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Mank: The wit, world, and life of Herman Mankiewicz
The Book itself seriously appears brand new with very minimum wear on dust cover
351 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 21, 2022
Does a great job of conveying Mank's humor through verbatim quotes and a similar irreverent "Look, no hands" attitude Mank would have liked. Thoroughly entertaining, not just informative. May be the only straight beginning to end biography I've enjoyed this much.
"Louis B. Mayer may be a shit, but not every shit is Louis B. Mayer,"
"Louis B. Mayer may be a shit, but not every shit is Louis B. Mayer,"
February 20, 2023
"There but for the grace of God goes God".---Herman Mankiewicz on Orson Welles
If Herman Mankiewicz is remembered at all, not withstanding the brilliant incarnation of him by Gary Oldman in the film MANK, it is for writing or co-writing CITIZEN KANE with (or without) Orson Welles. Mank, the sobriquet given by Hollywood to distinguish him from his better-known brother Joseph Mankiewicz, AKA "JOE MANKS", director-producer-writer, thundered of KANE, "there isn't a comma in the script I didn't write" while Welles was equally adamant that he wrote the lines for Charles Foster Kane and Mank wrote the rest, including the magnificent "girl with a white dress and white parasol" speech" by Mr. Bernstein. We shall never know. What we can ascertain from this tell-all biography is that Mank, whose only other well-known writing credit is for PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, spent most of his adult life stone drunk and part of the time telling outrageous stories, jokes and anecdotes. (Much like another Hollywood screenwriter-alcoholic, Dorothy Parker.) Once invited to a dinner party by a fellow Jew (Mank was a thorough atheist) he threw up in the bathroom, as usual, then told his host, "don't worry, Arthur. The white wine came out with the fish". Asked to attend a cocktail party he replied "would you invite Admiral Halsey to your bathtub to play with rubber boats?". On the decline in movie going after the 1950s, due to television:"Hollywood movies are so bad why not show them out in the street and charge people to go back into the theaters?". Ah, but I've saved the best for last. Like everybody else in Hollywood Mank could not stand Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn, who made Harvey Weinstein look chaste, but was forced to take writing work at Columbia. One day Cohn told his sycophants, with Mank in the room, "gentlemen, I always give my pictures the fanny test. If my fanny moves while I'm watching a movie, I know it's no good". From the back of the room Mank yelled out, "imagine that. The whole world wired to Harry Cohn's ass!" He was instantly fired.
If Herman Mankiewicz is remembered at all, not withstanding the brilliant incarnation of him by Gary Oldman in the film MANK, it is for writing or co-writing CITIZEN KANE with (or without) Orson Welles. Mank, the sobriquet given by Hollywood to distinguish him from his better-known brother Joseph Mankiewicz, AKA "JOE MANKS", director-producer-writer, thundered of KANE, "there isn't a comma in the script I didn't write" while Welles was equally adamant that he wrote the lines for Charles Foster Kane and Mank wrote the rest, including the magnificent "girl with a white dress and white parasol" speech" by Mr. Bernstein. We shall never know. What we can ascertain from this tell-all biography is that Mank, whose only other well-known writing credit is for PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, spent most of his adult life stone drunk and part of the time telling outrageous stories, jokes and anecdotes. (Much like another Hollywood screenwriter-alcoholic, Dorothy Parker.) Once invited to a dinner party by a fellow Jew (Mank was a thorough atheist) he threw up in the bathroom, as usual, then told his host, "don't worry, Arthur. The white wine came out with the fish". Asked to attend a cocktail party he replied "would you invite Admiral Halsey to your bathtub to play with rubber boats?". On the decline in movie going after the 1950s, due to television:"Hollywood movies are so bad why not show them out in the street and charge people to go back into the theaters?". Ah, but I've saved the best for last. Like everybody else in Hollywood Mank could not stand Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn, who made Harvey Weinstein look chaste, but was forced to take writing work at Columbia. One day Cohn told his sycophants, with Mank in the room, "gentlemen, I always give my pictures the fanny test. If my fanny moves while I'm watching a movie, I know it's no good". From the back of the room Mank yelled out, "imagine that. The whole world wired to Harry Cohn's ass!" He was instantly fired.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews