1 00:02:23,625 --> 00:02:25,250 -I can help you. -It's all right. 2 00:02:25,333 --> 00:02:27,166 I've got this. I'm good. 3 00:02:27,250 --> 00:02:28,458 Please come in. 4 00:02:36,625 --> 00:02:37,458 Here. 5 00:02:46,583 --> 00:02:50,708 Well, I've had them set you up out here so you wouldn't feel quite so confined. 6 00:02:50,791 --> 00:02:53,166 The ladies will scandalize the neighborhood 7 00:02:53,250 --> 00:02:55,375 by occupying both bedrooms. 8 00:02:55,458 --> 00:02:58,625 I will be staying in town at a bucolic spa called, 9 00:02:58,708 --> 00:03:01,166 if you can believe it, The Shoulder Arms. 10 00:03:01,250 --> 00:03:03,875 I will do my editing there. Now, as you know, 11 00:03:03,958 --> 00:03:06,625 Fraulein Freda is not only a nurse and physical therapist, 12 00:03:06,708 --> 00:03:09,166 she studied nutrition back in the old country. 13 00:03:09,250 --> 00:03:12,166 -Ja, liebes Fräulein? -Jawohl, Herr Houseman. 14 00:03:13,250 --> 00:03:15,083 It's a dry house. 15 00:03:15,166 --> 00:03:17,875 The owner of the ranch doesn't permit alcohol. 16 00:03:17,958 --> 00:03:20,833 But you're from Pennsylvania. You're no doubt used to it. 17 00:03:21,916 --> 00:03:24,125 Saved by the proverbial bell. 18 00:03:24,750 --> 00:03:26,000 Set it here, please. 19 00:03:27,125 --> 00:03:30,500 And careful. Thank you. 20 00:03:35,875 --> 00:03:36,791 Observe. 21 00:03:39,583 --> 00:03:41,583 Naturally, you'll do your damnedest to get at it. 22 00:03:41,666 --> 00:03:44,958 By the time you finish the first draft, which is to say, in 90 days, 23 00:03:45,041 --> 00:03:47,625 you should be a world-class sprinter. 24 00:03:49,250 --> 00:03:51,000 Rita, come in here, will you? 25 00:03:51,833 --> 00:03:53,791 This is Mrs. Alexander. 26 00:03:53,875 --> 00:03:57,416 She types 100 perfect words a minute and takes dictation like a clairvoyant. 27 00:03:57,500 --> 00:03:59,666 Rita Alexander, Herman Mankiewicz. 28 00:03:59,750 --> 00:04:01,333 How do you do, Mr. Mankiewicz? 29 00:04:01,416 --> 00:04:03,625 That's a big question. 30 00:04:04,458 --> 00:04:07,958 Well, since you like working nights, Rita here runs on London time. 31 00:04:08,041 --> 00:04:10,791 Her husband is one of our bold lads in the RAF. 32 00:04:10,875 --> 00:04:13,875 -Flies… What is it, Rita? Spitfires? -Hurricanes. 33 00:04:13,958 --> 00:04:16,625 -My sympathy and prayers. -I beg your pardon? 34 00:04:16,708 --> 00:04:21,500 Given the speed, climb, and turning radius of the Messerschmitt Bf 109-- 35 00:04:21,583 --> 00:04:24,250 I hope we won't need your sympathy, Mr. Mankiewicz. 36 00:04:24,333 --> 00:04:26,791 We'll do the praying and the fighting. 37 00:04:26,875 --> 00:04:30,625 I will meet with Orson weekly. Keep him to date on our progress. 38 00:04:30,708 --> 00:04:32,708 We're expecting great things. 39 00:04:32,791 --> 00:04:36,750 What is it the writer says? "Tell the story you know." 40 00:04:39,250 --> 00:04:41,500 I don't know that writer. 41 00:04:44,833 --> 00:04:45,666 Hello. 42 00:04:46,375 --> 00:04:48,208 Yes. Yes, he's right here. 43 00:04:48,708 --> 00:04:52,125 Well, you should have everything. If I've forgotten, there's a clipboard. 44 00:04:55,583 --> 00:04:57,416 -Yes? Hello? -They're getting him. 45 00:04:58,125 --> 00:05:01,625 Our wunderkind does have the gift of theatrical timing. 46 00:05:02,875 --> 00:05:04,750 Orson, hello. We just got in. 47 00:05:16,041 --> 00:05:17,416 -Hello. -Mank. 48 00:05:17,500 --> 00:05:20,166 Houseman tells me we have you just where we want you. 49 00:05:20,250 --> 00:05:21,625 Lucky me. 50 00:05:21,708 --> 00:05:24,750 -How's the leg? -"Thigh bone's connected to the hip bone." 51 00:05:24,833 --> 00:05:27,833 Excellent. Ready and willing to hunt the great white whale? 52 00:05:27,916 --> 00:05:32,708 Just call me Ahab. I understand we've 90 days. 53 00:05:32,791 --> 00:05:34,166 Let's aim for 60. 54 00:05:34,916 --> 00:05:36,833 He's just cut a month. 55 00:05:36,916 --> 00:05:40,791 I used to do it in five for you at the Mercury. This is leisurely. 56 00:05:40,875 --> 00:05:44,666 -Sixty days, and then we can noodle. -Nothing like a good noodle. 57 00:05:44,750 --> 00:05:49,291 Is the reason you lopped 30 days to run it past the RKO legal? 58 00:05:49,375 --> 00:05:52,875 I thought I told you, Mank. I have final cut, final everything. 59 00:05:52,958 --> 00:05:54,458 There are no studio notes. 60 00:05:54,541 --> 00:05:56,750 We'll have no one but ourselves to blame. 61 00:05:56,833 --> 00:05:59,416 -Sixty days and a noodle. -Mr. Welles, we're ready. 62 00:05:59,500 --> 00:06:01,833 Gotta run. I'm doing tests for Heart of Darkness. 63 00:06:01,916 --> 00:06:04,166 Little that, lesser Joe Conrad. 64 00:06:04,250 --> 00:06:06,583 If anyone should ask, tell 'em you're adapting. 65 00:06:06,666 --> 00:06:09,458 You don't know this sun-bleached sewer here, my friend. 66 00:06:09,541 --> 00:06:11,333 Break wind at Hollywood and Vine, 67 00:06:11,416 --> 00:06:14,333 and a producer in Santa Monica reports a ruptured main. 68 00:06:14,416 --> 00:06:17,250 No, I don't know this burg, not yet. 69 00:06:17,333 --> 00:06:21,000 I'm toiling with you in spirit, Mank. And I don't hear any typing. 70 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:26,125 No notes. 71 00:06:27,333 --> 00:06:29,583 And then he turns 24. 72 00:06:31,583 --> 00:06:32,875 Trapped. 73 00:06:46,166 --> 00:06:47,666 Let me take off these clothes. 74 00:06:49,250 --> 00:06:53,291 They let me go just as I achieved perfect equilibrium. 75 00:06:54,208 --> 00:06:57,041 I won't work with half the producers on the lot, 76 00:06:57,125 --> 00:06:59,916 and the other half won't work with me. 77 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,666 -What's this, a racing form? -You stop reading, you stop learning. 78 00:07:04,750 --> 00:07:05,875 Hold still. 79 00:07:08,333 --> 00:07:09,458 Lay back. 80 00:07:11,833 --> 00:07:13,708 Cigarette, please. 81 00:07:13,791 --> 00:07:16,833 Hermie, if a match gets near your breath, you'll burst into flames. 82 00:07:16,916 --> 00:07:19,666 Even the dog's name is awful. 83 00:07:19,750 --> 00:07:22,250 Sounds like a Japanese houseboy. 84 00:07:22,333 --> 00:07:24,333 You mark my words, Sara. 85 00:07:24,833 --> 00:07:28,708 The Wizard of Oz is gonna sink that studio. 86 00:07:28,791 --> 00:07:31,458 Sleep. You're driving to New York tomorrow. 87 00:07:32,458 --> 00:07:36,500 Remember when you used to take the train from back East? 88 00:07:36,583 --> 00:07:40,791 I'd sneak aboard in Albuquerque and climb into your compartment naked. 89 00:07:40,875 --> 00:07:43,875 I also remember how I spent my honeymoon in Berlin, 90 00:07:43,958 --> 00:07:46,083 with hookers running up and down the stairs all night 91 00:07:46,166 --> 00:07:49,125 because my dashing correspondent couldn't afford a nice hotel. 92 00:07:49,208 --> 00:07:52,791 -Weren't those the days? -Yeah, and the nights weren't bad either. 93 00:07:53,541 --> 00:07:56,041 -Schnutz? -For the last time, what? 94 00:07:56,125 --> 00:07:58,625 -What year is it? -Herman… 95 00:07:59,125 --> 00:08:02,708 -I should have done something by now. -Hermie… 96 00:08:02,791 --> 00:08:04,833 Give me a sign, oh, Lord. 97 00:08:04,916 --> 00:08:09,875 I am as your servant Moses, though I won't work half as cheap. 98 00:08:09,958 --> 00:08:11,666 Go to sleep, meshuggener. 99 00:08:14,750 --> 00:08:16,125 -Schnutz? -What? 100 00:08:16,208 --> 00:08:18,041 Why do you put up with me? 101 00:08:20,666 --> 00:08:21,666 I don't know. 102 00:08:22,166 --> 00:08:24,125 That bush in the front yard, 103 00:08:24,208 --> 00:08:28,458 if it catches fire tonight, you will let me know? 104 00:08:31,541 --> 00:08:33,458 I mean, you know all kinds of things. 105 00:08:33,541 --> 00:08:36,750 Iambic pentameter, the words of the great poets. 106 00:08:36,833 --> 00:08:39,291 What about the way she signed it? "Always, Ethel." 107 00:08:40,083 --> 00:08:43,875 Can you beat that? Not just "Ethel," "Always, Ethel." 108 00:08:43,958 --> 00:08:46,583 Tommy, if we can find civilization by sundown, 109 00:08:46,666 --> 00:08:49,791 I hope to climb out of this crate and into a cold martini. 110 00:08:49,875 --> 00:08:52,500 She's not the kind to use "always" if she didn't mean it. 111 00:08:52,583 --> 00:08:55,250 If she meant just "Ethel," she'd write just "Ethel," not "always." 112 00:08:55,333 --> 00:08:57,291 -Wouldn't you think? -The road, Tommy. 113 00:08:57,375 --> 00:09:01,416 I know. You read it. See what I mean. 114 00:09:12,041 --> 00:09:14,333 She loves me, don't you think? 115 00:09:33,708 --> 00:09:37,375 Mank? It's Orson Welles. 116 00:09:38,666 --> 00:09:42,875 -Of course it is. -I think it's time we talked. 117 00:09:43,708 --> 00:09:45,750 I'm all ears. 118 00:09:52,541 --> 00:09:55,250 Once a castle on a hill, 119 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,833 now a memory of what once was. 120 00:09:59,791 --> 00:10:05,250 Alone in his unfinished, already decaying pleasure palace, 121 00:10:05,333 --> 00:10:09,250 aloof, seldom visited, never photographed, 122 00:10:10,125 --> 00:10:15,416 we see an old man in a robe, smoking a pipe, 123 00:10:15,500 --> 00:10:18,291 sitting alone by his pool… 124 00:10:20,500 --> 00:10:24,291 discarded pages scattered at his feet. 125 00:10:25,041 --> 00:10:26,208 Narrator, 126 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:33,708 "An emperor of newsprint continued to direct his failing empire, 127 00:10:33,791 --> 00:10:36,583 vainly attempting to sway, as he once did, 128 00:10:36,666 --> 00:10:38,125 the destinies of a nation 129 00:10:38,208 --> 00:10:40,583 which had long since ceased to listen to him…" 130 00:10:41,083 --> 00:10:43,625 No. "Had ceased to trust him." 131 00:10:44,125 --> 00:10:49,083 We see through trees as an aide pushes this old man in a wheelchair 132 00:10:49,166 --> 00:10:51,958 across neatly groomed lawns. 133 00:10:52,041 --> 00:10:54,791 Narrator, "There, last month, 134 00:10:55,541 --> 00:10:59,375 as it must to all men, death came to--" 135 00:11:01,958 --> 00:11:03,708 Let's have that cuppa, Mrs. A. 136 00:11:12,083 --> 00:11:13,541 I know who it is. 137 00:11:18,125 --> 00:11:20,875 Or… who it's meant to be. 138 00:11:22,708 --> 00:11:25,250 What makes you think it's meant to be anybody? 139 00:11:25,333 --> 00:11:26,166 Come now. 140 00:11:26,250 --> 00:11:29,166 Everyone in the English-speaking world will recognize him instantly. 141 00:11:29,250 --> 00:11:31,500 Exactly what he would say. 142 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,375 -Did you know the man? -Maybe. 143 00:11:37,208 --> 00:11:38,083 I used to. 144 00:11:39,125 --> 00:11:41,875 -You wrote for one of his papers? -No, praise God. 145 00:11:41,958 --> 00:11:45,666 I met him after he started bankrolling his girlfriend's pictures. 146 00:11:47,166 --> 00:11:48,875 You knew Marion Davies? 147 00:11:49,666 --> 00:11:51,750 -If anyone did. -Really? 148 00:11:52,791 --> 00:11:54,000 What's she like? 149 00:11:54,083 --> 00:11:58,208 Why is it when you scratch a prim, starchy English schoolgirl, 150 00:11:58,291 --> 00:12:00,791 you get a swooning moving-picture fan 151 00:12:00,875 --> 00:12:03,833 who's forgotten all she learned about the Battle of Hastings? 152 00:12:03,916 --> 00:12:07,250 Hastings. Fourteen October 1066, 153 00:12:07,333 --> 00:12:08,958 ten centigrade. 154 00:12:43,958 --> 00:12:44,958 Mank? 155 00:12:51,083 --> 00:12:53,041 Sorry. Somebody told me Mankiewicz was in here. 156 00:12:53,125 --> 00:12:56,125 He is. I'm the promising brother, Joe. 157 00:12:56,958 --> 00:13:00,541 -I didn't know Herman had a brother. -Neither does anyone else. 158 00:13:01,041 --> 00:13:03,833 Let me guess. "There are millions to be made, 159 00:13:03,916 --> 00:13:06,625 and your only competition is idiots," stop. 160 00:13:07,375 --> 00:13:08,291 How did you know? 161 00:13:08,375 --> 00:13:11,125 I hate to tell you, anyone who can rub three words together 162 00:13:11,208 --> 00:13:13,000 and make a sentence gets one. 163 00:13:17,166 --> 00:13:18,125 Come on. 164 00:13:25,083 --> 00:13:28,625 It's after lunch, and we're on a deadline. He may be busy. 165 00:13:29,416 --> 00:13:32,750 -I promise I won't be a bother. -Not exactly what I meant. 166 00:13:38,125 --> 00:13:39,833 Come on! 167 00:13:39,916 --> 00:13:42,083 -Hey, you know I'm good for it. -Fellas. 168 00:13:42,750 --> 00:13:44,291 These are high stakes. 169 00:13:48,375 --> 00:13:51,208 -Tails! That's it! -God damn it! 170 00:13:51,291 --> 00:13:53,833 -Mank! -All right. Double or nothing. 171 00:13:53,916 --> 00:13:56,291 This time, banjo-eyed son of a bitch, let it hit the floor. 172 00:13:56,375 --> 00:13:57,833 -Banjo eyes. -Son of a bitch… 173 00:13:57,916 --> 00:13:59,416 Mank once bet me a five-spot 174 00:13:59,500 --> 00:14:02,625 to see how long it would take a falling leaf to hit the ground. 175 00:14:02,708 --> 00:14:05,875 -Had to go to management to cover it. -For five bucks? 176 00:14:05,958 --> 00:14:07,500 Five thousand. 177 00:14:07,583 --> 00:14:08,791 Come on. 178 00:14:09,458 --> 00:14:12,750 Heads, you bastard! 179 00:14:15,291 --> 00:14:16,208 Mank! 180 00:14:18,166 --> 00:14:20,125 Pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen. 181 00:14:20,208 --> 00:14:22,125 Hey, Charlie. 182 00:14:22,208 --> 00:14:26,708 Yeah. You all remember the Algonquin cabin boy, Charlie Lederer, 183 00:14:26,791 --> 00:14:29,250 a poor but somewhat talented magazine writer, 184 00:14:29,333 --> 00:14:31,291 come West to join our merry band? 185 00:14:31,375 --> 00:14:33,583 -Well, you know most everyone. -Mr. Kaufman. 