Brian has a forthcoming bio of Mankiewicz.
--- Jerry Monaco <monacojerry at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/25/07, BklynMagus <magcomm at ix.netcom.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > How does schlocky sentimentality breed
> reactionary
> > politics (or vice versa)?
> >
> > -----
> >
> > Rogders and Hart vs. Rodgers and Hammerstein
> >
> > Leo McCarey vs. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
> >
> > Brian
>
>
> "Shit has its own integrity," as Gore Vidal put into
> the mouth of the an old
> hack screenwriter.
>
> And I really think that is all that needs to be said
> as a rule of thumb.
> The question is why does some shit have integrity
> and some just ... well
> I'll leave to your imagination.... So I prefer some
> sentimental shit over
> other sentimental shit, not because it is authentic,
> but because shit can't
> be faked anyway.
>
> But what really shocks me in this whole damn thread
> is that Brian seems to
> prefer Leo McCarey over Joseph Mankiewicz or thinks
> that Mankiewicz is
> somehow more sentimental or less authentic than
> McCarey....
>
> But maybe I miss understand him here. Maybe he meant
> to put McCarey on the
> sentimental side of the equation. Because stuff like
> "An Affair to Remember"
> is just intolerable stuff. "The Bells of St.
> Mary's" is so bad that
> somebody should show it to film classes repeatedly
> to drive people out of
> the business.... Torture!
>
> Which brings up another point. McCarey never did a
> decent movie unless he
> had a decent screenwriter to tell him what he needed
> to do. Look at all of
> his movies that are good and then look at the
> screenwriters that worked on
> them and look up their credits and you will see that
> McCarey was "auteur" of
> nothing. When he was assigned to or chose a decent
> screenplay he could
> churn out a good movie. Other wise he churned out
> some of the most
> torturous insufferable movies that only an auteurist
> could find something
> good in.
>
> I would give you 10 "An Affair to Remember"s for one
> "All About Eve." But
> of course the brothers Mackiewicz knew how to use
> their pens to construct a
> story and brother Joseph knew how to tell that story
> with a camera.
>
> Rodgers and Hart, much better than that Hammerstein
> stuff. But "it never
> entered my mind" to think otherwise.
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
>
>
> -
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>
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