Pictures Will Talk: The Life and Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz by Geist, Kenneth L - 1978

Old Tappan, New Jersey, U.S.A.: Scribner, 1978. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 6.25" x 9.25. H/B 443 pages, condition is very good, the DJ has several small tears and some edge wear. Joseph L. Mankiewicz is best known the screenwriter-director of All About Eve, the award-winning film that displays his talents for bitch-wit dialogue and canny direction. But in a career that has spanned nearly half a century. Mankiewicz's name as screen­writer, producer, and director has appeared on over sixty films, including such classics as The Philadelphia Story. A Letter to Three Wives, and Five Fingers. In Pictures Will Talk, Kenneth Geist provides the first full-length, behind-the-scenes study of Mankiewicz and his films. Illuminating the very private life of a covert Casanova and capturing the gUttering wit of a distinctive American filmmaker. Joe Mankiewicz first worked for Paramount, where his brother Herman was already a legend and where he collaborated on the wacky W.C. Fields comedy Million Dollar Legs. When Mankiewicz moved to MGM he was made a producer, and his output there ranged from Fury. Fritz Lang's first American film, to A Christmas Carol to Woman of the Year, the first picture to team Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. It was at Twentieth Century-Fox, however, that Mankiewicz reached the peak of his fame, and in successive years he won dual Academy Awards for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve, an achievement as yet unequaled by any other writer-director. Mankiewicz's films also include his and Marlon Brando's first and last attempts at both Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) and musical comedy (Guys and Dolls): Suddenly, Last Summer, with Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor; and Cleopatra. the most expensive and notorious movie ever made, which severely damaged Mankiewicz's reputation. Although his status was restored in 1972 when he directed Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier in Sleuth, he has yet to make another film. Until now, Mankiewicz's fame as a raconteur of Hollywood graffiti, mostly ribald, and as the lover of such stars as Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Linda Darnell was known only to inner circles. In Pictures Will Talk, Kenneth Geist provides a wider public with a revealing portrait of this complex, gifted man and offers a wealth of movie lore and gossip.