (1948), a story about a convict who escapes a Dartmoor prison. Filmed in Britain under tax regulations, much of the film was shot on location.

Producer Sol C. Siegel had acquired the screen rights to the 1945 novel ''A Letter to Five Wives'', which first appeared as a short story published in ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine. Siegel had intended for Ernest Lubitsch to direct, and tapped Vera Caspary to write a script adaptation. Mankiewicz remembered, "I read aspary's scriptand knew I had looked upon the Promised Land. I wrote the screenplay about four wives; Zanuck, in an almost bloodless operation, excised one, so we ended with ''A Letter to Three Wives''." Set in an affluent, postwar American suburb, three wives—Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern—reflect on their marriages as each considers which of their husband has eloped with Addie Ross, voiced by Celeste Holm. The film premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and was lauded by critics and audiences for the performances of the cast. At the 23rd Academy Awards, in 1950, Mankiewicz was bestowed two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In May 1949, Mankiewicz was the first recipient of the Screen Directors Guild (SDG)'s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. A year later, he was elected as the president for the Screen Directors Guild. A proponent for the Hollywood blacklist, Cecil B. DeMille proposed guild members should take an anticommunist loyalty oath. In August 1950, the board approved the measure, while Mankiewicz was vacationing overseas after filming ''All About Eve''. When Mankiewicz returned, he was shocked DeMille had gone behind his back. "It seems to me that kind of thing only happens in Moscow," to which DeMille replied, "Well, maybe we need a little of that here." On October 12, DeMille convened a general board meeting, requesting 25 signatures to recall Mankiewicz as guild president. Mankiewicz's supporters included John Huston, William Wyler, and Billy Wilder. Over the night, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Mankiewicz survived the recall election but retained the loyalty oath.

Meanwhile, Siegel had hired screenwriter Philip Yordan to adapt Jerome Weidman's novel, ''I'll Never Go There Anymore'' into a feature film titled '' House of Strangers'' (1949). However, Yordan was fired after writing two-thirds of a first draft. Between assignments, Mankiewicz did an entire rewrite of the script, in which the Screen Writers Guild arbitrated a shared credit between Yordan and Mankiewicz. Mankiewicz angrily disagreed so Yordan was given the sole credit. Featuring Edward G. Robinson, Richard Conte and Susan Hayward, the story centers on Gino Monetti, an Italian-American ex-convict son of a banking family who seeks revenge against his brothers for turning him into the police. The film was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival where Robinson won for Best Actor.

Following a trend of socially conscious films, including ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) and ''The Snake Pit'' (1948), Zanuck purchased a story by Lesser Samuels about a racially charged encounter between a Black doctor and a white racist criminal. Yordan had written a script, which Mankiewicz promptly rewrote in six weeks. Titled '' No Way Out'' (1950), Mankiewicz cast Sidney Poitier in his screen debut while Richard Widmark played one of the racist brothers accusing Poitier of medical malpractice. Also, at the 23rd Academy Awards, Mankiewicz and Samuels were also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story and Screenplay, but lost to ''Sunset Boulevard'' (1950).

''All About Eve'' (1950) originated from the 1946 ''Cosmopolitan'' short story "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr. Fox purchased the rights to Orr's story for $5,000 and Mankiewicz began writing the first draft while preparing for ''No Way Out''. Notably, he secluded himself for six weeks to laboriously write the draft at the San Ysidro Ranch near Santa Barbara. On March 7, 1950, Zanuck finished reading Mankiewicz's script and immediately sent a memo: "Without any question of a doubt you have done a remarkable job. The holes that were present in certain sections of the original treatment have disappeared." However, he delivered a lengthier memo, requesting a reduction of 50 pages.

Claudette Colbert was initially cast as Margo Channing, but suffered a back injury and withdrew less than ten days before filming. To replace her, Mankiewicz considered Gertrude Lawrence. Her attorney Fanny Holtzmann demanded changes to the script, which Mankiewicz declined to make. Fresh from her mutual split from Warner Bros., Bette Davis read the script, describing it as the best she had ever read, and accepted the role. Jeanne Crain was originally considered for the part of Eve Harrington, but Zanuck felt she lacked the "bitch virtuosity" needed for the role. He approved Mankiewicz's suggestion for Anne Baxter.

Critical reaction towards ''All About Eve'' was unilaterally positive, with praise directed towards the performances from the cast and Mankiewicz's direction and screenplay. ''All About Eve'' was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards, and won for Best Picture. Mankiewicz won his second consecutive set of writing and directing Academy Awards. Davis and Baxter were nominated for the Best Actress Oscar but lost to Judy Holliday in '' Born Yesterday'' (1950).

Mankiewicz adapted and directed '' People Will Talk'' (1951), also produced by Zanuck, which starred Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain. Adapted from Curt Goetz's 1932 play ''Dr. Prätorius'', Grant plays a physician who is investigated for his unorthodox medical practices led by Professor Ewell (Hume Cronyn). Meanwhile, he falls for Deborah Higgins, an unwed pregnant student contemplating suicide. Though it received favorable reviews, it failed to be profitable.

Mankiewicz's last film under contract with Fox was '' 5 Fingers'' (1952), starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux. Zanuck had enlisted Henry Hathaway to direct and Michael Wilson to write a script from Ludwig Carl Moyzisch's non-fiction book ''Operation Cicero''. Mankiewicz read Wilson's script and cabled to Zanuck, stating he wanted to rewrite the dialogue feeling it needed "humor, sex and excitement." Zanuck consented providing that Mankiewicz would not seek a writing credit and accept Otto Lang as the film's producer. At Zanuck's insistence, the film was retitled ''5 Fingers'' to avoid association with a race riot that had occurred in Cicero, Illinois. On the last day of filming, in September 1951, Mankiewicz declined to renew his contract with Twentieth Century-Fox, in which he decided to be an independent filmmaker. Released in March 1952, ''5 Fingers'' garnered fairly positive reviews.

1953–1960: Return to MGM; Figaro, Inc.

In December 1951, Mankiewicz signed a three-picture contract with MGM's Dore Schary, with a stipulation he be allowed to produce theatrical stage productions. By 1952, Mankiewicz had three projects he was contemplating—an adaptation of Carl Jonas's novel ''Jefferson Selleck'' about a midwestern businessman experiencing a midlife crisis with Spencer Tracy; '' The Barefoot Contessa'', and a new stage production of ''La bohème'' at the Metropolitan Opera. During this time, MGM producer John Houseman approached Mankiewicz about directing a film adaptation of ''Julius Caesar''. He reflected, "Joe was one of the first people I thought of. He is so literate and such a good dialogue writer, I knew he'd be interested."

Casting for the central roles involved several American and British actors, including James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius, and Louis Calhern as Caesar. Marlon Brando's casting as Marc Antony was met with skepticism, so much that ''Time'' magazine jokingly wondered if Brando would be "muttering and grumbling his lines in a Polish accent, sound reading the funeral oration?" Against the studio's objections, Houseman chose to photograph in black and white so it would mirror newsreels of Benito Mussolini. Principal photography continued until late October 1952, with the production sets repurposed from '' Quo Vadis'' (1951).

Released during the summer of 1953, ''Julius Caesar'' opened to positive reviews from film critics. Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'' wrote the film was "a production that pulls the full potential of point and passion from this classic of the stage", and Brando's reciting of Mark Antony's speech was described as a "brilliant, electrifying splurge of bitter and passionate invective". While directing rehearsals for ''La bohème'', disagreements over ''Jefferson Selleck'' led to a lapse in Mankiewicz's MGM contract.

In 1951, Mankiewicz relocated his family to New York and within two years, he established his independent production company Figaro, Inc. Its namesake was taken from the barber in Mozart's opera ''The Marriage of Figaro''. In Mankiewicz's words, Figaro did "a little bit of everything." In June 1956, the NBC television network acquired a 50 percent ownership stake with the right of first refusal to any proposed film project. United Artists was inked as the distributor, and Mankiewicz proceeded with his two-picture deal with '' The Barefoot Contessa'' (1954), which he had been originally written to be a novel.