186 00:14:33,666 --> 00:14:34,833 George is fine, kid. 187 00:14:34,916 --> 00:14:36,500 -Mr. Perelman. -Nice to meet you. 188 00:14:36,583 --> 00:14:38,250 Do you prefer Sidney or S.J.? 189 00:14:38,333 --> 00:14:41,125 He takes what he gets. The great Charles MacArthur. 190 00:14:41,208 --> 00:14:42,750 Good to see you again. 191 00:14:42,833 --> 00:14:45,250 My resident jack-of-all-trades, Shelly Metcalf. 192 00:14:45,333 --> 00:14:46,625 -Hey, kid. -Mr. Metcalf. 193 00:14:46,708 --> 00:14:48,625 Save the "mister" for the anointed. 194 00:14:48,708 --> 00:14:50,791 And last, not yet among them, my brother Joe. 195 00:14:50,875 --> 00:14:54,791 Have Cyclone say, "I don't mind the heat as much as I do the humanity." 196 00:14:54,875 --> 00:14:58,541 And the one and only Ben Hecht. 197 00:14:58,625 --> 00:15:00,041 Have you been laid yet? 198 00:15:01,208 --> 00:15:03,083 Do you have to think about that? 199 00:15:06,333 --> 00:15:07,208 Hello. 200 00:15:07,916 --> 00:15:09,958 Yeah. Right away. 201 00:15:10,666 --> 00:15:13,250 Selznick, everyone. Five minutes. 202 00:15:13,333 --> 00:15:15,208 You've arrived in the well-known nick. 203 00:15:15,291 --> 00:15:18,708 Just in time for a story conference with the great David O. 204 00:15:18,791 --> 00:15:20,208 Once more unto the breach… 205 00:15:20,708 --> 00:15:22,333 Breach? Hell, unto the wire… 206 00:15:22,416 --> 00:15:23,541 Without a net. 207 00:15:23,625 --> 00:15:26,250 Keep your mouth shut and watch us for your cue, okay? 208 00:15:26,333 --> 00:15:27,166 Cue? 209 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,833 What I wouldn't give to see that in a tight sweater. 210 00:15:31,916 --> 00:15:33,791 Herm, can I use that? 211 00:15:35,208 --> 00:15:36,375 I need a status report. 212 00:15:36,458 --> 00:15:38,291 Boys. Come on in. 213 00:15:41,750 --> 00:15:43,333 Make yourselves at home. 214 00:15:45,708 --> 00:15:47,833 Now, you all know Joe von Sternberg. 215 00:15:48,583 --> 00:15:51,708 You wanted 72 hours, you got 72 hours. 216 00:15:51,791 --> 00:15:53,333 Tell us what you have so far. 217 00:15:55,291 --> 00:15:57,875 Ben, why don't you start? 218 00:15:57,958 --> 00:16:00,208 Well, this was tough, David. 219 00:16:00,291 --> 00:16:03,291 In the beginning, we couldn't agree on an approach. 220 00:16:03,375 --> 00:16:04,375 Really? Why was that? 221 00:16:04,458 --> 00:16:08,291 Well, we see a different kind of Paramount picture. 222 00:16:08,375 --> 00:16:09,250 Different how? 223 00:16:10,333 --> 00:16:13,875 Frankenstein and The Wolf Man all rolled into one, only-- 224 00:16:13,958 --> 00:16:16,541 I don't make cheap horror pictures. Universal does. 225 00:16:16,625 --> 00:16:20,208 This is different. This is about something. 226 00:16:21,750 --> 00:16:22,750 Okay… 227 00:16:23,750 --> 00:16:24,833 Sidney. 228 00:16:26,291 --> 00:16:28,875 Imagine a mad scientist, 229 00:16:28,958 --> 00:16:33,625 touring the boonies with a mechanical freak he's fabricated. 230 00:16:33,708 --> 00:16:35,333 What does he mean, "fabricated"? 231 00:16:35,416 --> 00:16:38,583 And displays it to superstitious hayseeds 232 00:16:38,666 --> 00:16:42,500 in a giant, silk-lined casket for the price of admission. 233 00:16:42,583 --> 00:16:48,875 But, every full moon, the monster awakens and raises unholy hell with the villagers. 234 00:16:48,958 --> 00:16:50,916 Give it a Eastern European look. 235 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,875 Men in leather shorts, gals in tattered peasant blouses. 236 00:16:53,958 --> 00:16:57,125 -They think it's the devil? -Villagers always think it's the devil. 237 00:16:57,208 --> 00:17:00,125 And the scientist and his creation are forced to flee 238 00:17:00,208 --> 00:17:02,041 during a raging electrical storm. 239 00:17:02,125 --> 00:17:04,541 Flee from outraged peasants… 240 00:17:04,625 --> 00:17:06,166 Who pursue them mit torches… 241 00:17:06,250 --> 00:17:08,000 Overturn their creaky wagon… 242 00:17:08,083 --> 00:17:09,375 And set fire to it. 243 00:17:10,750 --> 00:17:14,291 Tell him about the finale, Charlie. 244 00:17:19,916 --> 00:17:20,791 Well… 245 00:17:21,958 --> 00:17:24,500 the rain turns to sleet, 246 00:17:25,083 --> 00:17:29,083 puts out the fire, and entombs the monster in solid ice. 247 00:17:31,208 --> 00:17:35,583 While, nearby, an old priest weeps. 248 00:17:39,083 --> 00:17:40,166 A weeping priest? 249 00:17:40,250 --> 00:17:42,666 Thunder, lightning, blood, 250 00:17:42,750 --> 00:17:44,625 fire, religion… 251 00:17:44,708 --> 00:17:45,666 All in one film? 252 00:17:45,750 --> 00:17:47,500 And with an unseasonal thaw, 253 00:17:48,333 --> 00:17:49,458 a sequel. 254 00:17:49,958 --> 00:17:52,833 You said this was about something, this was different. 255 00:17:52,916 --> 00:17:55,916 Plus, the ominous futility of man playing God. 256 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,916 The Faustian bargain of life everlasting. 257 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,583 The triumph of the human spirit 258 00:18:00,666 --> 00:18:04,208 over the beast incarnate in our far-too-solid flesh. 259 00:18:05,291 --> 00:18:06,500 It's director-proof. 260 00:18:06,583 --> 00:18:07,458 Joe. 261 00:18:08,375 --> 00:18:09,208 B picture. 262 00:18:09,291 --> 00:18:11,708 It's not for Joe. Boys, this is serious. 263 00:18:11,791 --> 00:18:12,916 We need your help. 264 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,500 We've got to get people into theaters, but… 265 00:18:16,750 --> 00:18:17,583 how? 266 00:18:22,083 --> 00:18:24,041 Show movies in the streets. 267 00:18:28,208 --> 00:18:31,833 You okay, Charlie? Taken care of this weekend? 268 00:18:31,916 --> 00:18:34,958 -I'm going to see my aunt. -That sounds like fun. 269 00:18:35,041 --> 00:18:38,750 You obviously don't know my aunt. If you're not doing anything, come along. 270 00:18:38,833 --> 00:18:40,250 Careful, I just might. 271 00:18:40,750 --> 00:18:43,791 Glendale station at 7:00. Bring Sara if you like. 272 00:18:43,875 --> 00:18:46,375 -Who? -Sara, isn't that your wife? 273 00:18:46,458 --> 00:18:49,000 Oh, you mean Poor Sara. 274 00:18:49,083 --> 00:18:51,250 No, she and the kids are back East. 275 00:19:11,458 --> 00:19:12,375 Herman. 276 00:19:15,958 --> 00:19:16,958 Herman. 277 00:19:22,958 --> 00:19:25,166 -Herm! -Charlie! 278 00:20:38,625 --> 00:20:40,833 Cut! Next setup, please. 279 00:20:49,041 --> 00:20:50,708 What is Mank doing here? 280 00:20:51,708 --> 00:20:53,333 -Who? -Herman Mankiewicz. 281 00:20:55,375 --> 00:20:57,833 -Do I know him? -He wrote one of our Lon Chaneys. 282 00:20:58,916 --> 00:20:59,750 Mank! 283 00:21:01,625 --> 00:21:05,875 -Thalberg, the boy genius. -I am shocked to see you here. 284 00:21:05,958 --> 00:21:10,833 I'd be shocked to see me here, too, Irving, if only I knew where here was. 285 00:21:10,916 --> 00:21:13,791 -You wrote one of our Lon Chaneys. -Among many. 286 00:21:13,875 --> 00:21:15,250 -Pictures? -Writers. 287 00:21:15,333 --> 00:21:19,333 -At MGM, movies are a team sport, Mank. -Which may be why I'm at Paramount. 288 00:21:19,416 --> 00:21:22,583 Since when don't Paramount use writers by the truckload? 289 00:21:22,666 --> 00:21:26,125 But all at once, not in relays. Helps spread the blame around. 290 00:21:26,208 --> 00:21:28,250 You remember our chairman, Louis B. Mayer? 291 00:21:28,333 --> 00:21:29,750 By reputation only. 292 00:21:29,833 --> 00:21:32,666 -Long night? -A short one. Plagued by spirits. 293 00:21:33,458 --> 00:21:36,375 It's a hell of a way to spend the Sabbath, fellas. 294 00:21:36,458 --> 00:21:38,000 Here in support of a friend. 295 00:21:38,083 --> 00:21:41,208 His leading lady is making a mid-career adjustment. 296 00:21:41,291 --> 00:21:45,041 I'm on my way over. Any notes from the oversight tent? 297 00:21:49,666 --> 00:21:52,000 -Who was that again? -Just a writer. 298 00:21:54,750 --> 00:21:57,166 Slumming on a Saturday, Mr. Metcalf? 299 00:21:57,250 --> 00:21:59,916 Mank. No sir! Helping out on B camera. 300 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,750 It's a home movie, but his idea of a home movie. 301 00:22:02,833 --> 00:22:03,916 I know you. 302 00:22:04,708 --> 00:22:07,041 Well, what's at stake here? 303 00:22:07,541 --> 00:22:11,250 We met at John Gilbert's birthday. You're Herman Mankiewicz. 304 00:22:11,333 --> 00:22:12,166 Guilty. 305 00:22:13,083 --> 00:22:15,125 And I remember you, Miss Davies. 306 00:22:15,875 --> 00:22:20,208 Regaling us with stories about dodging trolley cars in Brooklyn. 307 00:22:21,541 --> 00:22:23,416 Your Flatbush was showing. 308 00:22:26,625 --> 00:22:29,916 You fractured Wally Beery's wrist Indian wrestling. 309 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:31,041 A lucky break. 310 00:22:31,125 --> 00:22:33,833 Boy, was he surprised. You're stronger than you look. 311 00:22:33,916 --> 00:22:36,500 And from what I understand, you're smarter. 312 00:22:37,583 --> 00:22:39,500 That was a compliment. 313 00:22:39,583 --> 00:22:42,125 -See what I mean? -You are interesting. 314 00:22:42,208 --> 00:22:45,208 I need a favor, but promise you won't laugh. 315 00:22:45,291 --> 00:22:47,500 Given the state of the world, a tall order. 316 00:22:47,583 --> 00:22:48,916 I just know you are. 317 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,083 I have got such a hangover right now, there's just a fighting chance I won't. 318 00:22:54,166 --> 00:22:57,583 I'm being burned at the stake and I am dying for a ciggie-boo. 319 00:22:58,791 --> 00:23:00,416 There. God's punishing you. 320 00:23:02,708 --> 00:23:05,208 Watch those stairs. They're treacherous. 321 00:23:05,708 --> 00:23:08,125 Every moment of my life is treacherous. 322 00:23:10,791 --> 00:23:12,166 Any last words? 323 00:23:12,958 --> 00:23:14,625 Welcome to San Simeon. 324 00:23:15,666 --> 00:23:16,625 I've written worse. 325 00:23:16,708 --> 00:23:20,666 -You've never seen it? -No, but George Bernard Shaw was right. 326 00:23:21,791 --> 00:23:22,750 How's that? 327 00:23:23,375 --> 00:23:26,083 "It's what God might've built had he had the money." 328 00:23:26,583 --> 00:23:30,583 Well, as they say in the Bronx, "Make yourself to home," Mr. Mankiewicz. 329 00:23:30,666 --> 00:23:33,958 -Or shall I call you Herman? -No. Please, call me Mank. 330 00:23:34,041 --> 00:23:36,250 -Good morning, Charles. -Charlie. 331 00:23:36,333 --> 00:23:39,416 -Aunt Marion. Mank. -You sleep well? 332 00:23:40,083 --> 00:23:42,083 Until your rather dramatic wake-up call. 333 00:23:42,166 --> 00:23:46,458 This is all Pops's idea. He wants me ready to take on the talkies. 334 00:23:46,541 --> 00:23:47,791 First positions, please! 335 00:23:48,500 --> 00:23:49,916 Riders, ready! 336 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:52,125 Rolling! 337 00:23:52,916 --> 00:23:55,333 -Speed. -Speed! Action! 338 00:24:05,875 --> 00:24:09,541 Help! Please! Someone save me! 339 00:24:13,291 --> 00:24:14,291 Cut! 340 00:24:24,541 --> 00:24:28,875 Pops, this is Herman Mankiewicz, but we have to call him Mank. 341 00:24:29,541 --> 00:24:30,458 Mankiewicz? 342 00:24:31,708 --> 00:24:35,458 Herman Mankiewicz, New York playwright and drama critic? 343 00:24:35,541 --> 00:24:38,250 Turned humble screenwriter. Mr. Hearst. 344 00:24:38,333 --> 00:24:43,125 Why, no need to be humble, Mr. Mankiewicz. Pictures that talk are the future. 345 00:24:43,208 --> 00:24:46,416 They're gonna need people who honor words, give them voice. 346 00:24:46,500 --> 00:24:48,500 There's a golden age coming 347 00:24:48,583 --> 00:24:53,166 when all the world will be a stage, and you, perhaps, their Shakespeare. 348 00:24:53,250 --> 00:24:55,958 I wouldn't have thought you'd be that keenly interested 349 00:24:56,041 --> 00:24:57,416 in the honoring of words. 350 00:24:58,333 --> 00:24:59,416 What's so funny? 351 00:25:00,541 --> 00:25:04,666 I'm just surprised that a vaunted muckraker like yourself 352 00:25:04,750 --> 00:25:07,958 sees Hollywood's future as such a shiny penny. 353 00:25:08,458 --> 00:25:09,416 Back to one. 354 00:25:09,500 --> 00:25:11,500 Times are changing, Mr. Mankiewicz, 355 00:25:12,125 --> 00:25:14,416 and I'm not just referring to this Depression. 356 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:15,375 All that bother. 357 00:25:15,458 --> 00:25:16,875 And when all this is over, 358 00:25:16,958 --> 00:25:20,250 picture-makers are gonna have to service this new entertainment. 359 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,083 I intend to make pictures with the help of real literary minds. 360 00:25:25,166 --> 00:25:26,291 I support that. 361 00:25:26,375 --> 00:25:28,458 Instead, what do most studios give us? 362 00:25:28,541 --> 00:25:30,958 Gangster flicks, zanies. 363 00:25:31,041 --> 00:25:32,041 Too true. 364 00:25:32,125 --> 00:25:35,125 Now, how many gangsters do Americans meet in a lifetime? 365 00:25:35,750 --> 00:25:38,000 How many families are like the Marx Brothers? 366 00:25:38,083 --> 00:25:39,625 You mean, besides my own? 367 00:25:40,833 --> 00:25:44,708 Very good. Have him seated next to me. 368 00:25:48,708 --> 00:25:50,416 Miss Davies, Mr. Hearst would like 369 00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:53,125 Mr. Mankiewicz seated to his left at dinner. 370 00:25:55,666 --> 00:25:57,125 Pops likes you. 371 00:26:12,666 --> 00:26:14,750 Why is it when Houseman edits, 372 00:26:14,833 --> 00:26:18,875 everyone ends up speaking like a constipated Oxford don? 373 00:26:23,875 --> 00:26:24,708 Hello. 374 00:26:25,416 --> 00:26:26,291 Yes, he is. 375 00:26:27,166 --> 00:26:28,375 No, not at all. 376 00:26:28,458 --> 00:26:29,375 Please hold on. 377 00:26:29,458 --> 00:26:30,458 It's Poor Sa-- 378 00:26:31,416 --> 00:26:33,625 I'm sorry. It's your wife. 379 00:26:40,458 --> 00:26:42,375 -Schnutz. -I heard that. 380 00:26:42,458 --> 00:26:44,666 Joe called four times in the last three days. 381 00:26:44,750 --> 00:26:47,375 -He wants your number up there. -So give it to him. 382 00:26:47,458 --> 00:26:48,541 Knock it off! 383 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,208 The boys are remodeling. 384 00:26:51,291 --> 00:26:54,166 He seemed concerned about something. Is everything okay? 385 00:26:54,250 --> 00:26:56,541 If I could swim, I'd be doing swimmingly. 386 00:26:56,625 --> 00:27:00,666 And don't mind Joe. He's a worrisome old woman in disguise. 387 00:27:00,750 --> 00:27:02,458 Well, he wants to offer you work. 388 00:27:02,541 --> 00:27:04,708 Baby Joe, offering me? 389 00:27:06,666 --> 00:27:08,916 If he calls again, give him this number. 390 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,041 I've gotta run. Kiss the offspring. 391 00:27:16,958 --> 00:27:18,500 I say… 392 00:27:19,208 --> 00:27:21,916 a letter from the gallant lieutenant. 393 00:27:22,875 --> 00:27:25,458 Now, let's hope it makes more sense than the last. 394 00:27:25,541 --> 00:27:27,791 Fighters off the decks of aircraft carriers. 395 00:27:27,875 --> 00:27:30,541 -Whoever had that idea? -It's not good? 396 00:27:30,625 --> 00:27:31,750 Not good? 397 00:27:31,833 --> 00:27:34,208 German U-boats are starting to hunt in packs, 398 00:27:34,291 --> 00:27:38,500 and a Stuka dive-bomber can drop one down your stack from 500 feet. 399 00:27:39,083 --> 00:27:42,041 What's our valiant laddie have to say for the cause-- 400 00:27:57,375 --> 00:27:58,875 It's not from her husband. 401 00:28:00,708 --> 00:28:02,333 His ship's been sunk off Norway. 402 00:28:03,041 --> 00:28:04,500 Presumed lost at sea. 403 00:28:07,458 --> 00:28:10,166 Always the smartest guy in the room. 404 00:28:37,291 --> 00:28:38,416 You're right. 405 00:28:38,500 --> 00:28:42,833 Aircraft carriers are a shitty idea, but I don't appreciate the callousness. 406 00:28:43,666 --> 00:28:45,375 I expect more of you. 407 00:28:48,250 --> 00:28:52,583 Presumed means they don't know, so I choose to believe he's alive until… 408 00:28:55,291 --> 00:28:56,291 Mank. 409 00:28:58,875 --> 00:28:59,750 Mank. 410 00:29:01,083 --> 00:29:02,416 Mr. Mankiewicz? 411 00:29:22,500 --> 00:29:24,541 He's all right. Just sleeping. 412 00:29:25,291 --> 00:29:27,791 Well… I shouldn't wonder. 413 00:29:27,875 --> 00:29:31,750 There's enough Seconal in those bottles to bring down a bull elephant in heat. 414 00:29:34,583 --> 00:29:37,000 Young Orson doesn't believe in chance. 415 00:30:01,750 --> 00:30:04,958 Houseman, you sly thing. You slipped me a Mickey. 416 00:30:05,041 --> 00:30:06,041 So we did. 417 00:30:06,541 --> 00:30:08,958 How you reached it so early in your rehabilitation, 418 00:30:09,041 --> 00:30:09,875 I cannot imagine. 419 00:30:09,958 --> 00:30:11,333 How was it? Mother's milk? 420 00:30:11,416 --> 00:30:15,416 On balance, better than nothing. I plan to use it as a nightcap. 421 00:30:15,500 --> 00:30:17,750 As you Yanks say, "He went out like a light." 422 00:30:17,833 --> 00:30:22,500 I couldn't have put it better myself, which may be why I write for the movies. 423 00:30:22,583 --> 00:30:24,000 Will you stop? 424 00:30:24,083 --> 00:30:26,500 You write for the movies because you're super at it. 425 00:30:26,583 --> 00:30:29,916 Excuse me, you two, I've masses of typing to do. 426 00:30:31,833 --> 00:30:33,250 Seventy-six pages. 427 00:30:33,333 --> 00:30:35,833 By the time she translates your chicken scratch, 428 00:30:35,916 --> 00:30:37,250 it'll be less than 40. 429 00:30:37,333 --> 00:30:38,833 At this rate, you'll never finish. 430 00:30:38,916 --> 00:30:41,583 What I wanna know is what you think of it. 431 00:30:41,666 --> 00:30:44,250 The writing is first-rate, but you know that. 432 00:30:44,333 --> 00:30:47,208 His lust for power, your evocation of his hunger for love 433 00:30:47,291 --> 00:30:49,166 from those who fear his worst side, but-- 434 00:30:49,250 --> 00:30:51,291 The dreaded yet foreseeable "but." 435 00:30:51,375 --> 00:30:54,041 You're asking a lot of a motion picture audience. 436 00:30:54,125 --> 00:30:57,666 -It's a bit of a jumble. -Did you say "jumble" or "jungle"? 437 00:30:57,750 --> 00:30:59,333 A hodgepodge of talky episodes. 438 00:30:59,416 --> 00:31:03,416 Fragments that leap around in time like Mexican jumping beans. 439 00:31:03,500 --> 00:31:04,958 Welcome to my mind, old sock. 440 00:31:05,041 --> 00:31:08,250 The story is so scattered, I'm afraid one will need a road map. 441 00:31:08,333 --> 00:31:11,375 -You mean it's a mess. -Would you consider simplifying? 442 00:31:11,458 --> 00:31:13,000 As Pascal once said, 443 00:31:13,083 --> 00:31:16,500 "If only I'd had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." 444 00:31:16,583 --> 00:31:19,250 All I am saying is no one can write like that. 445 00:31:19,333 --> 00:31:22,791 But I can write like that, Houseman. I have. 446 00:31:22,875 --> 00:31:26,916 The narrative is one big circle, like a cinnamon roll, 447 00:31:27,416 --> 00:31:30,791 not a straight line pointing to the nearest exit. 448 00:31:30,875 --> 00:31:34,458 You cannot capture a man's entire life in two hours. 449 00:31:34,541 --> 00:31:36,916 All you can hope is to leave the impression of one. 450 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,791 But nobody expects Shakespeare. 451 00:31:38,875 --> 00:31:42,791 People aren't spending their hard-earned 25 cents to see Macbeth. 452 00:31:42,875 --> 00:31:45,166 Maestro the Dog-Faced Boy did Macbeth. 453 00:31:45,250 --> 00:31:48,291 Voodoo Macbeth. Don't be fooled. He's a showman. 454 00:31:48,375 --> 00:31:50,625 Busker reveling in sleight of hand. 455 00:31:51,125 --> 00:31:53,333 Save yourself the trouble, be done in 60 days. 456 00:31:53,416 --> 00:31:55,875 He'll get this, and the audience will too. 457 00:31:55,958 --> 00:31:58,125 Stop worrying. Have a pickle. 458 00:31:58,208 --> 00:31:59,875 No, thank you. I'm not hungry. 459 00:32:00,416 --> 00:32:02,250 Haven't been since we got here. 460 00:32:03,708 --> 00:32:04,541 Cheerio. 461 00:32:07,916 --> 00:32:10,916 Write hard. Aim low. 462 00:32:18,666 --> 00:32:19,875 Where were we, chief? 463 00:32:20,833 --> 00:32:21,958 What are you gonna do? 464 00:32:22,750 --> 00:32:23,958 -About what? -He's right. 465 00:32:24,041 --> 00:32:25,791 You won't be done till Christmas. 466 00:32:25,875 --> 00:32:28,041 -What? -You made a promise. 467 00:32:28,125 --> 00:32:30,875 -I did what? -Sixty days is two weeks from now. 468 00:32:32,750 --> 00:32:34,250 Where were we? 469 00:32:39,166 --> 00:32:42,250 Bernstein's speech, the young woman on the ferryboat. 470 00:32:42,750 --> 00:32:44,666 Read it back, please. 471 00:32:46,041 --> 00:32:49,708 "A white dress she had on, and she was carrying a white parasol, 472 00:32:50,625 --> 00:32:55,000 and I only saw her for one second, and she didn't see me at all." 473 00:32:56,125 --> 00:33:00,750 "But I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl." 474 00:33:02,708 --> 00:33:04,833 A snapshot from the Mankiewicz family album? 475 00:33:04,916 --> 00:33:06,166 You might say that. 476 00:33:07,708 --> 00:33:09,750 It really is a gorgeous-- 477 00:33:09,833 --> 00:33:11,375 Spot to get stuck? 478 00:33:14,708 --> 00:33:18,666 -Is Bernstein meant to be Louis Mayer? -If form follows function. 479 00:33:18,750 --> 00:33:22,416 Mayer is the same pathetic sort of lapdog to our Charles Foster? 480 00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:25,000 Bernstein is a far nicer character. 481 00:33:25,083 --> 00:33:27,125 You don't much like Mayer. 482 00:33:27,208 --> 00:33:29,541 If I ever go to the electric chair, 483 00:33:30,041 --> 00:33:32,625 I'd like him to be sitting in my lap. 484 00:33:38,083 --> 00:33:41,041 Seven-fifty a week? That's half what you make, Herman. 485 00:33:41,125 --> 00:33:43,625 -You're a junior writer, Joe. -So? 486 00:33:43,708 --> 00:33:46,166 So, you're only half the wit your big brother is. 487 00:33:46,250 --> 00:33:49,625 -How many half-wits make that? -Herm, how do I look? 488 00:33:50,333 --> 00:33:54,291 -You look like you. Fine. -What should I be expecting? 489 00:33:54,375 --> 00:33:57,916 You're related to me. He already thinks you're a genius. 490 00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000 Enough. 491 00:33:59,500 --> 00:34:02,166 The job will be yours if you can do two things. 492 00:34:02,250 --> 00:34:06,125 One, don't roll your eyes. Two, try not to fall asleep. 493 00:34:06,791 --> 00:34:08,208 This isn't Gower Gulch. 494 00:34:08,291 --> 00:34:10,708 You want I should make a picture about a prostitute? 495 00:34:10,791 --> 00:34:13,750 What's wrong with that? My mother was nothing but a whore. 496 00:34:13,833 --> 00:34:16,416 You would talk about your own mother that way? 497 00:34:16,500 --> 00:34:19,083 The woman who gave you life? 498 00:34:19,166 --> 00:34:21,916 You ungrateful bastard! I ought to cut your balls off! 499 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,583 Do it, you fucking junk dealer! I'll still be the better man! 500 00:34:29,333 --> 00:34:32,000 L.B., this is my brother, Joe. 501 00:34:32,083 --> 00:34:34,541 Nice to meet you, Joseph. I'm Louis Mayer. 502 00:34:34,625 --> 00:34:36,958 I can't tell you what this means to him, Louis. 503 00:34:37,041 --> 00:34:41,250 -They're all there, Mr. Mayer. -On my way. Joe, walk with me. 504 00:34:47,500 --> 00:34:50,291 My boy, there are three work rules at this studio. 505 00:34:50,375 --> 00:34:53,916 Rule number one, ars gratia artis-- art for art's sake. 506 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:54,916 How you doing? 507 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,541 One million dollars a year we spend on stories we never even film. 508 00:34:58,625 --> 00:35:02,250 Why not? I'll tell you. They don't make me cry. 509 00:35:02,333 --> 00:35:04,833 What makes me cry? Emotion. 510 00:35:04,916 --> 00:35:06,958 Where do I feel emotion? 511 00:35:07,041 --> 00:35:09,625 Here, here, and here. 512 00:35:09,708 --> 00:35:10,833 Rule number two. 513 00:35:10,916 --> 00:35:14,000 You may have heard MGM has more stars than the heavens. 514 00:35:14,083 --> 00:35:15,333 Do not believe this. 515 00:35:15,416 --> 00:35:19,250 Hiya. We have only one star. That is Leo the Lion. 516 00:35:19,333 --> 00:35:20,625 Never forget that. 517 00:35:20,708 --> 00:35:23,583 Many stars have, and now they twinkle elsewhere. 518 00:35:23,666 --> 00:35:24,708 Rule number three… 519 00:35:24,791 --> 00:35:28,458 People think MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 520 00:35:28,541 --> 00:35:29,625 It does not. 521 00:35:29,708 --> 00:35:34,375 It stands for Mayer's gantze mishpokhe, Mayer's whole family. 522 00:35:34,458 --> 00:35:35,708 Never forget that. 523 00:35:35,791 --> 00:35:37,791 You got a problem, come to Papa. 524 00:35:38,458 --> 00:35:42,583 This is a business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory. 525 00:35:42,666 --> 00:35:45,583 What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. 526 00:35:45,666 --> 00:35:49,500 That's the real magic of the movies, and don't let anybody tell you different. 527 00:36:11,625 --> 00:36:17,541 I find myself in a horrendous position, and I come to all of you on bended knee. 528 00:36:19,458 --> 00:36:25,000 We are suffering, as all Americans are, from our country's terrible economic woes. 529 00:36:25,791 --> 00:36:29,125 Good people, everyday people, can't afford to go to the movies. 530 00:36:29,208 --> 00:36:33,125 So even our preeminent dream factory… 531 00:36:34,291 --> 00:36:36,875 is in grave financial difficulty. 532 00:36:38,916 --> 00:36:44,500 I am asking everyone in the MGM family to take a painful step. 533 00:36:45,375 --> 00:36:47,916 I am asking to roll back salaries. 534 00:36:48,916 --> 00:36:50,375 I don't want to, 535 00:36:50,875 --> 00:36:55,625 but for this hallowed place to continue to exist, I am forced to. 536 00:36:56,208 --> 00:37:00,291 I won't break up this family over something like money. 537 00:37:01,125 --> 00:37:03,625 -How long are you asking for? -Shouldn't be long. 538 00:37:03,708 --> 00:37:05,250 How much are you asking for? 539 00:37:05,333 --> 00:37:06,750 -Half. -Half? 540 00:37:06,833 --> 00:37:09,458 -Could be less. -Is everybody going to be pitching in? 541 00:37:09,541 --> 00:37:10,541 Are you, Mr. Mayer? 542 00:37:10,625 --> 00:37:13,958 Real families root for each other in the good times, 543 00:37:14,041 --> 00:37:17,125 take care of each other in tough ones. 544 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:19,000 We're with you, L.B. 545 00:37:19,083 --> 00:37:20,500 You may be, Mr. Barrymore, 546 00:37:20,583 --> 00:37:23,041 but a 50% pay cut for grips and electricians-- 547 00:37:23,125 --> 00:37:26,375 Eight weeks, my friends, eight short weeks. 548 00:37:26,458 --> 00:37:31,125 As soon as FDR reopens the banks, you'll get back every penny. 549 00:37:31,208 --> 00:37:36,541 On that, you have the sacred word of L.B. Mayer. 550 00:37:44,333 --> 00:37:45,583 Well, I vote yes. 551 00:37:47,750 --> 00:37:50,375 -I do as well. -Me too. 552 00:38:10,208 --> 00:38:12,708 -How'd I do, Ben? -It was great, Mr. Mayer. 553 00:38:17,958 --> 00:38:21,208 Not even the most disgraceful thing I've ever seen. 554 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:29,250 Good. 555 00:38:30,500 --> 00:38:31,541 Okay. 556 00:38:33,208 --> 00:38:35,000 -Yeah? -Yeah. 557 00:38:35,083 --> 00:38:37,458 Yeah? Okay. 558 00:38:37,541 --> 00:38:39,125 Maybe a little bit left? 559 00:38:39,625 --> 00:38:41,375 -Yeah? -Yeah. 560 00:38:41,458 --> 00:38:42,416 Here? 561 00:38:42,500 --> 00:38:45,416 -Yeah. -I've got to get typewriter ribbon. 