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Joseph L.
Mankiewicz |
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Director / Screenwriter / Producer |
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1909 - 1993 |
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Born February 11, Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania, USA |
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Key
Production Country: USA
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Key Genres: Drama,
Comedy, Mystery, Comedy Drama |
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Key
Collaborators: Lyle Wheeler (Production
Designer), George W. Davis (Production Designer), Darryl F. Zanuck
(Producer), Milton Krasner (Cinematographer), Alfred Newman (Composer), Rex Harrison (Leading
Player), Hume Cronyn (Leading Character Player), Dorothy Spencer (Editor), James B. Clark (Editor),
Barbara McLean (Editor) |
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Highly Recommended: A
Letter to Three Wives (1949)*, House
of Strangers (1949)#, All About Eve (1950)*, The Barefoot Contessa (1954)* |
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Recommended:
Dragonwyck (1946), Somewhere in the Night
(1946)#, The Late George Apley
(1947), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)*, No Way Out (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Five
Fingers (1952), Guys and Dolls (1955), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Sleuth (1972) |
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Worth a Look: There
Was a Crooked Man... (1970) |
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Approach with Caution:
Julius Caesar (1953), The Quiet American (1958), The Honey Pot (1967) |
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Duds: Cleopatra
(1963) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; #
Listed in TSPDT's
250 Quintessential Noir Films
section. |
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Links:
[
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Joseph
L. Mankiewicz at Reel Classics ] [
Wikipedia ]
[
Google Books: Critical Essays with an Annotated Bibliography and a
Filmography ] [
Guardian Article (2007) ] |
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Books:
[
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Interviews ] [
Joseph
L. Mankiewicz : Critical Essays and Guide to Resources with Annotated
Bibliography and Filmography ] [
Pictures
Will Talk : The Life and Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz ] [
Joseph
L. Mankiewicz ] |
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"People
Will Talk (1951) is one of the most appropriate titles in
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's filmography. The screen was mostly a
vehicle for his literate, witty, and satirical screenplays.
Although Mankiewicz's films are dialogue-driven, they are not
filmed plays. They have an elegant visual style, and many
experiment with narrative form, being told from different points
of view with an effective use of flashbacks."
-
Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006) |
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"Perhaps
because he began as a screenwriter, Mankiewicz has often been
thought of as a scenarist first and a director only second. But
not only was he an eloquent scriptwriter, he was also an elegant
visual stylist whose talents as a director far exceeded his
reputation. He is one of the few major American directors who
was more appreciated during the early years of his career than
during the later stages." -
Eric Smoodin (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998) |
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"The
cinema of Joseph L. Mankiewicz is a cinema of intelligence
without inspiration. His best films - All About Eve and
The Barefoot Contessa - bear the signature of a genuine
auteur... Mankiewicz's cranky liberalism sometimes gets the
better of him, particularly when he wrenches scenes out of their
context to inveigh against the evils of farm subsidies (People
Will Talk) and oil-depletion allowances (The Barefoot
Contessa)." -
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)
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"Conflicts between the psychologically strong and powerful
interest Mankiewicz. The inevitable downfall of at least one of
those is usually caused by an ironic flaw in that individual's
makeup or strategy." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"The
difference between life and the movies is that a script has to
make sense, and life doesn't." -
Joseph
L. Mankiewicz |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include Escape (1948). |
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