For his first original screenplay, Mankiewicz is believed to have been inspired by several Hollywood actresses, including Rita Hayworth, Linda Darnell, and Anne Chevalier. Envisioned as a ''Cinderella''-like story set in Hollywood, the tale centers on the starlet Maria Vargas as her career is told in flashbacks, with one told by Harry Dawes, a veteran film director, played by Humphrey Bogart. Ava Gardner was Mankiewicz's first choice for the title role, and she was loaned from MGM for a payment of $200,000 plus 10 percent of the box office returns.

Principal filming began in early January 1954 at the Cinecittà studio in Rome. Bogart was frustrated with Gardner whispering her lines during one take and criticized her acting skills. Bogart himself had severe racking coughs while delivering his lines. When filming had concluded, Mankiewicz regretted not building any rapport with Gardner. Upon its release, Gene Arneel of ''Variety'' praised the film as a "dish of ingeniously-fashioned, original entertainment for grown-up viewers. it has a strong show business flavor and a line or two that might be beyond the ken of strangers in movie-making. But its basic story elements are strong and make for substantial fare on anyone's menu."

At the 27th Academy Awards, Mankiewicz was nominated for his screenplay while Edmond O'Brien won for Best Supporting Actor. Meanwhile, the script was faced with two plagiarism lawsuits, one was quickly dismissed and the other was litigated in 1960, alleging similarities to an unpublished manuscript inspired by Chevalier's life. It was also dismissed.

In 1954, Samuel Goldwyn hired Mankiewicz to write and direct the film version of the Broadway musical ''Guys and Dolls''. Goldwyn pursued Gene Kelly for the part of Sky Masterson, but MGM's Nicholas Schenck vigorously declined to loan out Kelly. Goldwyn suggested Marlon Brando instead, and Mankiewicz convinced Brando to take the part to expand his acting oeuvre. Frank Sinatra pursued the role as Nathan Detroit, while Jean Simmons was cast as Sister Sarah Brown after an extensive search. ''Guys and Dolls'' was one of 1955's biggest box office hits, earning $9 million in estimated distributor rentals in the United States and Canada. However, film critics found the film too verbose and were mixed on the musical performances.

By the time ''Guys and Dolls'' was released, Mankiewicz's Figaro expanded with its contract with United Artists to produce nine films, with five films to be written and directed by him within four years. For his second directorial effort with Figaro, Mankiewicz considered a biographical film of Francisco Goya and an adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Twelfth Night'' with Audrey Hepburn and Danny Kaye. He however decided to write and direct ''The Quiet American'' (1958), an adaptation of Graham Greene's 1955 novel. Set against the backdrop of Indochina (now known as Vietnam), Alden Pyle, an idealistic American CIA agent, vies for the affection of Phuong, a local Vietnamese woman, against Thomas Fowler, a British journalist.

The choice role of Thomas Fowler had been offered to Laurence Olivier, who later declined after reading a draft. William Holden and James Mason were unavailable thus Mankiewicz turned to Michael Redgrave. Montgomery Clift was considered for Alden Pyle, but he was severely injured while filming '' Raintree County'' (1957). Mankiewicz then cast Audie Murphy and selected Italian actress Giorgia Moll for Phuong. Mankiewicz, influenced by the climate of anti-Communism and the Hollywood blacklist, altered the message of Greene's book, changing major parts of the story. He told film critic Arthur Knight after filming had wrapped, he wanted to "make the American both more credible and truer to the earnest, hardworking, apolitical types that he found in Indo-China." A cautionary tale about America's blind support for anti-Communists was turned into, according to Greene, a "propaganda film for America".

While preparing ''The Quiet American'', in 1956, Mankiewicz recruited film producer Walter Wanger to work for Figaro. Wanger proposed numerous film projects but most of these were turned down. After six months of no progress, Wanger proceeded with a film project starring Susan Hayward. By October 1957, Figaro had signed Hayward to star in '' I Want to Live!'' (1958), a real-life account of Barbara Graham's lethal execution. When a script draft was completed, Mankiewicz recommended several truncations to the script, which were made by his nephew Don Mankiewicz. Robert Wise was hired to direct the film.