562 00:38:45,500 --> 00:38:48,250 -Here are this morning's pages. -It's all dreck! 563 00:38:48,333 --> 00:38:50,291 Don't flagellate. At least you're writing. 564 00:38:50,375 --> 00:38:53,083 None of it sings. None of it. Not a note. 565 00:38:53,166 --> 00:38:54,750 You're not writing opera. 566 00:38:56,041 --> 00:38:57,041 Hello? 567 00:38:59,041 --> 00:39:00,708 But I am writing an opera. 568 00:39:03,916 --> 00:39:04,916 It's for you. 569 00:39:07,708 --> 00:39:09,708 -Yeah? -Herman, it's Joe. 570 00:39:09,791 --> 00:39:11,750 Hey, kid. What's up? 571 00:39:11,833 --> 00:39:14,958 -Checking in. How are you getting around? -Gingerly. 572 00:39:15,041 --> 00:39:17,375 -Any rest? -Haven't seen a sunrise yet. 573 00:39:17,458 --> 00:39:19,375 You've never seen a sunrise. 574 00:39:19,458 --> 00:39:22,333 -Sara said you wanted this number. -Just to hear your voice. 575 00:39:22,416 --> 00:39:26,416 She said you had some work you wanted to talk about. 576 00:39:26,916 --> 00:39:30,291 I was thinking about that old play, 577 00:39:30,375 --> 00:39:32,875 The Wild Man of Borneo, that you wrote in the Ice Age. 578 00:39:32,958 --> 00:39:36,375 One never remembers one's disasters. It's considered gauche. 579 00:39:36,458 --> 00:39:39,625 A play is never a disaster till the movies say it is. 580 00:39:39,708 --> 00:39:41,666 I brought it to my people at the studio. 581 00:39:41,750 --> 00:39:44,708 We want W.C. Fields, and we want you to adapt. 582 00:39:44,791 --> 00:39:47,541 I'm kind of on something right now. 583 00:39:47,625 --> 00:39:50,458 I can get you paid for the play and the adaptation. 584 00:39:50,958 --> 00:39:53,625 Sounds great, but I'll have to think about it. 585 00:39:53,708 --> 00:39:55,500 These things have their moment. 586 00:39:55,583 --> 00:39:58,291 So, this isn't an offer. It's a subtle ultimatum. 587 00:39:58,875 --> 00:40:01,333 Nobody could ever tell you what to do. 588 00:40:02,208 --> 00:40:04,083 Did Sara put you up to this? 589 00:40:04,166 --> 00:40:06,583 Not at all, but I know how things are. 590 00:40:06,666 --> 00:40:08,083 I can tell by her voice. 591 00:40:08,166 --> 00:40:11,041 -And how bad is that, baby brother? -How bad? 592 00:40:11,125 --> 00:40:12,583 I went to a party last night 593 00:40:12,666 --> 00:40:16,458 where Scott Fitzgerald referred to you as a ruined man. 594 00:40:16,541 --> 00:40:20,125 -That's how bad things can get. -That's good. I may use that. 595 00:40:20,208 --> 00:40:21,041 Hermie-- 596 00:40:21,125 --> 00:40:24,333 Please, stop, Joey. Just tell me what's on your mind. 597 00:40:26,083 --> 00:40:28,791 I hear you're hunting dangerous game. 598 00:40:29,541 --> 00:40:34,291 Word on the street is radio's golden boy wants to go toe-to-toe with Willie Hearst, 599 00:40:34,375 --> 00:40:36,375 and you're helping in the kitchen. 600 00:40:42,041 --> 00:40:43,416 -And? -"And?" 601 00:40:45,125 --> 00:40:46,333 Herman, "And?" 602 00:40:46,416 --> 00:40:47,500 How stupid of me. 603 00:40:47,583 --> 00:40:50,916 I thought I was rejecting a humiliating handout, 604 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,208 when all the time, I was nixing a respectable bribe. 605 00:40:54,291 --> 00:40:56,000 And I'm sorry I ever cared. 606 00:41:08,458 --> 00:41:09,458 Come on. 607 00:41:18,375 --> 00:41:21,875 Marion and I are so pleased you could all come stay for the weekend. 608 00:41:22,375 --> 00:41:24,708 I hope the train ride wasn't too arduous. 609 00:41:25,833 --> 00:41:30,458 And tonight, we're celebrating our great friend's birthday 610 00:41:30,541 --> 00:41:32,416 in our little hillside home. 611 00:41:32,500 --> 00:41:33,500 Charlie. 612 00:41:33,583 --> 00:41:37,458 Happy birthday to you 613 00:41:37,541 --> 00:41:41,083 Happy birthday to you 614 00:41:41,166 --> 00:41:45,208 Happy birthday, dear Louis 615 00:41:45,708 --> 00:41:49,166 Happy birthday to you 616 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:56,750 Louis, you should be joyous. You don't look a day over 48. 617 00:41:56,833 --> 00:41:58,500 I feel 35. 618 00:42:03,583 --> 00:42:06,791 Mr. Hearst, Marion, all of you, 619 00:42:07,333 --> 00:42:09,916 my heart is full to bursting. 620 00:42:10,958 --> 00:42:12,958 I can't express in words… 621 00:42:13,041 --> 00:42:14,791 Please don't try. 622 00:42:14,875 --> 00:42:21,250 W.R., nothing is more precious to me than your friendship and sage advice. 623 00:42:21,333 --> 00:42:23,875 I am blessed to call you my friend. 624 00:42:25,416 --> 00:42:28,250 God bless William Randolph Hearst. 625 00:42:28,750 --> 00:42:30,375 God bless us, every one. 626 00:42:31,458 --> 00:42:34,041 -Hear, hear. -A very happy birthday, Louis. 627 00:42:34,125 --> 00:42:37,708 Our country should be flattered you picked its birth date as your own. 628 00:42:37,791 --> 00:42:41,250 The rest of us have to be satisfied with the one we happened to be born on. 629 00:42:41,333 --> 00:42:42,250 Mank. 630 00:42:42,750 --> 00:42:46,375 Here's to your rich Canadian imagination. 631 00:42:46,458 --> 00:42:49,500 To rich Canadian imagination! 632 00:42:49,583 --> 00:42:50,916 Here's to banks reopening. 633 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:52,875 -And to freedom. -Freedom! 634 00:42:52,958 --> 00:42:55,708 I believe you've met our distinguished guest, 635 00:42:55,791 --> 00:42:57,708 Mr. Rexford Tugwell. 636 00:42:57,791 --> 00:43:00,666 Now, Rex is special assistant to President Roosevelt. 637 00:43:00,750 --> 00:43:03,916 And we're all interested in what you might share with us. 638 00:43:04,500 --> 00:43:06,541 We all wanna welcome the Thalbergs 639 00:43:06,625 --> 00:43:09,583 back from Irving's long convalescence in Europe. 640 00:43:09,666 --> 00:43:12,041 -Thank you, W.R. -Good to see you, Irving. 641 00:43:12,125 --> 00:43:13,625 -Thank you, Mr. Hearst. -Norma. 642 00:43:14,333 --> 00:43:16,041 Anybody seen anything good lately? 643 00:43:16,125 --> 00:43:18,083 I just saw 42nd Street. 644 00:43:18,166 --> 00:43:20,125 It blew my wig! 645 00:43:20,208 --> 00:43:22,041 You can take the girl outta Bed-Stuy. 646 00:43:22,125 --> 00:43:24,666 -When was that? -Over the weekend. 647 00:43:24,750 --> 00:43:27,333 You were in D.C. I went to the pictures in Santa Barbara. 648 00:43:27,416 --> 00:43:29,166 We have a fine screening room here. 649 00:43:29,250 --> 00:43:32,291 Warner's picture? Why waste money on that? 650 00:43:32,375 --> 00:43:34,583 -Next time, I'll go with you. -Of course. 651 00:43:34,666 --> 00:43:39,166 I am bonkers about Movietone News. I love Lowell Thomas's voice. 652 00:43:39,250 --> 00:43:40,250 Is he single? 653 00:43:41,500 --> 00:43:43,916 I sat across from him at the Brown Derby once. 654 00:43:44,791 --> 00:43:46,250 -He bought me a drink. -He didn't! 655 00:43:46,333 --> 00:43:47,500 Not technically. 656 00:43:47,583 --> 00:43:50,375 But I made sure to run into him in the parking lot after. 657 00:43:50,458 --> 00:43:53,541 -I asked him, "Do you need a lift?" -You didn't! What did he say? 658 00:43:53,625 --> 00:43:56,916 -I'll never tell. -There's a point to this, dear? 659 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:01,666 Well, yes, they showed that Hitler giving a speech, kissing babies. 660 00:44:01,750 --> 00:44:03,166 He is creepers! 661 00:44:03,250 --> 00:44:06,250 Lederhosen and suspenders. Terrifying. 662 00:44:06,333 --> 00:44:08,708 No, it's the mustache that's the horror. 663 00:44:08,791 --> 00:44:11,458 Don't be alarmed, Marion. He won't be around for long. 664 00:44:11,541 --> 00:44:14,541 The Germans are a thoughtful, considerate people. 665 00:44:14,625 --> 00:44:16,291 Enough about Nazis. 666 00:44:16,375 --> 00:44:18,583 Irving, tell us about your travels. 667 00:44:18,666 --> 00:44:19,750 Where were you? 668 00:44:20,916 --> 00:44:22,333 Berlin, in fact. 669 00:44:23,041 --> 00:44:24,333 But it was interesting. 670 00:44:24,416 --> 00:44:27,541 Thugs in brown shirts goose-stepping past our hotel all night, 671 00:44:27,625 --> 00:44:29,333 screaming anti-Semitic slogans. 672 00:44:29,416 --> 00:44:30,791 I was terrified. 673 00:44:30,875 --> 00:44:32,666 This Hitler sounds like a drip. 674 00:44:32,750 --> 00:44:35,416 Shouldn't the United States do something, Mr. Tugwell? 675 00:44:35,500 --> 00:44:37,125 We are weighing all options. 676 00:44:37,208 --> 00:44:40,041 Can't last. Who takes a lunatic like that seriously? 677 00:44:40,125 --> 00:44:42,666 The last time I looked, 40 million Germans. 678 00:44:42,750 --> 00:44:45,250 Mank! You're always so wonderfully contrary. 679 00:44:45,333 --> 00:44:50,125 "Chase andamp; Sanborn's der coffee. Can 40 million Nazis all be wrong?" 680 00:44:50,208 --> 00:44:53,333 I just read they've opened their first concentration camps 681 00:44:53,416 --> 00:44:54,916 and started burning books. 682 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,791 -What's next? Movies? -Enough. 683 00:44:57,875 --> 00:45:00,000 -Is that true, Irving? -Yes, L.B. 684 00:45:00,916 --> 00:45:02,250 Hitler, Schmitler! 685 00:45:02,916 --> 00:45:05,000 You don't turn your back on a market as big as Germany. 686 00:45:05,083 --> 00:45:08,875 Please. It's upsetting enough Marion had to endure the man in newsreel. 687 00:45:08,958 --> 00:45:10,583 What's a concentration camp? 688 00:45:10,666 --> 00:45:12,958 It was fascinating. Those people adore him. 689 00:45:14,916 --> 00:45:18,541 -I'm probably talking nonsense. -You're the first tonight that isn't. 690 00:45:18,625 --> 00:45:21,125 Speaking of socialists, how about Sinclair's book? 691 00:45:21,208 --> 00:45:24,250 He wants to turn private enterprise over to the state. 692 00:45:24,333 --> 00:45:26,125 There's one we won't be optioning. 693 00:45:26,208 --> 00:45:27,583 It's selling like crazy. 694 00:45:27,666 --> 00:45:30,541 Walter Winchell says Sinclair may run for governor. 695 00:45:30,625 --> 00:45:33,666 That rat Bolshevik belongs right up there with Hitler 696 00:45:33,750 --> 00:45:36,583 on the list of people not to be taken seriously. 697 00:45:36,666 --> 00:45:39,041 There's a world of difference between communism and socialism. 698 00:45:39,125 --> 00:45:42,666 -They both want something for nothing. -Like a workforce for free? 699 00:45:42,750 --> 00:45:44,416 Half, and only in the interim. 700 00:45:44,500 --> 00:45:47,041 It's safe to assume none of us here would welcome 701 00:45:47,125 --> 00:45:50,125 a crusading socialist as California's political savior. 702 00:45:50,208 --> 00:45:52,666 Certainly not FDR. Am I right, Rex? 703 00:45:52,750 --> 00:45:55,375 Off the record, President says the man bears watching. 704 00:45:55,458 --> 00:45:58,916 Especially now that Republicans seem bent on running Frank Merriam again. 705 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,750 Sinclair's run twice before and got, what, 2% of the vote? 706 00:46:01,833 --> 00:46:05,750 -Good people, the man is an author. -As was Thomas Jefferson. 707 00:46:05,833 --> 00:46:09,500 Come now, Mank. Upton Sinclair as Thomas Jefferson? 708 00:46:09,583 --> 00:46:10,958 No, you're right, W.R. 709 00:46:11,041 --> 00:46:14,375 Jefferson never got federal laws passed to ban oil monopolies, 710 00:46:14,458 --> 00:46:17,541 the railroad trusts, or cleaned up the stockyards. 711 00:46:17,625 --> 00:46:20,958 -He's an angry scribe, a provocateur. -Because he provokes thought. 712 00:46:21,041 --> 00:46:22,916 You always side with the writer, Mank. 713 00:46:23,416 --> 00:46:26,625 Poor souls surviving a depression on five grand a week. 714 00:46:26,708 --> 00:46:28,125 -Commies. -L.B. is not wrong. 715 00:46:28,208 --> 00:46:29,916 Irving, you're a literate man. 716 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:32,750 You know the difference between communism and socialism. 717 00:46:32,833 --> 00:46:35,000 In socialism, everyone shares the wealth. 718 00:46:35,083 --> 00:46:37,458 In communism, everyone shares the poverty. 719 00:46:37,541 --> 00:46:39,041 Thank you, Mr. Mankiewicz. 720 00:46:39,125 --> 00:46:43,000 Upton just wants you to apportion some of your Christmas bonus, Irving, 721 00:46:43,083 --> 00:46:45,041 to the people who clean your house. 722 00:46:46,166 --> 00:46:48,583 Now, that's why I always want Mank around. 723 00:46:48,666 --> 00:46:49,625 Me too. 724 00:46:49,708 --> 00:46:52,708 Upton? Nobody's asking to hear you sing "The Internationale." 725 00:46:54,250 --> 00:46:57,250 -What's that? -The Communist national anthem, darling. 726 00:46:57,333 --> 00:46:59,750 I would. Do you sing? 727 00:46:59,833 --> 00:47:02,208 No one should have to hear me sing. Right, Sara? 728 00:47:02,291 --> 00:47:03,458 If at all possible. 729 00:47:03,541 --> 00:47:05,625 As Republican state chairman-elect, 730 00:47:05,708 --> 00:47:08,250 I'm telling you, nothing's going to happen here. 731 00:47:08,333 --> 00:47:11,333 The people who count in California won't let it. 732 00:47:11,833 --> 00:47:14,625 All this talk is so much pissing in the wind. 733 00:47:14,708 --> 00:47:15,583 Nicely put. 734 00:47:15,666 --> 00:47:19,125 I heard Pops on the phone helping to pick the president's cabinet 735 00:47:19,208 --> 00:47:20,416 like casting a movie. 736 00:47:20,500 --> 00:47:22,708 They can stop a guy like Sinclair. 737 00:47:22,791 --> 00:47:23,916 Couldn't you, Pops? 738 00:47:27,166 --> 00:47:28,166 Pardon. 739 00:47:30,250 --> 00:47:32,041 I don't know what I'm saying. 