Herman J. Mankiewicz
Herman J. Mankiewicz | |
---|---|
Born | Herman Jacob Mankiewicz November 7, 1897 New York City, U.S. |
Died | March 5, 1953 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 55)
Alma mater | Columbia University (BA) |
Occupation | Screenwriter |
Years active | 1926–1952 |
Spouse |
Sara Aaronson (m. 1920) |
Children | 3, including Don Mankiewicz and Frank Mankiewicz |
Family | Joseph L. Mankiewicz (brother) See Mankiewicz family |
Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (/ˈmæŋkəwɪts/; November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953) was an American screenwriter who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941). Both Mankiewicz and Welles went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film. Mankiewicz was previously a Berlin correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily,[1] assistant theater editor at The New York Times,[1] and the first regular drama critic at The New Yorker.[1][2][3][4] Alexander Woollcott said that Mankiewicz was the "funniest man in New York".[5][6]
Mankiewicz was often asked to fix other writers' screenplays, with much of his work uncredited. His writing style became valued in the films of the 1930s—a style that included a slick, satirical, and witty humor, in which dialogue almost totally carried the film, and which eventually become associated with the "typical American film" of that period.[7]: 219 In addition to Citizen Kane, he wrote or worked on films including The Wizard of Oz, Man of the World, Dinner at Eight, The Pride of the Yankees and The Pride of St. Louis.
Film critic Pauline Kael credits Mankiewicz with having written, alone or with others, "about forty of the films I remember best from the twenties and thirties...He was a key linking figure in just the kind of movies my friends and I loved best."[8]: 247 Nearly seventy years after his death, Mankiewicz was portrayed by actor Gary Oldman in the 2020 Oscar-winning film Mank.
Early life and family
Mankiewicz was born in New York City in 1897. His parents were
Mankiewicz was described as a "bookish, introspective child who, despite his intelligence, was never able to win approval from his demanding father" who was known to belittle his achievements.
Early career
While a reporter in Berlin, Mankiewicz also sent pieces on drama and books to The New York Times.[3][4] At one point he was hired in Berlin by dancer Isadora Duncan to be her publicist in preparation for her return tour in the United States. At home again in the U.S., he took a job as a reporter for the New York World. Known as a "gifted, prodigious writer,"[This quote needs a citation] he contributed to Vanity Fair, The Saturday Evening Post, and numerous other magazines. While still in his twenties, he collaborated with Heywood Broun, Dorothy Parker, Robert E. Sherwood and others on a revue; and collaborated with George S. Kaufman on a play, The Good Fellows, and with Marc Connelly on the film The Wild Man of Borneo (1941). From 1923 to 1926, he was at The New York Times as assistant theater editor to George S. Kaufman, and soon after became the first regular theater critic for The New Yorker, writing a column during 1925 and early 1926. He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table.[15] His writing attracted the notice of film producer Walter Wanger, who offered him a contract to work at Paramount,[1] and Mankiewicz soon moved to Hollywood.[8]: 244
Hollywood
Early success
Paramount paid Mankiewicz $400 a week plus bonuses, and by the end of 1927, he was head of
Kael notes that "beginning in 1926, Mankiewicz worked on an astounding number of films." In 1927 and 1928, he did the
Other screenwriters made large contributions to Hollywood's early sound films, but "probably none larger than Mankiewicz," according to Kael. At the beginning of the
: 330According to Kael, Mankiewicz did not work on every kind of picture. He did not do
Style
Shortly after his arrival on the West Coast, Mankiewicz sent a
Between 1929 and 1935, he worked on at least twenty films, many of which he received no credit for. Between 1930 and 1932 he was either producer or associate producer on four comedies and helped write their screenplays without credit: Laughter, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Million Dollar Legs, which many critics considered one of the funniest comedies of the early 1930s.[7] In 1933, he moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where, along with Frances Marion,[1] he adapted Dinner at Eight, which was based on the George S. Kaufman/Edna Ferber play, and became one of the most popular comedies at that time and remains a "classic" comedy.
