Word: mankiewicz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with more skill and at greater length under the titles All About Eve and The Bad and the Beautiful. What is original in the new picture receives scanty attention because of the time spent on the other two. And it really is a shame that writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz could never quite decide on which story to concentrate because he ends with a second rate product in which the flashes of brilliance seem to shake free in spite of, rather than because of, his intentions...
...First, Mankiewicz tries to recapture the salty flavor of epigramatic dialogue that marked All About Eve. Sometimes he partially succeeds. For example, a fading ingenue hurls "What have you got that I haven't?" at Ava Gardner, and is told by a mutual friend, "What she's got you can't spell, and what you have you used to have." But more often, the lines strain hard to evoke gasps of admiration; they produce only grunts of mystification. To prove that disaster has struck, a publicity agent says of a movie mogul, "I could tell something was wrong because...
...When Mankiewicz finally does concentrate on the alleged problems of a tempestuous Spanish beauty, he shows the same lack of decision. He just can't decide what the poor girl's trouble is. First, she is a hot-blooded little wanton who, while proud of the fact that "no man has ever bought men," has no real objection to the barter system. But she isn't satisfied with her earthy life. It's never exactly clear why, except that she yearns to be "a really good actress," so she goes to Hollywood. Then everyone decides that Maria is really...
...press agent, and is skillful enough to play a man, undergoing startling moral growth in about forty-five minutes of film time with precision instead of only vigor. Goring is a lecherous South American millionaire in a very small part--which shows how far from the mark Mankiewicz was in planning the film, since Goring's services should always be made the most of. Performance, though--even beauty--can't keep the film from alternating between boredom and silliness...
...BarefootContessa (Figaro-United Artists) starts off as a series of expert thrusts through the tinsel of the perennial Hollywood rags-to-stardom saga. But Writer-Director-Producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who has successfully charred his bread and butter before (All About Eve). this time reaches so hard for significance that he loosens his grip on the ironic Hollywood spoof he almost has in hand...