Mankiewicz reunited with Sam Spiegel on ''Suddenly, Last Summer'' (1959), an adaptation of Tennessee Williams's stage play. Katharine Hepburn portrayed Violet Venable, a wealthy widow, who has her niece Catherine Holly institutionalized after she had witnessed her son Sebastian's death. Bribing the hospital with a one-million donation for renovation, Violet pushes John Cukrowicz, a neurosurgeon, to have Catherine lobotomized in order to preserve Sebastian's memory. Elizabeth Taylor was cast Catherine, and it was Taylor who convinced Spiegel to cast her friend Montgomery Clift as Cukrowicz. The film earned mixed reviews from film critics but was a box office success, earning $9 million in worldwide box office rentals. At the 32nd Academy Awards, Hepburn and Taylor received competitive Oscar nominations for Best Actress.

1961–1963: ''Cleopatra''

By May 1960, Mankiewicz was selected to write and direct a film adaptation of Lawrence Durrell's 1957 novel '' Justine'', the first volume of '' The Alexandria Quartet''. Ava Gardner and David Niven were hired in the lead roles. The premise centered on Darley, an Anglo-Irish schoolmaster and aspiring novelist, who is determined to unravel the truth behind Justine, a beautiful young woman, with whom he had a brief affair with him. Darley later learns Justine is married to her husband Nassim, who is involved in a Coptic plot against the Muslims to arm the Zionists in Palestine.

By the winter of 1960, Mankiewicz was vacationing at the Children's Bay Cay—Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy's private island—in the Bahamas. He had completed a 151-page treatment outline and written a partially complete first screenplay draft. On January 18, 1961, he flew north to New York for dinner with his agent Charles Feldman and Spyros Skouras, who requested him to complete Walter Wanger's concurrent troubled production ''Cleopatra'' (1963), a film project Mankiewicz's Figaro Inc. had earlier declined to finance. The film's star Elizabeth Taylor had personally requested Mankiewicz to take over the project after Rouben Mamoulian had resigned as director. Mankiewicz declined the request, but Skouras was persistent in hiring him. Feldman persuaded Mankiewicz he could resume ''Justine'' after he finished ''Cleopatra'' under the advice: "Hold your nose for fifteen weeks and get it over with."

Skouras decided to acquire Figaro, Inc., in which Mankiewicz was paid $1.5 million, while NBC (which controlled a 50 percent stake) earned the other half for a total of $3 million. On January 25, 1961, Mankiewicz was hired as writer and director, and within a month, he toured the production sets constructed at Pinewood Studios in London. Being familiar with Roman antiquities having directed ''Julius Caesar'' (1953), Mankiewicz decided to rewrite the entire script, with a "modern, psychiatrically rooted" approach as described by Wanger in his production diary. Lawrence Durrell and Sidney Buchman were hired to collaborate on the script for ''Cleopatra''. By late April 1961, Mankiewicz was dissatisfied with Durrell's story outlines, while Buchman was instructed to finish the outline. Wanger hired screenwriter Ranald MacDougall to finish the shooting script based on Buchman's outline.

Meanwhile, Twentieth Century-Fox dismantled the Pinewood sets, worth an estimated cost of $600,000. Skouras decided to reshoot the film in California, but Mankiewicz persuaded him to shoot in Rome. By June 30, Skouras reversed his decision and allow the production to film at Cinecittà, where principal filming for ''Cleopatra'' began on September 1961 under Mankiewicz's direction. Because Skouras insisted for the production to resume, Mankiewicz's revised shooting script was not complete at the start of filming. Therefore, Mankiewicz directed at daytime and wrote the script longhand at night, to the point he contracted a dermatological disorder on his hands forcing him to wear thin protective gloves. To maintain his health regimen for several months, Mankiewicz required daily vitamin B12 shots. One shot accidentally hit his sciatic nerve, rendering him barely able to walk.