In 1933, he went on leave from MGM to write a film warning Americans about the rise of
The Wizard of Oz
In February 1938, Mankiewicz was assigned as the first of ten screenwriters to work on
Citizen Kane
Mankiewicz is best known for his collaboration with Orson Welles on the screenplay of Citizen Kane, for which they shared an Academy Award. The authorship later became a source of controversy. Pauline Kael attributed Kane's screenplay to Mankiewicz in a 1971 essay that was and continues to be strongly disputed.[1][22][23] Much debate has centered on this issue, largely because of the importance of the film itself, which most agree is a fictionalized biography of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. According to film biographer David Thomson, however, "No one can now deny Herman Mankiewicz credit for the germ, shape, and pointed language of the screenplay..."[24]
Mankiewicz biographer
According to film historian Otto Friedrich, it made Mankiewicz "unhappy to hear Welles quoted in Louella Parsons's column, before the question of screen credits was officially settled, as saying, 'So I wrote Citizen Kane.' Mankiewicz went to the Screen Writers Guild and declared that he was the original author. Welles later claimed that he planned on a joint credit all along, but Mankiewicz sometimes claimed that Welles offered him a bonus of ten thousand dollars if he would let Welles take full credit. Welles eventually agreed to share credit with Mankiewicz and furthermore, to list his name first.[1] Sometime later, Welles commented on this allegation:
God, if I hadn't loved him I would have hated him after all those ridiculous stories, persuading people I was offering him money to have his name taken off ... that he would be carrying on like this, denouncing me as a coauthor, screaming around.[11]: 274
Hearst's inner circle
Mankiewicz became good friends with Hollywood screenwriter
"Herman told
In 1939, Mankiewicz suffered a broken leg in a driving accident and had to be hospitalized. During his hospital stay, one of his visitors was Orson Welles, who met him earlier and had become a great admirer of his wit. During the months after his release from the hospital, he and Welles began working on story ideas which led to the creation of Citizen Kane.
Despite Welles' denial that the film was about Hearst, few people were convinced—including Hearst. After the release of Citizen Kane, Hearst pursued a longtime vendetta against Mankiewicz and Welles for writing the story.[7] "Certain elements in the film were taken from Mankiewicz's own experience: the sled Rosebud was based—according to some sources—on a very important bicycle that was stolen from him. ... [and] some of Kane's speeches are almost verbatim copies of Hearst's."[7] Most personally, the word "rosebud" was reportedly Hearst's private nickname for Davies' clitoris.[25] Hearst's thoughts about the film are unknown; what is certain is that his extensive chain of newspapers and radio stations blocked all mentions of the film, and refused to accept advertising for it, while some Hearst employees worked behind the scenes to block or restrict its distribution.[26]
Academy Award celebration
Citizen Kane was nominated for an
Richard Meryman describes the evening:
On the night of the awards, Herman turned on his radio and sat in his bedroom chair. Sara lay on the bed. As the screenplay category approached, he pretended to be hardly listening. Suddenly from the radio, half screamed, came "Herman J. Mankiewicz." Welles's name as coauthor was drowned out by voices all through the audience calling out, "Mank! Mank! Where is he?" And audible above all others was
Irene Selznick: "Where is he?"[11]: 272
The film as a whole
Richard Meryman concludes that "taken as a whole ... Citizen Kane was overwhelmingly Welles's film, a triumph of intense personal magic. Herman was one of the talents, the crucial one, that were mined by Welles. But one marvels at the debt those two self-destroyers owe to each other. Without Welles there would have been no supreme moment for Herman. Without Mankiewicz there would have been no perfect idea at the perfect time for Welles ... to confirm his genius ... The Citizen Kane script was true creative symbiosis, a partnership greater than the sum of its parts."[11]: 275
