Joe Mankiewicz, who died exactly 30 years ago, managed to win four Oscars, an award at Cannes and become a benchmark for cinema
Hymns for him Joseph Mankiewicz and his great work, in his long career in cinema, are imposed without any exaggeration. However, just for his iconic film “All About Eve”, a shocking drama about the world of entertainment, he could stand next to the closed circle of the most important directors of all time.
Mankiewicz may have become a household name, a critical and peer favorite from his huge artistic and commercial successes as a director, but he had the privilege – and the pain – of an even greater creative streak as a formidable screenwriter and creative producer. Two work experiences, which helped him get into the core of cinema, to know all the techniques, problems and of course the secrets of how a film is made.
Joe Mankiewicz, who died exactly 30 years ago (February 5, 1993), was much more than a filmmaker, who managed to win four Oscars, two for director and two for screenplay, an award at Cannes, numerous awards from the Directors and Screenwriters Association and of course to be a point of reference for cinema. He was the deep connoisseur who with discretion could cauterize bad writings, human weaknesses, conformism, selfishness and all that haunts us throughout time.
Joe and “Munk”
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1909, to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Germany, while he was the younger brother of Herman Mankiewicz, who was also an important screenwriter and even co-wrote, with Orson Welles, the screenplay of “Citizen Kane”, but his contact with Hollywood took a toll on him, drowning him in alcohol, to an early death. His parents moved to New York when little Joe was four years old, and in 1928 he received a degree in journalism from Columbia. Before entering the cinema he worked as a foreign correspondent in Berlin, in dark and highly interesting times.
His older brother, also known as ‘Munk’, got him into the movies and from 1929 he worked for 17 years as a screenwriter at Paramount and as a producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer before sitting in the then-electric director’s chair , on behalf of 20th Century Fox. Among the 20 productions he made are the classic films “Social Scandals”, by Cukor, “Woman of the Year” by George Stevens and “The Keys to Paradise” in which his second wife, Rose Stradner, appeared alongside Gregory Pec.
Oscar’s first
In 1946, he will make his first directorial debut in the drama “Dragonwyck”, with Ernst Lubitsch as a production consultant, while he will enter his most creative phase from the following year with “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”, a mind-blowing metaphysical thriller with the genius script – by himself – and the fine direction. In 1949, he will sign the classic romantic drama “A Letter to Three Women”, starring a cast of excellent actors, winning his first two Oscars, both for direction and screenplay. His ironic look at the institution of marriage, especially at that time, will make him stand out, but what everyone bowed to without exception was his handling of the subject, which looks like it was taken out of a magazine illustration and strikes at the heart and mind. the viewer.
The artifice and the record
His creative inspiration, however, has taken such a turn that next year he will deliver one of the ten-twenty best films of all time, the famous drama “All about Eve”, a masterpiece about the universe of the spectacle, the invisible mechanisms of hollywood, an iconic film for the cinema. It will again win two Oscars, for screenplay and direction, while it will gather a total of 14 nominations, a record that has not yet been surpassed. It is characteristic that in the same year the huge Billy Wilder delivers the sensational drama “West Avenue”, with a similar theme and equal to that of Mankiewicz, but loses in the details on the Oscar night the golden statuettes from… “Eve”.
Mankiewicz writes and describes uniquely about this kind of man who meanders and like a snake thrusts, coils and at the crucial moment bites with the poison that can infect not only the victim, but also the whole world that surrounds him, giving enormous powers to the opportunism, at first he “stepped on corpses”. And in our story, it’s not exactly a corpse, diva Margot (the brilliant Bette Davis) who is on the decline due to her age and is approached by a young aspiring actress, Eva, who will steal her role, but won’t ever manages to steal the shine of a star, to traverse the distance that separates ordinary mortals from gifted artists.
The film interspersed with an unprecedented and tasteful – nothing to do with today’s – gossip (insider information) aims to demolish the ephemeral glitter and vanity, a world that lives and breathes for glory, surrenders to complacency, arrogance, with a basic and a key exterminator of the above, the theater critic Edison DeWitt, George Sanders, in the role of his life, also winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Broadway and the return to the hits
After the accolade, Mankiewicz would leave for Broadway to become a playwright, and luckily for movie lovers, the obstacles that would come his way would bring him back to Hollywood to make a series of great movies, while it’s characteristic that even its commercial failures remain classics today. 1952 would deliver one of the best spy thrillers, The Cicero Affair with the wonderful James Mason and Mankiewicz again nominated for an Oscar for directing. The following year, he will transfer Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” to the big screen, with Marlon Brando, while in 1954 he will shoot the romantic drama “The Barefoot Countess”, which, despite featuring Bogard and Ava Gardner as the lead couple, does not have the expected response. but it was charming. In between, he had filmed the not so successful musical, about the levels of a Mankiewicz panda, “Monks and Dolls”, with Brando and Sinatra, who did not even speak to each other, while in 1958 he would transfer unevenly – under pressure – his novel Graham Greene “The Quiet American”. In 1959 he will shoot the memorable psychological drama “Suddenly Last Summer”, with Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn, based on the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams.
Unsurpassed even in his failures
Closing the brief tribute to Mankiewicz, we should mention the famous historical “Cleopatra”, with Elizabeth Taylor, which was a huge commercial failure and due to its increased costs, will bring 20th Century Fox to the brink of bankruptcy.
Yes, the film that is nothing less than an entertaining treat, that still impresses today and that we love to watch over and over again, was Mankiewicz’s failure. Yes, that was Joe Mankiewicz, who even his failures will remain unchanged in time, travel us forever.
RES-EMP
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