On January 22, 1962, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton filmed their first scene together. Their romantic chemistry was not lost on Mankiewicz who later told Wanger: "I have been sitting on a volcano all alone for too long, and I want to give you some facts you ought to know. Liz and Burton are not just ''playing'' Antony and Cleopatra." In February 1962, rumors of the extramarital affair were spreading, and by the spring, it became worldwide news. In June 1962, Skouras was forced out as studio president and replaced with Darryl Zanuck. In early October 1962, Mankiewicz screened his rough cut at Zanuck's residence in Paris. Infuriated by Cleopatra's dominance over Marc Antony, Zanuck remarked, "If any woman behaved toward me the way Cleopatra treated Antony, I would cut her balls off." Mankiewicz and Zanuck had planned to discuss the cut the next day, but Zanuck cancelled the meeting.

Less than two weeks later, Mankiewicz sent a letter to Zanuck requesting an "honest and unequivocal statement of where I stand in relation to ''Cleopatra''." Zanuck wrote back stating his services were terminated, and in a memo addressed to the press, he believed Mankiewicz has "earned a well-deserved rest." In response to his public firing, Mankiewicz told ''Time'' magazine: "The actors are almost more upset than I am. They gave three goddam good performances and, badly cut, they'll be ruined." In December 1962, Zanuck rehired Mankiewicz to film reshoots in Almería, Spain and complete the final editing. Mankiewicz finished the reshoots on March 5, 1963.

''Cleopatra'' opened at the Rivoli Theatre to mixed reviews, with Bosley Crowther who exclaimed the film was "one of the great epic films of our day". On the contrary, Judith Crist of the ''New York Herald Tribune'' headlined her review calling the film a "monumental mouse." The film's premiere runtime of 243 minutes was reduced to over 3 hours for its first-run engagements.

Regardless, ''Cleopatra'' became the highest-grossing film of 1963, generating $26 million in distributor rentals. However, the film held a negative cost of $44 million and did not break-even until Fox sold the television broadcast rights to ABC in 1966. At the 37th Academy Awards, ''Cleopatra'' was nominated for nine Oscars and it won four. The film's notorious production and mixed reception damaged Mankiewicz's professional reputation and self-esteem.

1964–1993: Later career

In 1964, Mankiewicz read Frederick Knott's play ''Mr. Fox of Venice'' and the novel '' The Evil of the Day'' by Thomas Sterling, both of which were adapted from Ben Jonson's 1606 play ''Volpone''. Interested in the subject material, Mankiewicz optioned the works for his next screenplay, tentatively titled ''Mr. Fox of Venice''. Meanwhile, he was approached by Anna Rosenberg, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, to participate in a Xerox-sponsored series of television films promoting the United Nations (UN). The first installment was '' Carol for Another Christmas'' (1964) with a teleplay by Rod Serling. A dystopian adaptation of Charles Dickens's ''A Christmas Carol'', the telefilm had an ensemble cast featuring Sterling Hayden, Peter Sellers, Godfrey Cambridge, Peter Fonda, Richard Harris, Christopher Plummer, Eva Marie Saint and James Shigeta. Filming began in early September 1964. It was broadcast on ABC on December 28, 1964.

Retitled '' The Honey Pot'' (1967), the story centers on Cecil Fox, an eccentric English millionaire, who hires William McFly, a struggling actor, in a scheme modeled after Volpone's play. McFly invites three of Fox's former mistresses to his Venetian palazzo as Fox pretends to be on his death bed. Filming began on September 20, 1965 at the Cinecittà and ran for five months. Similar to ''Cleopatra'', the production was troubled. After the first week of filming, Mankiewicz fired his cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo and replaced him with Pasqualino De Santis. Rachel Roberts, then married to Rex Harrison (who was cast as Fox), attempted suicide after she was turned down in favor of Maggie Smith. Susan Hayward was granted permission to attend to her dying husband back in the United States. Mankiewicz began editing in London in March 1966, and settled on a runtime of 150 minutes when it premiered in London in the following year. It was later trimmed to 131 minutes when it premiered in New York. Critics complimented Rex Harrison and Maggie Smith's performances but criticized the runtime.