Alcoholism and death
Mankiewicz was an
Mankiewicz died March 5, 1953, at age of 55, of uremic poisoning, at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles.[2][19] Orson Welles said of him, "He saw everything with clarity. No matter how odd or how right or how marvelous his point of view was, it was always diamond white. Nothing muzzy."[30]
Legacy
In looking back on his early films, Pauline Kael wrote that Mankiewicz had, in fact, written (alone or with others) "about forty of the films I remember best from the twenties and thirties. I hadn't realized how extensive his career was. ... and now that I have looked into Herman Mankiewicz's career it's apparent that he was a key linking figure in just the kind of movies my friends and I loved best. These were the hardest-headed periods of American movies ... [and] the most highly acclaimed directors of that period, suggests that the writers ... in little more than a decade, gave American talkies their character."[8]: 247
Director and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson claimed that the "two most brilliant men he has ever known were George S. Kaufman and Herman Mankiewicz, and that Mankiewicz was the more brilliant of the two. ... [and] spearheaded the movement of that whole Broadway style of wisecracking, fast-talking, cynical-sentimental entertainment onto the national scene."[8]: 246
In 2024, Mankiewicz was announced as a posthumous inductee into the Luzerne County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame.[31]
Depictions
Mankiewicz is played by John Malkovich in RKO 281, a 1999 American film about the battle over Citizen Kane.
Mank, a black-and-white Mankiewicz biopic directed by David Fincher and starring Gary Oldman in the title role, was released on Netflix in December 2020.[32] Oldman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
Filmography
He was involved with the following films:[33]
- The Road to Mandalay (1926) — Writer (story credit)
- Stranded in Paris (1926) — Writer (adaptation)
- Fashions for Women (1927) — Writer
- A Gentleman of Paris (1927) (titles)
- The City Gone Wild (1927) — Writer (titles)
- Honeymoon Hate (1927) — Writer (titles)
- The Gay Defender (1927) — Writer (titles)
- Two Flaming Youths (1927) — Writer (titles)
- Love and Learn (1928) — Writer (titles)
- The Last Command (1928) — Writer (titles)
- Something Always Happens (1928) — Writer (titles)
- A Night of Mystery (1928/I) — Writer (titles)
- Abie's Irish Rose (1928) — Writer (titles)
- His Tiger Lady (1928) — Writer (titles)
- The Dragnet(1928) — Writer (titles)
- The Magnificent Flirt (1928) — Writer (titles)
- The Mating Call (1928) — Writer (titles), Newspaperman (uncredited)
- The Water Hole (1928) — Writer (titles)
- Take Me Home (1928) — Writer (titles)
- Avalanche (1928) — Writer (screenplay) (titles)
- The Barker (1928) — Writer (titles)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes(1928) — Writer (titles)
- Three Weekends(1928) — Writer (titles)
- What a Night! (1928) — Writer (titles)
- The Love Doctor (1929) — Writer (titles)
- The Canary Murder Case (1929) — Writer (titles)
- The Dummy (1929) — Writer
- The Man I Love (1929) — Writer (story)
- Thunderbolt (1929) — Writer
- The Mighty (1929) — Writer (titles)
- The Vagabond King (1930) — Writer (screenplay) (story)
- Men Are Like That (1930) — Writer (adaptation)
- Honey (1930) — Writer (scenario) (titles)
- Ladies Love Brutes (1930) — Writer (screenplay)
- True to the Navy (1930) — Writer (dialogue)
- Love Among the Millionaires (1930) — Writer (dialogue)
- Laughter (1930) — Writer
- The Royal Family of Broadway (1930) — Writer (adaptation)
- Salga de la cocina (1931) — Writer (adaptation)
- The Front Page (1931) — Bit (uncredited)
- Every Woman Has Something (1931) — Writer (adaptation)
- Man of the World (1931) — Writer (screenplay) (story)