740 00:47:45,333 --> 00:47:46,250 Go. 741 00:48:06,708 --> 00:48:08,250 Hello, Tokyo? 742 00:48:10,375 --> 00:48:12,000 London, you there? 743 00:48:13,208 --> 00:48:14,333 Nerts! 744 00:48:14,416 --> 00:48:17,791 -What is that? -Pops's radio-phones. 745 00:48:17,875 --> 00:48:20,333 Never ever be out of touch with your empire. 746 00:48:20,416 --> 00:48:22,750 No, what's "nerts"? 747 00:48:22,833 --> 00:48:25,125 Nerts is Brooklynese for "nuts." 748 00:48:25,708 --> 00:48:26,708 Jeepers! 749 00:48:36,250 --> 00:48:38,541 What did I do that was so terrible? 750 00:48:39,250 --> 00:48:42,208 I shouldn't have said that about the cabinet in front of Tugwell, 751 00:48:42,291 --> 00:48:45,750 but since when does anybody care what I have to say? 752 00:48:45,833 --> 00:48:48,125 Those things just pop out of my mouth, 753 00:48:48,208 --> 00:48:51,458 and the moment they do, I feel like… 754 00:48:51,541 --> 00:48:53,541 Like you got caught, jambes en l'air. 755 00:48:54,541 --> 00:48:55,375 No! 756 00:48:56,208 --> 00:49:00,250 Well, do you always just say whatever you think? 757 00:49:02,458 --> 00:49:04,000 You're blushing. 758 00:49:04,500 --> 00:49:05,833 -Am not. -Are, too. 759 00:49:05,916 --> 00:49:10,250 -Am not. -Are, too. I can see it even in the dark. 760 00:49:10,333 --> 00:49:11,875 Well, what can I tell you, Mank? 761 00:49:11,958 --> 00:49:15,958 Marion Douras went to convent school. 762 00:49:16,041 --> 00:49:18,750 Hedda! Louella! 763 00:49:18,833 --> 00:49:21,500 Where's a gossip columnist when you need one? 764 00:49:22,291 --> 00:49:25,416 I hate shop talk. I never know what's going on. 765 00:49:26,291 --> 00:49:29,708 The one thing you never ever talk about is Upton Sinclair. 766 00:49:29,791 --> 00:49:31,083 I noted. 767 00:49:31,166 --> 00:49:33,708 The moment he's mentioned, the evening turns. 768 00:49:33,791 --> 00:49:36,416 -It's sort of a sore subject. -Really? 769 00:49:37,666 --> 00:49:38,708 Do tell. 770 00:49:42,375 --> 00:49:44,750 I don't even know who this Mr. Sinclair is, 771 00:49:44,833 --> 00:49:46,750 but he wrote about us for a book. 772 00:49:47,250 --> 00:49:49,375 I used to quote it word for word. 773 00:49:50,041 --> 00:49:54,375 "I saw our richest newspaper publisher keep his movie mistress 774 00:49:54,458 --> 00:49:57,750 in a private city of palaces and cathedrals, 775 00:49:57,833 --> 00:50:01,625 furnished with shiploads of junk imported from Europe 776 00:50:01,708 --> 00:50:07,000 and surrounded by vast acres reserved for use by zebras and giraffes, 777 00:50:07,083 --> 00:50:10,916 telling in jest that he had spent six million dollars 778 00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:13,208 to make his lady's reputation 779 00:50:13,291 --> 00:50:16,291 and using his newspapers to celebrate her change of hats." 780 00:50:16,875 --> 00:50:20,250 It must be hard to be on the receiving end of that. 781 00:50:20,333 --> 00:50:22,791 People think because you're on the cover of Modern Screen, 782 00:50:22,875 --> 00:50:24,000 they know you. 783 00:50:25,125 --> 00:50:27,666 Nerts! What do I have to complain about? 784 00:50:27,750 --> 00:50:30,583 I live in a fishbowl, but anything I want is mine. 785 00:50:31,416 --> 00:50:35,250 If I could, I'd share with everyone. You know that, Mank. 786 00:50:35,750 --> 00:50:38,916 This Upton doesn't know a thing about the real… 787 00:50:40,750 --> 00:50:46,500 Nobody, but nobody, makes a monkey out of William Randolph Hearst! 788 00:50:47,708 --> 00:50:49,958 I understand why Mayer loathes him. 789 00:50:50,041 --> 00:50:53,916 -Why? -Sinclair caught him with his pants down. 790 00:50:54,416 --> 00:50:55,250 Yikes! 791 00:50:55,333 --> 00:50:59,166 He wrote that Mayer took a bribe to look the other way 792 00:50:59,250 --> 00:51:01,375 so a rival could buy MGM. 793 00:51:02,375 --> 00:51:05,208 -It's complicated. -Over my head? 794 00:51:05,291 --> 00:51:08,416 No, over mine. You'd need a degree in larceny. 795 00:51:08,500 --> 00:51:11,750 -Isn't bribery a crime? -That's what Sinclair said. 796 00:51:11,833 --> 00:51:14,416 The little sausage might have gone to jail. 797 00:51:14,500 --> 00:51:16,125 Jeepers! 798 00:51:16,208 --> 00:51:17,583 The hypocrisy. 799 00:51:18,083 --> 00:51:20,833 "Mayn gantze mishpokhe. My mishpokhe." 800 00:51:20,916 --> 00:51:23,708 -I don't speak a lot of Jewish. -Really? 801 00:51:24,208 --> 00:51:26,333 "My mishpokhe. My family." 802 00:51:26,833 --> 00:51:30,166 Everything he does is for family, 803 00:51:30,250 --> 00:51:32,500 except when it comes to selling his last name 804 00:51:32,583 --> 00:51:34,791 to a competitor in the middle of the night. 805 00:51:36,041 --> 00:51:37,958 He would do that to his own studio? 806 00:51:38,500 --> 00:51:41,875 He doesn't own MGM any more than Sam Goldwyn. 807 00:51:41,958 --> 00:51:44,083 They just run it for the moneyboys back East. 808 00:51:44,916 --> 00:51:49,291 And jail is not something an animal like Mayer is likely to forget. 809 00:51:53,541 --> 00:51:55,166 Irving must be clean. 810 00:51:55,250 --> 00:51:57,458 He looks like he shaves three times a day. 811 00:51:58,208 --> 00:52:00,875 Well, there's clean, and there's clean. 812 00:52:01,583 --> 00:52:04,125 Irving bought one of Sinclair's novels. 813 00:52:04,750 --> 00:52:09,291 Sinclair demanded a guarantee that not one word could be changed, 814 00:52:09,375 --> 00:52:12,375 in writing, on the back of the purchase check. 815 00:52:12,916 --> 00:52:15,750 He didn't want notes from Irving Thalberg? 816 00:52:15,833 --> 00:52:19,208 When Thalberg refused, Sinclair took his money 817 00:52:19,291 --> 00:52:23,666 and ran off to Mexico and financed a picture about the Russian Revolution. 818 00:52:26,791 --> 00:52:29,416 Now, that's sticking the old neck out. 819 00:52:40,166 --> 00:52:42,666 I'm sorry. Instinct! 820 00:52:43,166 --> 00:52:44,250 My fault. 821 00:52:45,333 --> 00:52:47,791 I've been a little sixes and sevens recently. 822 00:52:48,791 --> 00:52:51,166 Tell me something, Mank. The truth. 823 00:52:52,833 --> 00:52:54,125 Could you see me playing 824 00:52:54,208 --> 00:52:56,583 Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Marie Antoinette? 825 00:52:56,666 --> 00:53:00,833 Irving's bought 'em both. You know, because of Pops. 826 00:53:02,125 --> 00:53:03,125 What do you think? 827 00:53:03,708 --> 00:53:05,416 And honestly. 828 00:53:07,958 --> 00:53:10,000 I see you more as Dulcinea. 829 00:53:10,583 --> 00:53:12,416 -Who? -Dulcinea. 830 00:53:12,500 --> 00:53:14,708 From the Spanish, for sweetness. 831 00:53:16,791 --> 00:53:18,875 "Her hair, gold." 832 00:53:19,750 --> 00:53:21,416 "Her cheeks, roses." 833 00:53:21,500 --> 00:53:22,666 Nice. 834 00:53:22,750 --> 00:53:24,666 "Her lips, coral." 835 00:53:25,875 --> 00:53:28,041 "Her neck, alabaster." 836 00:53:28,541 --> 00:53:30,083 "Her bosom, marble." 837 00:53:30,166 --> 00:53:32,250 Marble? Maybe once. 838 00:53:32,958 --> 00:53:37,250 "Ivory, her hands, and her whiteness, snow." 839 00:53:38,083 --> 00:53:42,041 -You wrote that? -No. A fella named Cervantes. 840 00:53:43,250 --> 00:53:45,750 "There are meters of accent and meters of tone, 841 00:53:45,833 --> 00:53:48,666 but the best of all meters is to meet her alone." 842 00:53:49,333 --> 00:53:53,416 -A poem with a message. -That's just the first verse. 843 00:53:53,958 --> 00:53:54,875 The last? 844 00:53:56,291 --> 00:53:58,958 "There are letters of accent 845 00:53:59,041 --> 00:54:00,666 and letters of tone, 846 00:54:00,750 --> 00:54:03,375 but the best of all letters is to let her alone." 847 00:54:06,125 --> 00:54:08,166 Now, those, I wrote. 848 00:54:58,666 --> 00:54:59,708 Do come in. 849 00:55:02,916 --> 00:55:04,958 Jesus! What is that? 850 00:55:05,041 --> 00:55:06,875 Sunlight. It's nearly noon. 851 00:55:06,958 --> 00:55:09,916 Mother of God! Where did the night go? 852 00:55:11,083 --> 00:55:14,916 -Your support device is here. -Good. Send it in. 853 00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:16,333 As is Mr. Houseman. 854 00:55:18,875 --> 00:55:20,458 What would you like me to do? 855 00:55:21,125 --> 00:55:22,708 Well, send him in, too. 856 00:55:38,875 --> 00:55:40,750 Put it over there, please. 857 00:55:41,791 --> 00:55:44,750 -You're early. -I thought we should talk. 858 00:55:45,333 --> 00:55:47,750 -Why are you wearing a coat? -I always wear a coat. 859 00:55:47,833 --> 00:55:49,375 Must be 108 degrees. 860 00:55:49,458 --> 00:55:51,791 We're at a Rubicon moment, Mank. 861 00:55:51,875 --> 00:55:54,791 It's not the work. That's everything we hoped it would be. 862 00:55:54,875 --> 00:55:57,333 -Enough room there? -It should be. 863 00:55:58,958 --> 00:56:00,416 I'm sorry, John. 864 00:56:01,750 --> 00:56:04,000 -You've only written 90 pages. -Ninety-one. 865 00:56:04,083 --> 00:56:07,041 In my expert opinion, you're hardly out of the first act. 866 00:56:07,125 --> 00:56:09,250 I mean, how do you hope to be done in 14… 867 00:56:10,250 --> 00:56:11,625 13 days? 868 00:56:11,708 --> 00:56:14,458 We gave him our solemn word we would deliver. 869 00:56:14,541 --> 00:56:17,375 -"We"? -I don't think he's going to take it well. 870 00:56:17,458 --> 00:56:19,708 You said 90 days. Welles said 60. 871 00:56:19,791 --> 00:56:21,583 I'm doing the very best I can. 872 00:56:21,666 --> 00:56:25,416 -We are surely to be axed. -Not just yet. 873 00:56:26,666 --> 00:56:27,875 I've never been fired. 874 00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:31,500 -I've never not been fired. -I don't get fired. 875 00:56:31,583 --> 00:56:33,875 It's not as unpleasant as you might imagine. 876 00:56:33,958 --> 00:56:36,000 You worry too much, John. 877 00:56:36,083 --> 00:56:37,875 What do you do for pleasure? 878 00:56:38,875 --> 00:56:39,750 Hello? 879 00:56:40,416 --> 00:56:41,541 Yes, he's here. 880 00:56:44,041 --> 00:56:44,958 It's Orson. 881 00:56:47,125 --> 00:56:50,041 -Will you talk? -He'd like to speak with Mr. Houseman. 882 00:56:51,083 --> 00:56:51,916 Me? 883 00:56:59,333 --> 00:57:00,166 Orson. 884 00:57:02,083 --> 00:57:04,333 I came early to see where we were with… 885 00:57:05,416 --> 00:57:08,875 No, not at all. Everything's going absolutely according… 886 00:57:09,916 --> 00:57:12,708 Well, that's difficult to say exactly. 887 00:57:13,250 --> 00:57:15,416 Yep. Yes, I know the clock… 888 00:57:17,375 --> 00:57:19,708 Well, as I've told you, it's quite unique. 889 00:57:19,791 --> 00:57:21,500 In fact, I'd say one of the most… 890 00:57:24,333 --> 00:57:27,541 Yes, well, it will absolutely need your marvelous… 891 00:57:29,041 --> 00:57:31,666 He's on the mend and working tirelessly. 892 00:57:33,291 --> 00:57:34,541 Of course. When? 893 00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:39,250 I'm on my way. Yes. Hang on, he's right here. 894 00:57:41,958 --> 00:57:44,458 He wants to see me right away. Wouldn't tell me why. 895 00:57:45,291 --> 00:57:46,500 Perhaps he will you. 896 00:57:52,541 --> 00:57:53,541 Orson! 897 00:57:54,208 --> 00:57:55,666 Tell me what's up, Mank. 898 00:57:56,166 --> 00:57:57,500 He's getting on my nerves. 899 00:57:57,583 --> 00:57:59,666 I sensed that. I told him I had to see him. 900 00:57:59,750 --> 00:58:02,083 Hopefully, I can think of a reason before he gets here. 901 00:58:02,166 --> 00:58:04,458 I've finished my test for Heart of Darkness. 902 00:58:04,541 --> 00:58:06,708 I'm turning my attention to our project. 903 00:58:06,791 --> 00:58:08,083 "Let there be light." 904 00:58:08,166 --> 00:58:12,041 -Tell me what to expect. -I thought you'd want to be surprised. 905 00:58:12,125 --> 00:58:14,875 You're always surprising. That's why you were my only choice. 906 00:58:14,958 --> 00:58:19,125 No one else is Mankiewicz. I can almost hear the finish line. 907 00:58:19,208 --> 00:58:22,333 -We're about to turn a corner. -Unto the breach! 908 00:58:23,708 --> 00:58:25,291 Slim, you may tote 909 00:58:25,375 --> 00:58:27,208 those lovely highland beauties to the kitchen. 910 00:58:27,291 --> 00:58:29,416 Fraulein Freda, empty the Mickeys 911 00:58:29,500 --> 00:58:32,416 and start replacing their contents. Raus. Schnell. 912 00:58:35,083 --> 00:58:37,041 -Thank you, Slim. You may go. -Slim. 913 00:58:44,250 --> 00:58:48,125 Mr. Mankiewicz, please don't ask us to help you in this sad deception. 914 00:58:48,208 --> 00:58:49,583 My dear Mrs. Alexander, 915 00:58:49,666 --> 00:58:52,291 Charlie Lederer and I went to a great deal of trouble 916 00:58:52,375 --> 00:58:54,583 to engineer this sad deception. 917 00:58:54,666 --> 00:58:57,625 My deadline is two weeks away, and I intend-- 918 00:58:57,708 --> 00:58:59,291 It could mean our jobs. 919 00:58:59,375 --> 00:59:03,750 I do my best thinking before I fall asleep. 920 00:59:03,833 --> 00:59:06,750 And I am sick and tired of having my evenings end 921 00:59:06,833 --> 00:59:10,041 with the abrupt sensation of being struck on the head 922 00:59:10,125 --> 00:59:11,500 with a croquet mallet. 923 00:59:11,583 --> 00:59:13,875 -A way to put it. -I'm not asking you to help. 924 00:59:13,958 --> 00:59:15,916 -You're not? -I am telling you. 925 00:59:17,708 --> 00:59:21,708 I'm sorry. I won't be bullied. You'll have my resignation in the morning. 926 00:59:21,791 --> 00:59:24,625 I know Fraulein Freda's been sneaking you nightcaps. 927 00:59:24,708 --> 00:59:27,166 If she continues to cooperate in this cheap ruse, 928 00:59:27,250 --> 00:59:29,083 I shall report the both of you. 929 00:59:29,166 --> 00:59:31,416 -Fraulein Freda. -Ja, Herr Mank? 930 00:59:31,500 --> 00:59:34,125 -Please do as I instructed. -Ja, Herr Mank. 931 00:59:51,166 --> 00:59:53,125 You mustn't let him intimidate you. 932 00:59:54,458 --> 00:59:56,625 I'm not intimidated, Frau Alexander. 