In 1968, Mankiewicz signed a multi-picture deal with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, with his first project titled ''The Bawdy Bard and Bill'', a biopic about William Shakespeare by Anthony Burgess. However, he was intrigued by an original script tentatively titled ''War'' by David Newman and Robert Benton, the screenwriting team of '' Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967). The film was retitled '' There Was a Crooked Man...'' (1970), and it was the first Western genre film Mankiewicz had directed. He reflected: "It's been a chance to try some muscles I haven't used before. Although, of course, I wrote a lot of Westerns in the old days. The old, old days." The film starred Kirk Douglas as a charming but ruthless convict who is sent to a remote Arizona prison where the conscientious prison warden (Henry Fonda) attempts to reform him. Filming began in March 1969, but six weeks into production, Mankiewicz slipped a disk at his home and directed the rest of the film from a wheelchair.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts underwent corporate restructuring, and the film's release was delayed by over a year. It premiered in London months before its release in the United States on Christmas Day 1970, with a minimal promotional campaign. Contemporary critical reaction was mixed, though the film has been viewed more favorably in retrospect. Vincent Canby of ''The New York Times'' wrote the film was "a movie of the sort of taste, intelligence and somewhat bitter humor I associate with Mr. Mankiewicz who, in real life, is one of America's most sophisticated, least folksy raconteurs, especially of stories about the old Hollywood." Pauline Kael of ''The New Yorker'' however lambasted the film as a "commercialized black comedy nihilism seems to have been written by an evil 2-year-old, and it has been directed in the Grand Rapids style of filmmaking."

During post-production on ''Crooked Man'', in October 1969, Mankiewicz and Sidney Lumet shot 18 minutes of interstitial segments of celebrities reading select passages for the 1970 documentary '' King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis''. Produced by Ely Landau, the documentary featured Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Anthony Quinn, Clarence Williams III, and Joanne Woodward. The film was screened in select theaters for only one night, March 24, 1970.

Later that year, Anthony Shaffer's 1970 play '' Sleuth'' had a successful Broadway run, and received the Tony Award for Best Play. Laurence Olivier portrays Andrew Wycke, a mystery writer, who invites Cockney hairdresser Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) to his country estate knowing that Milo is having an affair with his wife. From there, a clever mystery game ensues with potentially deadly results. At the time, Mankiewicz was developing a remake of ''The Front Page'' (1931). Filming was scheduled from April to June 1971, but production ran over schedule. Mankiewicz, plagued with back pain, tore his thigh when he fell onto a camera equipment. Olivier, with his own health problems, had a real-life injury that was incorporated into the finished film.

To qualify as an eligible Oscar contender, '' Sleuth'' (1972) was rushed into completion and premiered in New York in December 1972. The film received largely positive reviews and was a moderate financial success earning over $5.7 million in box office rentals. Two weeks after its premiere, Edgar Scherick, the film's executive producer, wanted an intermission and cuts made to the film leading into its nationwide release for January 1973. A Palomar Pictures studio executive notified Mankiewicz about the proposed changes even after an intermission had been inserted, which damaged the negative film. Furious over the alterations, ''Sleuth'' was restored to Mankiewicz's preference. At the 45th Academy Awards, Mankiewicz received his fourth Best Directing nomination. Olivier and Caine received competitive Oscar nominations for Best Actor.

In 1975, Robert Redford approached Mankiewicz about directing ''All the President's Men'' (1976). However, Mankiewicz did not like William Goldman's early draft of the script and decided instead to direct an adaptation of the 1973 novel ''Jane'' by Dee Wells. The story centered on the eponymous heroine living in London who unexpectedly becomes pregnant and speculates the identity of the father. Mankiewicz signed with Columbia Pictures to write and direct the film, but he was removed during development after completing two-thirds of the script. Meanwhile, in 1978, Kenneth L. Geist published a biography of Mankiewicz titled ''Pictures Will Talk'', having spent eight years researching his filmography.