- Ladies' Man (1931) — Writer
- Monkey Business (1931) — producer (uncredited)
- The Lost Squadron (1932) — Writer (additional dialogue)
- Dancers in the Dark (1932) — Writer
- Girl Crazy (1932) — Writer
- Million Dollar Legs (1932) — producer
- Horse Feathers (1932) — producer (uncredited)
- Another Language (1933) — Writer
- Dinner at Eight (1933) — Writer (screenplay)
- Meet the Baron (1933) — Writer
- Duck Soup (1933) — producer (uncredited)
- The Show-Off (1934) — Writer
- Stamboul Quest (1934) — Writer (screenplay)
- After Office Hours (1935) — Writer
- Escapade (1935) — Writer
- Three Maxims (1936) — Writer
- Love in Exile (1936) — Writer
- John Meade's Woman (1937) — Writer
- The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937) — contributor to dialogue (uncredited)
- My Dear Miss Aldrich (1937) — Writer (original story and screenplay)
- It's a Wonderful World (1939) — Writer (story)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939) — Writer (uncredited)
- The Ghost Comes Home (1940) — Writer (contributing writer)
- Comrade X (1940) — Writer (uncredited)
- Keeping Company (1940) — Writer (story)
- The Wild Man of Borneo (1941) — Writer (play)
- Citizen Kane (1941) — Writer (screenplay), Newspaperman (uncredited)
- Rise and Shine (1941) — Writer (screenplay)
- This Time for Keeps (1942) — Writer (characters)
- The Pride of the Yankees (1942) — Writer (screenplay)
- Stand By for Action (1942) — Writer (screenplay)
- The Good Fellows (1943) — Writer (play)
- Christmas Holiday (1944) — Writer
- The Enchanted Cottage (1945) — Writer
- The Spanish Main (1945) — Writer (screenplay)
- A Woman's Secret (1949) — Writer (screenplay), producer
- The Pride of St. Louis (1952) — Writer
- Lux Video Theatre (TV series episode, 1955): The Enchanted Cottage — Writer (original screenplay)
Bibliography
Novelization
- Browning, Tod & Herman J. Mankiewicz (1926). The Road to Mandalay: a Thrilling Throbbing Romance of Singapore. New York: Jacobsen Hodgkinson Corporation.
Plays
- Kaufman, George S. & Herman J. Mankiewicz (1931). The good fellow : a play in three acts. New York: S. French.
Essays and reporting
- H. J. M. (February 28, 1925). "The "World" is with us". Behind the News. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 2. pp. 4–5.
- — (June 6, 1925). "The theatre". Critique. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 16. p. 13.
- — (June 13, 1925). "The theatre". Critique. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 17. p. 15.
Critical studies, reviews and biography
- Meryman, Richard (1978). Mank : the wit, world and life of Herman Mankiewicz.
- Stern, Sydney Ladensohn (2019). The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics
Notes
- ^ Mankiewicz wrote at least two Jack Holt Westerns, Avalanche and The Water Hole.[18]
References
- ^ ISBN 9781617032677.
- ^ a b "Herman Mankiewicz, Film Writer, Dies at 55". Los Angeles Times. March 6, 1953. Archived from the original on February 25, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
Herman Mankiewicz, 55, screenwriter and former foreign correspondent and drama critic, died yesterday ...
- ^ ISBN 978-0-306-81613-0.
Of all Ben Hecht's colleagues, perhaps the most heroic was Herman J. Mankiewicz, the ex-New York Times journalist who wrote Citizen Kane. ...
- ^ a b Robertson, Nan (2009). "Herman J. Mankiewicz". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 28, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
While in Germany he began working as a Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He later returned to the U.S. where he gained notoriety among New York's cultural elite as the drama editor of The New York Times and The New Yorker.
- ^ a b c
"Herman Jacob Mankiewicz". Columbia Collegein 1917. Serving briefly in the Marine Corps, Mankiewicz held a variety of jobs, including work for the Red Cross press service in Paris. He returned for a short time to the United States, married, and then worked intermittently in Germany as a correspondent for a number of newspapers.
