1950 - ALL ABOUT EVE, high point in the career of Joseph Mankiewicz

Joseph Mankiewicz's career high as a writer/director.  This bitchy drama about the various shenanigans on Broadway featured Bette Davis in her last important role as Margo Channing reigning theatrical diva of the New York stage.  Little does Margo know, her personal assistant Eve Harrington is maneuvering to steal her boyfriend and her career.

Mankiewicz was a big fan of the theater so his screenplay is filled with lots of references to actors and plays that probably the average viewer wouldn't even remotely have a clue about.  The dialog in the film is sharp and the cast knows they have the advantage of a great script and talented director.  However it should probably be noted that the producer of the film Darryl Zanuck had considerable influence on the film.  He had Mankiewicz pare down his 3 hour plus script to a more manageable 138 minutes.  Zanuck was an excellent editor and tightened the film's story.

 The assembled cast is good particularly George Sanders as critic Addison DeWitt and Anne Baxter as the villainous Eve Harrington.  Most people watching the film are usually aware that this was one of Marilynn Monroe's early film.  She has a small part and she's pretty good in it.

Over the years this film has at times gotten the reputation as a camp classic and it's easy to see why,  the film is a little over the top and it's hard to believe a tough cookie like Margo Channing wouldn't see through Eve's scheming.  Still, a very good film.

1963 - CLEOPATRA, absurd epic drama

Cleopatra is usually discussed from the standpoint of the production and not the end result, the film itself.  The film was notable for paying Elizabeth Taylor the biggest salary a movie star had received up to that time.  The film ate up the talents of two directors Rouben Mamoulian and finally the writer/ director Joseph L. Mankiewicz whose career never recovered.

Excess was the name of the game with 20th Century Fox studio spending 31 million dollars on costumes and sets. Big money in the early 1960s.  The film was started twice with sets built at Pinewood studios and then completely rebuilt in Italy at Cinecitta Studios.  Mankiewicz directed during the day and wrote the script at night.  It's actually kind of a miracle the film is even half coherent.

Considering all the money spent this film is mostly a rehash of previous epics without the wild excess that can usually be found in these types of films.  Mankiewicz was clearly trying to make an intelligent epic but forgot to include any of the crazed fun that a director like Cecil B. DeMille brought to his version of Cleopatra.  This version seems to be mostly a rehash of the Shaw and Shakespeare plays about Cleopatra

Of the big time cast, only Rex Harrison comes off best as Caesar.  Once his character is assassinated in the Roman Senate the film has to focus on the love story between Anthony and Cleopatra which consists of the hammy Richard Burton overacting and Elizabeth Taylor not even bothering to act at all.  In fact the first half of Cleopatra is pretty good with Harrison getting all the good lines.  The second half is pretty terrible with Elizabeth Taylor's unending and ridiculous costume changes and Burton's goofy emoting over the plus sized Taylor.

248 minutes. The film was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Robert Buchman but Mankiewicz was the real power behind the screenplay.

1967 - THE HONEY POT Mankiewicz's final shot as writer/director

The writer/director Joseph L Mankiewicz never really got it together after the Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra film mess he got himself into in 1963. It was 1967 before he completed and released another film.

 

 The Honey Pot looks like it was intended to be a classy comedy/murder mystery with an all star cast. The film is a mash up of ideas and supposedly witty dialog and supposedly clever situations, not terrible, not very good. The Honey Pot was shot on location in Venice but not a lot of work was put into using the locations in an interesting way. Most of the action takes place on sets built at Cinecitta studios in Rome.

A seriously decent all star cast which was probably attracted to this film because of Mankiewicz's considerable reputation and that is about the only reason to sit through this thing. Even a pro like Rex Harrison seems to be hamming it up as he tries to bring some interest to the film.

Joseph L Mankiewicz ended his career partially redeeming himself by directing Sleuth with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. He was smart enough to go out on a can't miss film with two good actors in a film adaptation of a successful Broadway play. Mankiewicz saw the handwriting on the wall for his career and retired.

 125 minutes