933 00:59:56,708 --> 00:59:57,916 Then, why? 934 01:00:02,625 --> 01:00:05,375 Herr Mank sponsored my family's entry into this country. 935 01:00:05,458 --> 01:00:09,666 He's responsible for us getting safely out of Germany, legally and financially. 936 01:00:10,375 --> 01:00:13,250 -Really? -Our entire village, he brought here. 937 01:00:14,250 --> 01:00:15,833 Entire village? 938 01:00:15,916 --> 01:00:17,458 Over 100 people. 939 01:00:19,083 --> 01:00:21,125 Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister, 940 01:00:21,208 --> 01:00:24,166 will not allow his films to be shown in the Fatherland. 941 01:00:25,291 --> 01:00:26,875 I didn't realize. 942 01:00:27,375 --> 01:00:31,750 He wrote a picture about the Nazis which no studio anywhere will dare make. 943 01:00:32,958 --> 01:00:37,291 I assume if he wishes to drink, he's a grown man, a good man, 944 01:00:37,791 --> 01:00:39,333 and should be treated as such. 945 01:00:40,666 --> 01:00:41,791 Nicht wahr? 946 01:00:54,166 --> 01:00:56,750 To Mank-town. Or is it Mank-ville? 947 01:00:59,958 --> 01:01:00,958 Dear Freda. 948 01:01:02,083 --> 01:01:04,416 What's German for blabbermouth? 949 01:01:04,500 --> 01:01:06,583 Either you demonstrate you can handle this, 950 01:01:06,666 --> 01:01:08,541 or we will all end up getting sacked. 951 01:01:08,625 --> 01:01:11,833 There's nothing like a vote of confidence from one's peers. 952 01:01:11,916 --> 01:01:13,875 To Mank-berg. Prosit. 953 01:01:13,958 --> 01:01:16,666 Mank-heim. Bottoms up. 954 01:01:33,208 --> 01:01:36,291 Hey, Mank, you remember me? 955 01:01:36,375 --> 01:01:39,750 Oh, my God. Of course I remember you, C.C. 956 01:01:39,833 --> 01:01:42,791 C.C. for Central Casting. How you been, Mank? 957 01:01:42,875 --> 01:01:43,833 What happened? 958 01:01:43,916 --> 01:01:46,458 "What happened?" The goddamn Depression happened. 959 01:01:46,541 --> 01:01:49,333 I ain't had so much as a walk-on since Tugboat Annie. 960 01:01:49,833 --> 01:01:51,541 Listen, I hate to, you know… 961 01:01:51,625 --> 01:01:54,791 Yeah. Ed, lend me a buck. 962 01:02:02,958 --> 01:02:07,125 Me and Grady here been thinking of bummin' east to Miami. 963 01:02:07,625 --> 01:02:10,875 I heard from someone the Hollywood studios are moving to Florida. 964 01:02:10,958 --> 01:02:14,166 -Who told you that? -I can't say, but somebody in the know. 965 01:02:14,250 --> 01:02:16,500 In certain echelons, it's common knowledge. 966 01:02:16,583 --> 01:02:18,500 Well, people in certain echelons 967 01:02:18,583 --> 01:02:21,416 don't usually trust me with sensitive information. 968 01:02:21,500 --> 01:02:25,833 But the studios aren't moving anywhere. That's company-town propaganda. 969 01:02:25,916 --> 01:02:29,000 Believe what you want, but, say, you think you could spare… 970 01:02:31,083 --> 01:02:32,000 Ed? 971 01:02:34,708 --> 01:02:36,125 Bless you, Mank. 972 01:02:36,208 --> 01:02:38,416 The bastard reneged. You were there. 973 01:02:38,500 --> 01:02:40,166 Yes, he reinstated salaries, 974 01:02:40,250 --> 01:02:42,541 but he never gave back the money he promised. 975 01:02:42,625 --> 01:02:43,833 Giant surprise. 976 01:02:43,916 --> 01:02:47,666 Come on, Mank. We need guys like you to keep people like Mayer honest. 977 01:02:47,750 --> 01:02:50,250 I'd refer you, for that, to the power of prayer. 978 01:02:50,333 --> 01:02:52,166 The Writers Guild doesn't have to hit the bricks 979 01:02:52,250 --> 01:02:54,125 for the $2,500-a-week guy. 980 01:02:54,208 --> 01:02:56,583 We're doing it for the $250-a-week guy. 981 01:02:56,666 --> 01:03:01,208 Joe, all the $250-a-week writers I know are getting $2,500. 982 01:03:01,791 --> 01:03:04,958 Stop crying for your just deserts. They're liable to give them to you. 983 01:03:05,041 --> 01:03:07,333 Then we'll all be working for 75 bucks a week. 984 01:03:07,416 --> 01:03:09,333 I don't know if you've walked a picket line. 985 01:03:09,416 --> 01:03:11,916 -You might have to. -And Dave Chasen will cater. 986 01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:15,583 "Junior writers only paid $750 a week." 987 01:03:15,666 --> 01:03:17,875 If that happens, you'd better run 988 01:03:17,958 --> 01:03:21,541 before real folk with real troubles stone you to death. 989 01:03:22,916 --> 01:03:26,083 Hermie, the guild's in its infancy. 990 01:03:26,166 --> 01:03:27,833 -It needs you. -You're telling me. 991 01:03:27,916 --> 01:03:29,541 What writer failed to notice 992 01:03:29,625 --> 01:03:32,291 the Screen Writers Guild needs an apostrophe? 993 01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:34,791 As Groucho always said, 994 01:03:34,875 --> 01:03:36,333 "Never belong to any club 995 01:03:36,416 --> 01:03:38,833 that would have someone like you for a member." 996 01:03:40,500 --> 01:03:41,583 And look at him. 997 01:03:42,083 --> 01:03:44,833 The most miserable bastard on God's green earth. 998 01:03:44,916 --> 01:03:48,541 I'd tell him you said that, only he'd think you were brownnosing. 999 01:04:01,875 --> 01:04:02,708 Close the door. 1000 01:04:07,208 --> 01:04:08,041 Summer. 1001 01:04:08,125 --> 01:04:11,541 Inez, you are not to let the brothers Marx wait in my office. 1002 01:04:11,625 --> 01:04:13,750 They've been grilling hot dogs again. 1003 01:04:14,916 --> 01:04:15,750 Sit down. 1004 01:04:32,750 --> 01:04:33,833 You wanted to see me? 1005 01:04:33,916 --> 01:04:34,875 Not that I care, 1006 01:04:34,958 --> 01:04:38,625 but why aren't you contributing to MGM's anti-Sinclair fund? 1007 01:04:38,708 --> 01:04:40,416 Well, call me old-fashioned, 1008 01:04:40,500 --> 01:04:43,916 but I don't like being told which side of a fight I'm already on. 1009 01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:46,333 How's it gonna look if the GOP chairman himself 1010 01:04:46,416 --> 01:04:48,791 can't get unanimous support from his own studio? 1011 01:04:51,375 --> 01:04:52,583 You're serious. 1012 01:04:52,666 --> 01:04:54,000 I was taught by my parents 1013 01:04:54,083 --> 01:04:56,625 to be straightforward, to ask simply for what I want, 1014 01:04:56,708 --> 01:04:59,166 and expect that I may have to elucidate my position. 1015 01:04:59,250 --> 01:05:01,583 I was encouraged by mine to use my imagination, 1016 01:05:01,666 --> 01:05:03,958 but I taught myself to avoid the consequences. 1017 01:05:04,041 --> 01:05:05,583 It's ten bucks, Mank. 1018 01:05:06,291 --> 01:05:08,833 You piss that away between hopeless bets. 1019 01:05:08,916 --> 01:05:11,958 I hate to think what L.B. might do if he knew you were the only holdout. 1020 01:05:12,625 --> 01:05:16,083 -I am, and he doesn't? -And we're not gonna tell him. 1021 01:05:19,041 --> 01:05:22,041 -I could let you go for this. -It is a hanging offense. 1022 01:05:22,125 --> 01:05:24,458 But I'll add the amount to your gambling debt 1023 01:05:24,541 --> 01:05:26,625 and forget we ever had this conversation. 1024 01:05:26,708 --> 01:05:30,291 You do that… and the brand-spanking-new Writers Guild 1025 01:05:30,375 --> 01:05:33,708 might find it very interesting, not to mention the newspapers. 1026 01:05:33,791 --> 01:05:36,708 I'm not sure the guild intends to cover games of chance. 1027 01:05:36,791 --> 01:05:41,208 And you won't go to the press, because in California, that means Hearst. 1028 01:05:41,291 --> 01:05:44,875 Irving, you are the shrewdest executive in this town. 1029 01:05:44,958 --> 01:05:48,291 Why are you acting like some dumb ward heeler? 1030 01:05:51,416 --> 01:05:53,125 You don't need my donation. 1031 01:05:53,625 --> 01:05:57,541 You don't need anybody's. You have everything it takes right here. 1032 01:05:58,375 --> 01:05:59,333 Meaning? 1033 01:06:01,416 --> 01:06:05,708 Meaning you can make the world swear King Kong is ten stories tall 1034 01:06:05,791 --> 01:06:08,125 and Mary Pickford, a virgin at 40. 1035 01:06:08,833 --> 01:06:12,666 Yet, you can't convince starving voters that a turncoat socialist 1036 01:06:12,750 --> 01:06:15,416 is a menace to everything Californians hold dear? 1037 01:06:16,458 --> 01:06:18,000 You're barely trying. 1038 01:06:32,500 --> 01:06:36,000 Millions of Californians are being taxed out of their homes, 1039 01:06:36,083 --> 01:06:38,458 yet the Depression is one of abundance. 1040 01:06:38,541 --> 01:06:41,750 Fruit rots on the ground, and vegetables are dumped into the ocean 1041 01:06:41,833 --> 01:06:43,666 because there are no markets for them. 1042 01:06:43,750 --> 01:06:47,708 Aimee Semple McPherson says you're a godless commie, Upton! 1043 01:06:48,208 --> 01:06:52,416 Too often, sir, the religion of Jesus is used by the ruling classes 1044 01:06:52,500 --> 01:06:55,791 to keep themselves in power and the poor ever poorer. 1045 01:06:55,875 --> 01:06:59,916 And that, my friends, is a sin and an error. 1046 01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:01,458 I say, with Thomas Jefferson, 1047 01:07:01,541 --> 01:07:06,958 "Truth has nothing to fear from error where reason is left free to combat it." 1048 01:07:08,958 --> 01:07:11,000 My friends, income in this country 1049 01:07:11,083 --> 01:07:14,583 is going to be redistributed by one of two methods, 1050 01:07:14,666 --> 01:07:18,041 legal enactment or violent revolution. 1051 01:07:18,125 --> 01:07:21,291 We haven't much longer to exercise our choice. 1052 01:07:21,375 --> 01:07:22,791 Thank you all for coming. 1053 01:07:24,166 --> 01:07:26,083 Tell us about Hollywood! 1054 01:07:26,166 --> 01:07:29,375 Are the studios really moving to Florida like they've been saying? 1055 01:07:29,458 --> 01:07:30,750 Absurd, sir. 1056 01:07:30,833 --> 01:07:34,083 If they were serious, why have the brothers Warner broken ground 1057 01:07:34,166 --> 01:07:36,875 on an additional 100,000 square feet of sound stages, 1058 01:07:37,458 --> 01:07:42,083 while MGM has the most contracts with stars in their history? 1059 01:07:42,583 --> 01:07:47,041 Well, he may not get Mayer's vote, but he gets mine. 1060 01:07:47,125 --> 01:07:48,458 …in California. 1061 01:07:48,958 --> 01:07:50,416 Thank you all for coming. 1062 01:07:56,333 --> 01:08:02,208 Well, I have seen some miracles in my day, but I have over 200 pages in 13 days. 1063 01:08:02,291 --> 01:08:03,958 I never thought it possible. 1064 01:08:05,083 --> 01:08:06,708 To support devices. 1065 01:08:06,791 --> 01:08:08,500 Support devices. 1066 01:08:14,416 --> 01:08:15,708 It's good, Mank. 1067 01:08:15,791 --> 01:08:17,125 Damn good. 1068 01:08:17,208 --> 01:08:20,208 I have it on highest authority it's the best thing he's done. 1069 01:08:20,958 --> 01:08:22,916 As a moving picture, it's more than good. 1070 01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:28,375 I'm at a loss to even express how wealth and influence can crush a man. 1071 01:08:28,458 --> 01:08:31,583 It's Lear. The dark night of the soul. 1072 01:08:31,666 --> 01:08:33,500 And I was completely mistaken. 1073 01:08:33,583 --> 01:08:37,083 The shifting point of view is revolutionary. 1074 01:08:37,166 --> 01:08:40,000 I never thought one could care so much about a sled. 1075 01:08:40,583 --> 01:08:42,250 It's kind of you to say. 1076 01:08:42,333 --> 01:08:43,166 But. 1077 01:08:43,750 --> 01:08:45,625 "But," again. 1078 01:08:45,708 --> 01:08:47,708 It's 327 pages. 1079 01:08:47,791 --> 01:08:49,625 An embarrassment of riches. 1080 01:08:49,708 --> 01:08:53,333 When the Dog-Faced Boy gets here, there will be branches to prune. 1081 01:08:53,416 --> 01:08:57,750 "A far too long screenplay for the ages." John Houseman. 1082 01:08:59,250 --> 01:09:03,500 I built him a watertight narrative and a suggested destination. 1083 01:09:04,125 --> 01:09:06,291 Where he takes it, that's his job. 1084 01:09:13,041 --> 01:09:16,000 I was looking to get you paid. 1085 01:09:16,875 --> 01:09:19,125 I don't know if you were aware or not. 1086 01:09:21,041 --> 01:09:24,250 You signed your rights to the Mercury. You agreed not to take screen credit. 1087 01:09:24,333 --> 01:09:27,416 -I needed the work. -You may want to reconsider. 1088 01:09:27,500 --> 01:09:33,458 All I currently want is a real shower, a cocktail, and my Sara to wake up to. 1089 01:09:33,541 --> 01:09:34,666 Are you certain? 1090 01:09:36,166 --> 01:09:37,166 It worked out. 1091 01:09:42,791 --> 01:09:46,541 Mank, if I may be so bold, why Hearst? 1092 01:09:47,750 --> 01:09:50,333 Lord knows, outside his own blonde Betty Boop, 1093 01:09:50,416 --> 01:09:52,791 you were always his favorite dinner partner. 1094 01:09:55,083 --> 01:10:01,666 John, are you familiar with the parable of the organ grinder's monkey? 1095 01:10:43,166 --> 01:10:47,208 Today, our roving reporter is visiting Mrs. Elsie Hammontree of Azusa. 1096 01:10:47,291 --> 01:10:51,083 Elsie, would you mind telling the folks at home why you're voting Republican? 1097 01:10:51,166 --> 01:10:52,916 Young man, I'm a widow, 1098 01:10:53,000 --> 01:10:56,875 and this little home may not be much, but it's all I have left. 1099 01:10:56,958 --> 01:10:59,875 -And I intend to protect it. -Poor old woman. 1100 01:10:59,958 --> 01:11:03,250 Would you mind telling the folks why you're voting for Frank Merriam? 1101 01:11:03,333 --> 01:11:06,916 Well, I'm voting for Frank Merriam because I wanna keep our way of life. 1102 01:11:07,416 --> 01:11:08,791 I know that voice. 1103 01:11:10,041 --> 01:11:11,083 It is familiar. 1104 01:11:11,583 --> 01:11:13,333 That's Maude Anderson. 1105 01:11:14,625 --> 01:11:16,833 It is. Aunt Bertha from Lonely Trails. 