Joseph L Mankiewicz

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BIRTHDAY

February 11, 1909

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA

DIED

February 05, 1993

RECENT CREDITS

Hello Actors Studio (FILM) Nov. 9, 1988

George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journ... (FILM) Apr. 12, 1985

There Was a Crooked Man (FILM) Jan. 1, 1970

The Honey Pot (FILM) May. 22, 1967

Cleopatra (FILM) Jun. 12, 1963

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BIOGRAPHY

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Like his brother Herman, Mankiewicz first made his mark in films as a scenarist, after a stint as a foreign correspondent in Berlin. In 1928, Mankiewicz secured a $60-a-week writing contract at Paramount. He wrote intertitles and in 1931 co-wrote the script of the acclaimed boy and his dog story, "Skippy". He began producing for MGM in 1936, overseeing such fine projects as Fritz Lang's "Fury" (1936), Frank Borzage's "Three Comrades" (1938), George Cukor's "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) and George Stevens's "Woman of the Year" (1942). Louis B. Mayer allegedly told him he had to produce before he could direct, but in 1943 with no directorial assignments in sight, Mankiewicz switched over to Fox, co-writing and producing "The Keys of the Kingdom" (1944). His directorial debut came in 1946, with the Gothic melodrama "Dragonwyck" followed by directing three films written by Philip Dunne, including "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." He returned to writing with the classic, "A Letter to Three Wives" (1948), building a reputation as one of Hollywood's more literary directors. The staginess of some of Mankiewicz's films is more than compensated for by the urbanity and wit of his screenplays and his brilliant handling of actors; "A Letter to Three Wives", "House of Strangers" (1949), "All About Eve" (1950) and "Julius Caesar" (1953) are all superb examples of his art. In 1951, he returned to New York, and remained there for the rest of his life. Before the disaster of "Cleopatra," Mankiewicz would direct and write "The Barefoot Contessa" (1954), "The Quiet American" (1958), an adaptation of Graham Greene's novel that was one of Mankiewicz's personal favorites, and "Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959). Mankiewicz took over the direction of "Cleopatra" (1963) from Rouben Mamoulian; despite his attempts to salvage the film, it proved to be one of Hollywood's most expensive flops, and dealt a serious blow to his directing career, reportedly costing a then-record sum of $40 million. The final film he completed was the cross and doublecross murder yarn, "Sleuth" (1972) that was produced independently. While failing to recapture the sublime effervescence of Mankiewicz's seminal and delightful work of the 1940s and 50s, it still succeeded as a sophisticated showpiece for stars Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. Mankiewicz's son Tom is a screenwriter ("Superman" 1978, "The Man with the Golden Gun" 1974).

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Headlines

Z-J a 3D Cleopatra?

Oct. 24, 2008

Steven Soderbergh is reportedly gearing up for a 3-D live-action rock ‘n’ roll musical about Cleopatra. The trades today say that the director is looking at Catherine Zeta-Jones to star as the Egyptian queen with Hugh Jackman as her lover Marc Antony.

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