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Mar 15, 2021 · The main story—written by Fincher’s late father Jack Fincher, before his death in 2003—is based on the true story of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, or Mank (played by Gary Oldman ), who is ...
- Anna Menta
- 2 min
Dec 8, 2020 · Ben Mankiewicz has been able to shine his own light for the past 17 years — and shine a light on films worthy of discovery — as a host on Turner Classic Movies. The 53-year-old broadcaster ...
- “Mank” Is Not Really About The Authorship of “Citizen Kane”
- OK, But Who Wrote “Kane”?
- The 1934 California Governor’s Race Did Not Loom Large in The Mankiewicz Family
- Mank’S Anti-Nazi Stance Brought Conflict with The Studio Heads
- Not Seen in “Mank”: Hearst’s Unseen Vendetta After “Kane”
- “Poor” Sara’s Life After Mank’S Death — and One of Ben’s Quibbles with “Mank”
- Hollywood Lore Was Not A Huge Part of Ben’s Life Growing Up
- How The Mankiewicz Family Became Aware of Jack Fincher’s “Mank” Screenplay
- Fincher Didn’T Reach Out to The Mankiewicz Family to Consult
- But Ben Mankiewicz Has A Cameo…
Ever since Pauline Kael’s 50,000-word New Yorker essay “Raising ‘Kane’” in 1971, it’s been a topic of argument about who really wrote the movie. Viewers are forgiven for going into “Mank” thinking that the question of “who wrote it?” would be the film’s central dramatic device. But it’s not. At all. “The movie is not about the authorship of the scr...
“Being a screenwriter had felt cheap to Herman,” Mankiewicz said. “It felt to him like being an ad man, you were engaged in commerce, in pointless commerce, that would vanish into the ether. So a recognition that he had written something important in ‘Citizen Kane,’ that he had written something that mattered, that he had written something that he ...
“Not at all, though politics mattered enormously to Herman,” the host said of whether the hotly contested campaign between Republican Frank Merriam and Democrat Upton Sinclair was ever passed down as being a turning point in Mank’s life. “I’ve never heard it mentioned, and I think that is a device successfully used by Fincher to help tell Herman’s ...
Not covered in “Mank” is how Herman wrote a screenplay called “The Mad Dog of Europe” in 1933, shortly after Hitler’s ascendancy. It was an anti-Nazi screed. “The main character, the threatening character, is named Adolf Mitler, in case anyone is confused about who it was supposed to be,” Mankiewicz said. “That film never got made in part because o...
In 1943, after he had won the Oscar for writing “Citizen Kane” a year earlier, Herman stood trial for drunk driving. It was an incident amplified greatly by his former friend William Randolph Hearst, looking to get payback for the movie. After having lunch in Beverly Hills, Mank ran into a car carrying Ira Gershwin’s wife. “There was little damage ...
What’s the biggest misconception of the Mankiewicz family? “That we’re rich. There was no money when Herman died. My grandmother was supported by relatives and by John Houseman a little bit.” Despite being frustrated by losing so much of the money he did make by gambling recklessly, she continued to defend him for the 32 years she outlived him. Ben...
“My father [Frank] always said, ‘Here’s what’s banned from discussion around the dinner table: Movies,’” Herman said. “Here’s what was allowed to be talked about: current events and politics every time. When anybody ever came over, my dad said even when Harpo Marx or F. Scott Fitzgerald or Welles came over, the discussion was politics.” In fact, Be...
Ben’s cousin John Mankiewicz, eventually a screenwriter and producer on David Fincher’s series “House of Cards,” was on a plane with Fincher in the late ‘90s or early 2000s. “And when Fincher realized who he was, he either gave him the script then or sent him a copy. But I think he had it with him, the manuscript his father had written.”
“Fincher, I think very wisely, didn’t reach out to a Mankiewicz nor should he have,” Ben said. “He’s making his movie, he doesn’t want to have us tell us what the story should be. Then when it was done, he was pretty eager to find out what we thought. If I were doing a movie about the Finchers, I wouldn’t reach out to him. You’ve got to make your m...
At the 125-minute mark of “Mank,” after Mankiewicz and Welles win their Oscar, a radio announcer comes on and says, “This is the first nomination and first win for Mr. Mankiewicz and Mr. Welles. Neither were able to attend tonight. Accepting for both is the president of RKO Radio Pictures, Mr. George Schaeffer.” That radio announcer is Ben Mankiewi...
Dec 4, 2020 · Mankiewicz’s grandson Ben shares favorite family stories about Herman and his friendship with Marion Davies, and discusses David Fincher’s biopic.
Feb 17, 2021 · On this episode film critic William Hammon and host Jason Godbey review Mank directed by David Fincher and give you their list of what to watch in the Mank-a-List. Follow us here for new episodes every Wednesday as well as updates and movie reviews or subscribe to our YouTube channel or on your favorite podcast app.
Dec 7, 2020 · David Fincher's new film is a playful weave of fact and fiction as it reimagines the story of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in the years that inspired the Hollywood masterpiece.
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Dec 5, 2020 · A guide to the real-life historical figures and true Hollywood history that are prevalent in David Fincher's Netflix movie Mank.