1106 01:11:16,916 --> 01:11:20,958 Well, she's no widow. And she's absurdly rich. 1107 01:11:21,458 --> 01:11:25,250 That "poor old woman" has got enough oil wells south of El Segundo 1108 01:11:25,333 --> 01:11:26,916 to buy us both, Schnutz. 1109 01:11:29,166 --> 01:11:32,125 I'd know that whiskey gargle anywhere. 1110 01:11:47,125 --> 01:11:49,166 Hey, Mank. 1111 01:11:50,916 --> 01:11:53,250 Looks like you found work, C.C. 1112 01:11:53,750 --> 01:11:57,000 Don't nose it around, but yeah, just in the nick. 1113 01:11:58,666 --> 01:12:00,458 -Who's hiring? -MGM. 1114 01:12:01,166 --> 01:12:04,958 They cleaned out the Washington and Culver gates like a dose of Ex-Lax. 1115 01:12:05,041 --> 01:12:07,083 Grady gets a speaking part. 1116 01:12:07,166 --> 01:12:09,375 They told us to come dressed as we are. 1117 01:12:09,458 --> 01:12:13,708 I don't know who thought of it, but it keeps a lot of us off the streets. 1118 01:12:15,333 --> 01:12:16,916 Don't forget to vote. 1119 01:12:19,125 --> 01:12:20,166 Okay. 1120 01:12:20,250 --> 01:12:22,208 He's confused with Sinclair Lewis. 1121 01:12:22,291 --> 01:12:26,166 So many hicks think he wrote Elmer Gantry, it's cost him the Dust Bowl vote. 1122 01:12:26,250 --> 01:12:27,375 I'm in. 1123 01:12:27,958 --> 01:12:29,958 Poor sap. Not only has he got no money, 1124 01:12:30,041 --> 01:12:32,333 he's an idealist, for Christ's sakes. 1125 01:12:32,416 --> 01:12:34,958 Talk about political handicaps. I'm out. 1126 01:12:35,041 --> 01:12:37,000 Times says he'll lose by 200,000. 1127 01:12:37,083 --> 01:12:39,458 It's amazing what $10 million against him bought. 1128 01:12:39,541 --> 01:12:40,375 Raise. 1129 01:12:40,458 --> 01:12:43,000 That's what he gets for surrounding himself with amateurs. 1130 01:12:43,083 --> 01:12:47,625 They not only charge admission to rallies, they pass a plate once suckers are inside. 1131 01:12:47,708 --> 01:12:48,666 Call. 1132 01:12:48,750 --> 01:12:51,791 He's the most famous schlub after FDR, Hitler, and Mussolini. 1133 01:12:51,875 --> 01:12:53,416 That ought to count for something. 1134 01:12:53,500 --> 01:12:55,583 -Hiya, Shell, sit in. -The bookies know. 1135 01:12:55,666 --> 01:12:57,791 Soon as Maude's radio spots started running, 1136 01:12:57,875 --> 01:13:01,291 the odds went from 7-5 for to 2-1 against. 1137 01:13:01,375 --> 01:13:04,875 Could you effete political snobs please shut up and play? 1138 01:13:04,958 --> 01:13:06,083 Mank, can I talk to you? 1139 01:13:06,166 --> 01:13:07,833 I'll see you guys 1140 01:13:07,916 --> 01:13:09,958 and bump you two big ones. 1141 01:13:10,041 --> 01:13:11,125 It's important. 1142 01:13:11,208 --> 01:13:13,333 What? Now, Shelly? 1143 01:13:15,500 --> 01:13:16,666 It better be. 1144 01:13:17,666 --> 01:13:20,291 That's the first good hand I've had all day. 1145 01:13:22,333 --> 01:13:24,875 I didn't know he knew what a good hand looked like. 1146 01:13:24,958 --> 01:13:25,916 I'm out. 1147 01:13:26,416 --> 01:13:29,083 Mind telling us who you favor in this fall's election? 1148 01:13:29,166 --> 01:13:33,375 -I'm going to vote for Frank Merriam. -Mind telling us your principal reason? 1149 01:13:33,458 --> 01:13:36,041 Well, I want Merriam because I want a job. 1150 01:13:36,541 --> 01:13:39,583 If you drive all the capital out of the country, who'll pay us? 1151 01:13:39,666 --> 01:13:42,333 So, you think Merriam would be safest for all of us? 1152 01:13:42,416 --> 01:13:43,458 Absolutely. 1153 01:13:44,041 --> 01:13:46,833 It's no time to trade horses in the middle of a stream. 1154 01:13:46,916 --> 01:13:49,083 Are you going to vote in the coming election? 1155 01:13:49,166 --> 01:13:51,500 -I most certainly am. -Who would you vote for? 1156 01:13:51,583 --> 01:13:55,708 -I'm sure I'm gonna vote for Mr. Sinclair. -You must have a good reason to. 1157 01:13:55,791 --> 01:13:58,916 Well, Mr. Sinclair got something new. He got that EPIC Plan. 1158 01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:02,375 And I feel as though it's time we should try something new out again. 1159 01:14:02,458 --> 01:14:04,000 I need prosperity. 1160 01:14:04,500 --> 01:14:06,791 Well, first of all, I'm an American, 1161 01:14:06,875 --> 01:14:10,041 and I believe that Mr. Merriam will support 1162 01:14:10,125 --> 01:14:13,583 all the foundations and principles 1163 01:14:13,666 --> 01:14:16,416 that this country has stood for in the past 150 years. 1164 01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:19,000 I have a job now, and I wanna keep it. 1165 01:14:19,083 --> 01:14:21,916 My wife and I love California, and we'd like to stay. 1166 01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:24,666 But in case we should have to leave, 1167 01:14:24,750 --> 01:14:26,958 I'd like to have at least a couple dollars. 1168 01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:28,916 Cut. 1169 01:14:34,750 --> 01:14:38,291 Mrs. Hammontree, mind telling the folks why you're voting for Frank Merriam? 1170 01:14:38,375 --> 01:14:41,375 Well, I'm voting for Frank Merriam because I wanna keep our way of life. 1171 01:14:41,458 --> 01:14:44,083 You don't believe a Democrat would protect your way of life? 1172 01:14:45,083 --> 01:14:46,416 Why, that man's a socialist. 1173 01:14:46,500 --> 01:14:50,333 I don't know much about politics, but I do know this. 1174 01:14:50,833 --> 01:14:52,916 If Upton Sinclair wins this election, 1175 01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:56,083 private ownership in California won't amount to a hill of beans. 1176 01:14:56,666 --> 01:14:59,583 Well, we need complete rejuvenation of our system, 1177 01:15:00,500 --> 01:15:02,500 so I vote for Comrade Upton. 1178 01:15:02,583 --> 01:15:05,666 His system work in Russia, why not here? 1179 01:15:05,750 --> 01:15:07,250 Cut. Do it again. 1180 01:15:08,875 --> 01:15:09,958 What'd you think? 1181 01:15:10,916 --> 01:15:14,000 Truthfully, Shelly, if the performances were any better, 1182 01:15:14,083 --> 01:15:15,500 you'd be ashamed of yourself. 1183 01:15:15,583 --> 01:15:17,250 Only half of 'em were actors. 1184 01:15:17,750 --> 01:15:21,375 It's got that raw newsreel feel, hasn't it? 1185 01:15:21,875 --> 01:15:26,500 -But it isn't news, and it isn't real. -I wasn't looking to have a debate. 1186 01:15:26,583 --> 01:15:29,000 -When did they cook this up? -At a meeting in production. 1187 01:15:29,083 --> 01:15:31,500 They were passing around a pamphlet Sinclair wrote 1188 01:15:31,583 --> 01:15:33,375 called "Ending Poverty in California." 1189 01:15:33,458 --> 01:15:36,166 "America's unemployed will invade the Golden State." 1190 01:15:36,250 --> 01:15:39,583 -Mayer was giddy to use it against him. -Yeah, I bet he was. 1191 01:15:41,291 --> 01:15:44,375 It's enough to persuade me that a writer is more of a menace 1192 01:15:44,458 --> 01:15:46,875 to an unsuspecting public than a party hack. 1193 01:15:46,958 --> 01:15:48,000 Manky-- 1194 01:15:49,083 --> 01:15:49,916 You okay? 1195 01:15:51,125 --> 01:15:52,125 Just nerves. 1196 01:15:53,791 --> 01:15:56,916 If it's bothering you, Shelly, why get involved? 1197 01:15:58,125 --> 01:15:59,708 They gave me a chance to direct. 1198 01:16:03,791 --> 01:16:06,833 You don't think anyone old enough to vote's gonna buy this shit? 1199 01:16:07,333 --> 01:16:10,458 Only the ones who believe King Kong is ten stories tall 1200 01:16:10,541 --> 01:16:13,083 or Mary Pickford a virgin at 40. 1201 01:16:25,458 --> 01:16:27,125 Thanks, Cedric. These are fine. 1202 01:16:32,541 --> 01:16:35,333 I've just watched our Sinclair films. 1203 01:16:37,166 --> 01:16:38,041 What did you think? 1204 01:16:38,125 --> 01:16:41,625 Well, with all due respect to Shelly, King Kong, they ain't. 1205 01:16:43,291 --> 01:16:45,000 Though I do think footage 1206 01:16:45,083 --> 01:16:48,666 of invading hobos has a certain xenophobic power 1207 01:16:48,750 --> 01:16:52,875 when front-paged in the Times and backed by those tacky billboards. 1208 01:16:52,958 --> 01:16:57,000 Shelly got a chance to direct, and I canceled your $12,000 gambling debt. 1209 01:16:57,083 --> 01:16:59,625 I'd call that a fair return on a one-minute lecture 1210 01:16:59,708 --> 01:17:01,333 for uninspired studio chieftains. 1211 01:17:02,750 --> 01:17:05,250 Your director's been stricken with a bout of conscience. 1212 01:17:05,333 --> 01:17:07,291 I'm sure he'll tell me himself. 1213 01:17:09,666 --> 01:17:12,333 Don't do this, Irving. 1214 01:17:14,083 --> 01:17:17,333 When I was just a boy, passing out socialist leaflets in the Bronx, 1215 01:17:17,416 --> 01:17:20,791 a couple Tammany goons came to show me the error of my ways. 1216 01:17:20,875 --> 01:17:22,750 One of them crushed my testicles 1217 01:17:22,833 --> 01:17:26,333 until I volunteered to distribute my wares into the East River. 1218 01:17:26,916 --> 01:17:30,458 That's politics. I didn't invent it, I don't apologize for it. 1219 01:17:35,125 --> 01:17:36,958 Mayer's not paying for this. 1220 01:17:38,083 --> 01:17:39,625 He never pays for anything. 1221 01:17:43,166 --> 01:17:44,250 Willie? 1222 01:17:46,750 --> 01:17:50,750 -Marion might be interested. -Well, you're gonna have to hurry. 1223 01:17:50,833 --> 01:17:53,541 Mayer's over there now, giving her the company kiss-off. 1224 01:17:54,708 --> 01:17:55,875 Haven't you heard? 1225 01:17:57,541 --> 01:17:59,958 She's taking her playpen to Warner Bros. 1226 01:18:00,541 --> 01:18:01,416 Permanently. 1227 01:18:02,250 --> 01:18:05,541 -Warner's? -I wouldn't let her do Marie Antoinette. 1228 01:18:06,041 --> 01:18:09,833 Goldwyn's right for once. "A comedienne in that role is to laugh." 1229 01:18:10,916 --> 01:18:13,916 Besides, her pictures haven't made a dime in a decade. 1230 01:18:14,625 --> 01:18:16,375 Congratulations, Irving. 1231 01:18:17,750 --> 01:18:19,333 I know what I am, Mank. 1232 01:18:19,958 --> 01:18:22,166 When I come to work, I don't consider it slumming. 1233 01:18:22,250 --> 01:18:24,666 I don't use humor to keep myself above the fray. 1234 01:18:24,750 --> 01:18:26,833 I go to the mat for what I believe in. 1235 01:18:26,916 --> 01:18:29,791 I haven't the time to do otherwise. 1236 01:18:31,041 --> 01:18:32,083 But you, sir, 1237 01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:36,958 how formidable people like you might be if they actually gave at the office. 1238 01:18:38,416 --> 01:18:39,583 Close the door. 1239 01:19:24,958 --> 01:19:27,375 Mank! Are you okay? 1240 01:19:27,958 --> 01:19:30,791 No, that almost killed me. Where's Willie? 1241 01:19:31,416 --> 01:19:32,541 Cairo, I think. 1242 01:19:32,625 --> 01:19:35,791 -Can you phone him? -I don't phone him, he phones me. 1243 01:19:35,875 --> 01:19:36,958 When's he due back? 1244 01:19:37,041 --> 01:19:39,916 After November 6th. I'm joining him in Europe next week. 1245 01:19:42,125 --> 01:19:45,333 Marion, I need a favor. It's just a little joke on Willie. 1246 01:19:45,416 --> 01:19:46,666 Sure, Mank, anything. 1247 01:19:46,750 --> 01:19:49,750 I want you to go back and tell Mayer 1248 01:19:49,833 --> 01:19:53,458 Willie wants the phony Sinclair films pulled. 1249 01:19:55,625 --> 01:19:57,458 Which phony Sinclair films? 1250 01:19:57,541 --> 01:20:00,791 There isn't time to explain. I just need you to tell him that. 1251 01:20:01,541 --> 01:20:03,250 I couldn't, not even as a joke. 1252 01:20:03,333 --> 01:20:06,166 -Why not? -You know I don't lie. 1253 01:20:06,916 --> 01:20:09,458 And that's why he'd believe you. 1254 01:20:09,541 --> 01:20:12,625 Marion, please, you're not in convent school anymore. 1255 01:20:16,083 --> 01:20:20,166 -I'm sorry. I know it's silly, but-- -But what? Why not? 1256 01:20:20,250 --> 01:20:24,500 -Promise you won't laugh. -I promise I won't laugh. 1257 01:20:25,166 --> 01:20:27,416 -My exit. -What? 1258 01:20:28,833 --> 01:20:30,875 I already made my exit. 1259 01:21:01,166 --> 01:21:02,916 -Manky! -Whatie? 1260 01:21:03,416 --> 01:21:05,208 It's an ash-throated flycatcher! 1261 01:21:05,291 --> 01:21:07,833 Congratulations. Best kind. 1262 01:21:08,875 --> 01:21:11,708 What can I say? She's my aunt. 1263 01:21:11,791 --> 01:21:14,708 It's not about her, it's about him. 1264 01:21:15,833 --> 01:21:19,375 -Or rather, it's him, but it's not her. -It isn't? 1265 01:21:19,875 --> 01:21:23,000 The lonely showgirl, trapped in a castle, doing jigsaw puzzles. 1266 01:21:23,083 --> 01:21:27,166 It's more her as people who don't know her imagine her to be. 1267 01:21:27,250 --> 01:21:28,375 I see. 1268 01:21:29,625 --> 01:21:32,625 It's her as they imagine her, but it's him as you knew him. 1269 01:21:32,708 --> 01:21:35,125 -Damn it, Charlie. -You asked me out here. 1270 01:21:35,208 --> 01:21:37,458 I was honored to come and read your latest. 1271 01:21:37,958 --> 01:21:41,041 -Is this a test? -A test? Of what? 1272 01:21:41,833 --> 01:21:44,708 -Friendship? Loyalty? -Come now. 1273 01:21:44,791 --> 01:21:46,958 Or just your way of avoiding responsibility? 1274 01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:49,000 What do you mean? 1275 01:21:49,083 --> 01:21:52,791 Are you hoping I might absolve you of such a personal betrayal? 1276 01:21:54,375 --> 01:21:55,500 I won't give you that. 1277 01:21:59,083 --> 01:22:01,000 Are you going to say anything? 1278 01:22:06,083 --> 01:22:09,500 -I have to think about it. -Why? 1279 01:22:09,583 --> 01:22:12,208 I haven't made up my mind how she might react. 1280 01:22:12,291 --> 01:22:14,041 What does instinct tell you? 1281 01:22:14,125 --> 01:22:15,666 That it's mighty strong medicine 1282 01:22:15,750 --> 01:22:18,250 for a lifetime of starry-eyed self-absorption. 1283 01:22:18,333 --> 01:22:21,458 It's one of those cures that could be worse than the disease. 