- ^ "Citizen Kane (1941)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2009. Archived from the original on February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8103-0917-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kael, Pauline. For Keeps (New York, Penguin Books, 1994)
- ISBN 0-8057-9291-0.
The father, Franz Mankiewicz, emigrated from Germany in 1892, living first in New York and then moving to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in to take a job ...
- ISBN 0-684-80620-7. Archivedfrom the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
Mankiewicz was the youngest of three children born to the German immigrants Franz Mankiewicz, a secondary schoolteacher, and Johanna Blumenau, a homemaker.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Meryman, Richard. Mank (New York, William Morrow, 1978)
- ^ HERMAN J. MANKIEWICZ, Screenwriter - BIOGRAPHY Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
- ^ Herman Mankiewicz, Pauline Kael, and the Battle Over “Citizen Kane” The New Yorker via Internet Archive. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
- ^ 5 Things You Don’t Know About Herman J. Mankiewicz Algonquin Round Table. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
- ^ "Members of the Algonquin Round Table". Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
- ^ Eyman, Scott. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930, Simon and Schuster (1997)
- ^ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, W.W. Norton & Co. (1999)
- ^ "Herman J. Mankiewicz". The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1941 – 1950. Archived from the original on March 21, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
- ^ a b "H. J. Mankiewicz, Screenwriter, 56 [sic]. Winner of Academy Award in 1941 Dies. Playwright Was Former Newspaper Man". The New York Times. March 6, 1953. Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
His brother, Joseph, is a well known screen author, producer and director. ... A sister, Mrs. Erna Stenbuck of New York, also survives.
- ^ Spencer, Samuel (December 4, 2020). ""Mank" on Netflix: Did Herman Mankiewicz Bring 100 Refugees to the U.S.?". Newsweek. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
- ^ Harmetz, Aljean. The Making of the Wizard of Oz, Hyperion (1998)
- ^ Rich, Frank (October 27, 2011). "Roaring at the Screen with Pauline Kael". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 25, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
- ^ McCarthy, Todd (August 22, 1997). "Welles pic script scrambles H'wood history". Variety. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
- ^ Thomson, David, A Biographical Dictionary of Film, 3rd ed. (1995) Alfred A. Knopf
- ^ Topkis, Jay; Vidal, Gore. "Rosebud by Jay Topkis | The New York Review of Books". Nybooks.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
{{cite magazine}}
: Cite magazine requires|magazine=
(help) - ISBN 9780312312800. Archivedfrom the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
- ISBN 0-684-18982-8. Archivedfrom the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
Mankiewicz was a screenwriter, a legend of acerbic wit, outrageous social behavior, and advanced alcoholism.
- ISBN 0-87910-199-7. Archivedfrom the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
The only problem with Mankiewicz was his notorious alcoholism.
- ISBN 9781617032677.
- ^ Wall Street Journal. Archivedfrom the original on October 28, 2019. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ https://www.timesleader.com/news/1651433/luzerne-county-arts-entertainment-hall-of-fame-announces-2024-induction-class
- ^ "Gary Oldman to Star in David Fincher's Biopic of 'Citizen Kane' Co-Writer Herman Mankiewicz". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
- ^ "Internet Movie Database". Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
Further reading
- Kael, Pauline, "Raising Kane", in The Citizen Kane Book, (1971) Bantam Books
- Lambert, Gavin, On Cukor (1972) Putnam
- Marion, Frances, Off With Their Heads (1972) Macmillan
- Naremore, James, The Magic World of Orson Welles (1978) Oxford University Press
- The New Yorker Fiction
- Mankiewicz, Herman J., "The Big Game," The New Yorker, November 14, 1925, p. 11
- Mankiewicz, Herman J., "A New Yorker in the provinces," The New Yorker, February 6, 1926, p. 16
External links
- Herman J. Mankiewicz at IMDb