If you’ve heard about this dual biography of two Hollywood icons, be assured that Jonathan Davis’s narration is everything a fan could ask for. Brother Herb cowrote CITIZEN KANE with Orson Welles. Brother Joe wrote, produced, and directed ALL ABOUT EVE and a string of other old favorites—then burned out making CLEOPATRA, the studio system’s most notorious disaster. They weren’t a team, and they didn’t collaborate, but together theirs is filmmaking’s essential story—the story of writing, producing, directing—and Davis narrates it with vigor and a sense of real involvement. Subtle and expressive, he captures the distinctive character of a voice, rather than just its familiar sound. A high point here is listening to someone talk like Bette Davis, without imitating her. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Herman J. (1897-1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for*Citizen Kane*and shared the picture's only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing*All About Eve, which also won Best Picture.
Despite triumphs as diverse as*Monkey Business*and*Cleopatra, and*Pride of the Yankees*and*Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have-a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué,*New York Times*and*New Yorker*theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct*Cleopatra*by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered.
For this first dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.
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Despite triumphs as diverse as*Monkey Business*and*Cleopatra, and*Pride of the Yankees*and*Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have-a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué,*New York Times*and*New Yorker*theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct*Cleopatra*by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered.
For this first dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.
The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics
Herman J. (1897-1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for*Citizen Kane*and shared the picture's only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing*All About Eve, which also won Best Picture.
Despite triumphs as diverse as*Monkey Business*and*Cleopatra, and*Pride of the Yankees*and*Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have-a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué,*New York Times*and*New Yorker*theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct*Cleopatra*by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered.
For this first dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.
Despite triumphs as diverse as*Monkey Business*and*Cleopatra, and*Pride of the Yankees*and*Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have-a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué,*New York Times*and*New Yorker*theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct*Cleopatra*by day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered.
For this first dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940178987186 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 03/31/2020 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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