Cool ! I just did a google search and found Brian's essay at on Mankiewicz at "Sense of Cinema" http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/mankiewicz.html
He probably posted it before but I didn't see it.
> 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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-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
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