In 1983, Mankiewicz was a member of the jury at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival. By 1992, still search of a new project, ''The New York Times'' reported Mankiewicz was "writing in notebooks, transcribing facts, opinions and "tribal customs and taboos" for a probable autobiography.

Personal life

Family history

Joseph was the younger brother of Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, the co-writer (with Orson Welles) of ''Citizen Kane'' among numerous other films. In 2024, Joseph and Herman were both announced as inductees into the Luzerne County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame.

In 1933, Mankiewicz met Elizabeth Young, a New York socialite and descendant of the Schermerhorn family. Young made her film debut in '' Big Executive'' (1933) and was borrowed by MGM to appear in '' Queen Christina'' (1933). They were married on May 20, 1934 in the backyard garden of Herman and his wife Sara's house. In November 1936, Mankiewicz moved out of their Beverly Hills apartment and issued a press statement stating incompatibility and irreconcilable differences. Shortly after, Young filed for divorce, alleging Mankiewicz had treated her cruelly and telling her he no longer loved her. The divorce was dropped when they resumed living together, but they filed again in May 1937. On the third anniversary of their marriage, their divorce was finalized. They had a son, Eric, who was born on July 1, 1936. In 1943, Young legally had Eric assume his stepfather Eugene Reynal's surname after she had remarried.

Mankiewicz met Austrian actress Rose Stradner, who had been contracted to MGM. There, Mankiewicz was instructed to help improve her English as he had with other German-speaking actresses. The two were married on July 28, 1939, at Mankiewicz's sister's apartment in New York. When they returned to Los Angeles, on Stradner's 26th birthday, MGM studio writers and producers greeted them at the railway station with rice and a ten-piece orchestra. Stradner gave birth to two sons, Christopher, born in 1940, and Tom Mankiewicz, born in 1942. In September 1958, Stradner was found dead at her summer home in Bedford Hills, aged 45. Her death was ruled a suicide through an overdose of sedatives.

In 1954, Mankiewicz met his third wife Rosemary Matthews while filming ''The Barefoot Contessa'' in Rome. For several years, they kept in contact, and Matthews served as a production assistant for ''Cleopatra''. On December 14, 1962, the two were married in a New York courthouse. They had a daughter, Alexandra.

Joseph was the uncle of Frank Mankiewicz, a political campaign manager who officially announced the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. His niece Johanna "Josie" Mankiewicz Davis, worked as a journalist and a novelist. In July 1974, she was struck and killed by a taxicab in New York City at the age of 36.

His great-nephews include writer-filmmaker Nick Davis (Johanna's son), NBC's '' Dateline'' reporter Josh Mankiewicz and television personality Ben Mankiewicz (Frank's sons).

Death

Mankiewicz died of a heart attack on February 5, 1993, six days before his 84th birthday. He was interred in Saint Matthew's Episcopal Churchyard cemetery in Bedford, New York.

Filmography

Accolades

Directed Academy Award performances

Under Mankiewicz's directions, these actors have received Oscar nominations (and wins) for their performances and in their respective roles.

Sources and notes

Notes

References

Works cited

Biographies ''(chronological)''

*
*
*
*

Miscellaneous

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

External links

*
*

Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

Joseph L. Mankiewicz papers
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mankiewicz, Joseph L.
1909 births
1993 deaths
American male screenwriters
Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
Best Directing Academy Award winners
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Presidents of the Directors Guild of America
Film producers from New York (state)
German-language film directors
American people of German-Jewish descent
Jewish American activists
Jewish American screenwriters
Mankiewicz family
People from the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area
People from Bedford, New York
Stuyvesant High School alumni
Writers Guild of America Award winners
Film directors from Pennsylvania
20th Century Studios people
Directors Guild of America Award winners
20th-century American businesspeople
Activists from New York (state)
Film directors from New York City
Screenwriters from New York (state)
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipients
Directors of Best Picture Academy Award winners