1284 01:22:21,541 --> 01:22:23,958 But you, of all people, should know about that. 1285 01:22:31,333 --> 01:22:32,750 He took the script? 1286 01:22:35,625 --> 01:22:36,583 Will he show it to her? 1287 01:22:39,916 --> 01:22:40,958 I don't know. 1288 01:22:42,291 --> 01:22:43,458 Do you want him to? 1289 01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:47,000 I don't know. 1290 01:23:21,583 --> 01:23:23,958 Sinclair is yesterday's fish-wrap. 1291 01:23:24,916 --> 01:23:26,458 Never stood a chance. 1292 01:23:27,625 --> 01:23:28,625 Make up your mind. 1293 01:23:28,708 --> 01:23:31,625 Are we home licking our wounds or here making the best of it? 1294 01:23:32,666 --> 01:23:34,416 We're making the best of it. 1295 01:23:37,166 --> 01:23:39,583 -Good evening. Name? -Mankiewicz. 1296 01:23:39,666 --> 01:23:40,750 Sorry, what was that? 1297 01:23:40,833 --> 01:23:44,125 M-A-N-K-I-E-W-I-C, and outta nowhere, a Z. 1298 01:23:44,208 --> 01:23:47,291 -Table 14. -Ends of the earth. A clean exit. 1299 01:23:47,375 --> 01:23:49,166 Mankiewicz, Herman. 1300 01:23:50,791 --> 01:23:53,708 Terribly sorry. Table one. Right this way. 1301 01:23:55,875 --> 01:23:59,208 If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. 1302 01:24:11,291 --> 01:24:12,833 -Table one. -Sara! 1303 01:24:12,916 --> 01:24:15,583 Good grief. Look who's here. How about that? 1304 01:24:15,666 --> 01:24:18,500 -Sara. -What a loyal friend you are. 1305 01:24:18,583 --> 01:24:21,416 -I never thought we'd see Mank. -I'm surprised. 1306 01:24:21,500 --> 01:24:23,500 I would've imagined you in pajamas by now. 1307 01:24:23,583 --> 01:24:26,375 Mank, turns out we have the same dentist on Camden. 1308 01:24:26,458 --> 01:24:29,458 Sara, we have to plan a day of shopping and catch up. 1309 01:24:29,541 --> 01:24:32,250 Herman, I met your brother. He's a chip off the old block. 1310 01:24:32,333 --> 01:24:33,416 Quite handsome. 1311 01:24:37,333 --> 01:24:38,833 Please, sit. 1312 01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:44,041 I can't tell you how much it means. I'm touched you'd come. 1313 01:24:44,125 --> 01:24:45,250 Thank you for this. 1314 01:24:48,458 --> 01:24:49,666 Why do I love you? 1315 01:24:57,041 --> 01:24:58,541 What's everyone else having? 1316 01:25:39,041 --> 01:25:42,458 -What a great night. Great result. -I'll drink to that. 1317 01:25:42,541 --> 01:25:45,958 You see, if you just give people what they need to know 1318 01:25:46,041 --> 01:25:49,958 in an emotional way, you can expect they'll do the right thing. 1319 01:25:50,041 --> 01:25:51,666 I think what you mean, 1320 01:25:51,750 --> 01:25:54,125 "If you keep telling people something untrue, 1321 01:25:54,208 --> 01:25:56,750 loud and long enough, they're apt to believe it." 1322 01:25:56,833 --> 01:25:58,083 That's not what he was saying. 1323 01:25:58,166 --> 01:26:01,000 What's going on here? Are we quoting Goebbels? 1324 01:26:01,083 --> 01:26:03,833 -I'd like to debate that with L.B. -I'd like to see that. 1325 01:26:03,916 --> 01:26:05,583 Mank, have another. 1326 01:26:05,666 --> 01:26:08,250 It's early. Every vote counts. 1327 01:26:08,333 --> 01:26:11,250 Maybe the informed of California are late leaving work. 1328 01:26:11,750 --> 01:26:14,125 The last I heard, Irving, it's still a democracy. 1329 01:26:14,208 --> 01:26:16,291 -Of the people. -By the people. 1330 01:26:16,375 --> 01:26:18,291 What are you two talking about? 1331 01:26:18,375 --> 01:26:20,875 I tell you what, how about… 1332 01:26:22,166 --> 01:26:23,166 double or nothin'? 1333 01:26:23,250 --> 01:26:25,000 -What's he saying? -Herman. 1334 01:26:26,458 --> 01:26:28,375 You really will bet on anything. 1335 01:26:29,500 --> 01:26:31,750 Keep your money. I'm happy enough 1336 01:26:31,833 --> 01:26:34,625 just to nail that utopian son of a bitch to the wall. 1337 01:26:34,708 --> 01:26:37,458 I told you, your obligation was canceled out of gratitude. 1338 01:26:38,250 --> 01:26:39,458 Wait a minute. What? 1339 01:26:40,416 --> 01:26:42,125 He wants to wager double or nothin' 1340 01:26:42,208 --> 01:26:44,208 on a debt he doesn't even owe us? 1341 01:26:44,291 --> 01:26:46,791 -Mank. -It's a matter of principle, L.B. 1342 01:26:46,875 --> 01:26:48,166 You wouldn't understand. 1343 01:26:49,875 --> 01:26:54,125 I understand plenty. I'll take that bet. 1344 01:26:55,500 --> 01:26:58,125 Okay, Mank, you're on. Twenty-four grand or nothing. 1345 01:27:02,875 --> 01:27:04,083 Excuse me. 1346 01:27:05,333 --> 01:27:06,875 I'm going to throw up. 1347 01:28:18,791 --> 01:28:19,833 I needed some air. 1348 01:28:36,291 --> 01:28:38,208 Why do you love me? 1349 01:28:52,041 --> 01:28:54,000 Excuse me, my friends. 1350 01:28:55,875 --> 01:29:00,166 The final, incomplete count for tonight is… 1351 01:29:01,958 --> 01:29:05,333 Upton Sinclair, the lousy Bolshevik… 1352 01:29:06,500 --> 01:29:09,625 728,653. 1353 01:29:10,666 --> 01:29:11,791 Frank Merriam… 1354 01:29:13,166 --> 01:29:15,541 the good Republican, 1355 01:29:15,625 --> 01:29:19,208 948,814. 1356 01:29:19,291 --> 01:29:21,875 My friends! 1357 01:29:21,958 --> 01:29:25,583 Everybody get up and sing with me! 1358 01:29:25,666 --> 01:29:28,750 Sing with me! Everybody, up and sing! 1359 01:29:33,000 --> 01:29:34,791 It was a team effort. Thanks. 1360 01:29:46,125 --> 01:29:48,833 Mr. Mankiewicz, I'm so sorry to bother you, 1361 01:29:48,916 --> 01:29:51,916 but there's a telephone call for you. Right back this way. 1362 01:29:57,083 --> 01:29:59,375 -Hello. -Mank, it's Shelly. 1363 01:29:59,458 --> 01:30:00,541 It's Shelly. 1364 01:30:00,625 --> 01:30:03,750 -He lost, Mank. -Yeah, it's been a bad night. 1365 01:30:05,416 --> 01:30:06,250 It's my fault. 1366 01:30:06,333 --> 01:30:10,416 -Easy, fella, you only voted once. -He was just on the radio. 1367 01:30:10,916 --> 01:30:15,416 He said the phony newsreels cost him the election. 1368 01:30:15,500 --> 01:30:17,208 That shows how naive he is. 1369 01:30:17,291 --> 01:30:20,208 FDR cost him the election by staying on the sidelines. 1370 01:30:20,291 --> 01:30:21,291 Sleep it off. 1371 01:30:21,958 --> 01:30:22,916 I'm not at home. 1372 01:30:23,000 --> 01:30:24,916 Where are you? Let me call you a cab. 1373 01:30:25,500 --> 01:30:28,041 Never mind. I'll take the Pasadena Freeway. 1374 01:30:28,125 --> 01:30:30,541 Nobody'd be on it election night. 1375 01:30:31,333 --> 01:30:32,166 Hello? 1376 01:30:32,666 --> 01:30:33,500 Hello? 1377 01:30:36,541 --> 01:30:40,041 -How may I direct your call? -Normandie, 4761. 1378 01:30:40,750 --> 01:30:42,166 He's shit-faced. 1379 01:30:43,375 --> 01:30:44,416 Shell, is that you? 1380 01:30:44,500 --> 01:30:46,458 It's Herman Mankiewicz. 1381 01:30:46,541 --> 01:30:49,458 -Where is he? -I don't know. I'm so worried. 1382 01:30:49,541 --> 01:30:53,458 He left here very upset, and he's got a pistol with him. 1383 01:30:53,541 --> 01:30:56,000 Don't worry, Fay. I'll find him. 1384 01:30:56,083 --> 01:30:57,833 -Eve. -What? 1385 01:30:58,500 --> 01:31:01,708 -I'm Eve. Fay was his first. -I'll find him. 1386 01:31:05,833 --> 01:31:10,250 Is Houseman coming back? I never thought I'd miss him. 1387 01:31:11,291 --> 01:31:13,958 He and the wunderkind are cutting the first draft. 1388 01:31:14,041 --> 01:31:16,916 A form of creative vivisection. 1389 01:31:17,000 --> 01:31:20,041 Vital organs are exposed, nothing is learned, 1390 01:31:20,125 --> 01:31:22,000 the patient dies on the table. 1391 01:31:27,291 --> 01:31:29,250 What have we here? 1392 01:31:31,583 --> 01:31:36,791 Why, it's a puffed-up, sharp-tailed, red-ruffled magpie. 1393 01:31:36,875 --> 01:31:38,125 A whatie? 1394 01:31:58,666 --> 01:32:03,375 -How do you like the Mojave? -God's answer for drunks and reprobates. 1395 01:32:03,458 --> 01:32:05,458 Perfect place to dry out. 1396 01:32:05,541 --> 01:32:08,875 -How's that working? -It didn't take. Cheers. 1397 01:32:09,458 --> 01:32:10,583 L'chaim. 1398 01:32:17,291 --> 01:32:18,458 Why are you doing this? 1399 01:32:19,083 --> 01:32:21,750 -Posterity. -Posterity, my ass. 1400 01:32:21,833 --> 01:32:24,125 -From the original Latin. -Don't patronize me. 1401 01:32:24,208 --> 01:32:28,000 -My Latin grades were better than yours. -Bibamus, moriendum est. 1402 01:32:32,625 --> 01:32:34,708 I read your little script. 1403 01:32:36,375 --> 01:32:37,708 News travels fast. 1404 01:32:37,791 --> 01:32:39,250 Even without the title page, 1405 01:32:39,333 --> 01:32:42,166 you don't need to be Philip Marlowe to know who wrote it. 1406 01:32:43,125 --> 01:32:44,125 Have at it. 1407 01:32:44,791 --> 01:32:45,833 It's very… 1408 01:32:48,208 --> 01:32:49,041 complicated. 1409 01:32:49,125 --> 01:32:50,833 Well, thanks for coming out. 1410 01:32:51,833 --> 01:32:53,708 Herman, this is me. 1411 01:32:54,333 --> 01:32:56,875 You pick a fight with Willie, you are finished. 1412 01:32:57,458 --> 01:32:59,458 Mayer can't save you. Nobody can. 1413 01:32:59,541 --> 01:33:01,833 Especially the boy genius from New York. 1414 01:33:01,916 --> 01:33:05,875 -You're far too political, Joe. -Self-preservation is not politics. 1415 01:33:06,458 --> 01:33:07,791 Him, I get. 1416 01:33:08,541 --> 01:33:12,291 -But what did Marion do to deserve this? -It's not her! 1417 01:33:13,958 --> 01:33:17,500 You know better than anyone, not all characters are headliners. 1418 01:33:17,583 --> 01:33:18,875 Some are secondary. 1419 01:33:18,958 --> 01:33:22,875 Well, that's why I'm here. On behalf of the secondary characters. 1420 01:33:25,083 --> 01:33:27,333 I thought you'd wanna know there's a rumor 1421 01:33:27,416 --> 01:33:30,708 you're out to get Hearst because they dropped you from L.B.'s payroll, 1422 01:33:30,791 --> 01:33:32,541 that they didn't want you around. 1423 01:33:32,625 --> 01:33:34,875 Don't believe everything you hear at Schwab's. 1424 01:33:34,958 --> 01:33:37,333 Hey, you made yourself court jester. 1425 01:33:40,375 --> 01:33:42,083 Someone had to say it. 1426 01:33:51,333 --> 01:33:55,875 People are speculating Rosebud is W.R.'s pet name for Marion's genitalia. 1427 01:33:56,375 --> 01:33:59,750 -I know you'd never stoop to that. -Only because I hadn't heard. 1428 01:34:15,166 --> 01:34:18,208 Charlie tells me you're up for Thalberg's old job. 1429 01:34:18,291 --> 01:34:20,875 -Not anymore. -Did I bollix that? 1430 01:34:20,958 --> 01:34:24,250 Don't flatter yourself, Herman. I did it all alone. 1431 01:34:24,333 --> 01:34:25,416 Now, there's a first. 1432 01:34:25,500 --> 01:34:29,208 I exposed myself, not entirely metaphorically, in court. 1433 01:34:29,291 --> 01:34:30,166 Do tell. 1434 01:34:30,791 --> 01:34:34,458 Somebody was bitching about Mervyn LeRoy running over budget on Wizard of Oz. 1435 01:34:34,541 --> 01:34:37,416 -Goddamn movie again. -I said, "Le Roy s'amuse." 1436 01:34:37,500 --> 01:34:39,416 I was then forced to spend 20 minutes 1437 01:34:39,500 --> 01:34:41,166 having to explain that "Le Roy" 1438 01:34:41,250 --> 01:34:43,958 is "le roi" in French and means "the king." 1439 01:34:44,041 --> 01:34:45,958 Or to be specific, François I 1440 01:34:46,041 --> 01:34:50,583 and his royal habit of s'amus-ing himself by diddling all the ladies of his court. 1441 01:34:55,416 --> 01:34:58,875 You know, Pop was right. You should've been a professor. 1442 01:34:59,583 --> 01:35:02,125 Nobody knew what the fuck I was talking about. 1443 01:35:02,750 --> 01:35:06,125 They say I was passed over because I'm not a team player. 1444 01:35:06,791 --> 01:35:07,750 But I know better. 1445 01:35:08,250 --> 01:35:10,625 It was the goddamn French pun that did me in. 1446 01:35:17,708 --> 01:35:19,208 I'm washed up, Joe. 1447 01:35:22,500 --> 01:35:23,916 Have been for years. 1448 01:35:29,625 --> 01:35:31,750 It's the best thing you've ever written. 1449 01:35:48,958 --> 01:35:50,458 A rare bird, that. 1450 01:35:52,833 --> 01:35:54,000 A Mankiewicz. 1451 01:36:17,833 --> 01:36:20,958 -You can't do it that way. -Do what? 1452 01:36:21,041 --> 01:36:23,291 Kill yourself. I've tried. 1453 01:36:23,375 --> 01:36:24,500 It takes years. 1454 01:36:25,000 --> 01:36:28,333 I was tired of doing inserts and pick-up shots. 1455 01:36:28,416 --> 01:36:31,125 You're not the first person to trade integrity 1456 01:36:31,208 --> 01:36:33,041 for a chance in the big chair. 1457 01:36:34,125 --> 01:36:36,875 Thalberg said this was your idea. 1458 01:36:36,958 --> 01:36:40,208 Sometimes my asides are too clever by half. 1459 01:36:43,750 --> 01:36:45,708 Go home to Fay. 1460 01:36:45,791 --> 01:36:47,958 -Eve. -Eve. Sorry. 1461 01:36:50,458 --> 01:36:52,041 Look at what we did. 1462 01:36:52,125 --> 01:36:54,250 We can't un-ring this bell. 1463 01:36:54,333 --> 01:36:56,208 We have to be vigilant. 1464 01:36:56,291 --> 01:36:57,791 In regards to? 1465 01:36:57,875 --> 01:36:59,750 People sitting in the dark, 1466 01:36:59,833 --> 01:37:02,625 willingly checking their disbelief at the door. 1467 01:37:03,125 --> 01:37:05,583 We have a huge responsibility. 1468 01:37:07,125 --> 01:37:08,125 I got it. 1469 01:37:09,291 --> 01:37:10,250 Got what? 1470 01:37:11,750 --> 01:37:13,083 Parkinson's. 1471 01:37:18,958 --> 01:37:21,000 No, Shelly. 1472 01:37:27,250 --> 01:37:28,500 I'm so sorry. 1473 01:37:29,500 --> 01:37:31,000 First, you get the tremors, 1474 01:37:32,375 --> 01:37:34,583 and your muscles begin to fail. 1475 01:37:35,916 --> 01:37:38,291 Pretty soon, you can't get out of a chair. 1476 01:37:39,500 --> 01:37:42,625 Then smiling, speaking, 1477 01:37:42,708 --> 01:37:44,166 everything goes. 1478 01:37:45,375 --> 01:37:47,750 And it keeps going till… 1479 01:37:48,500 --> 01:37:50,333 You could always produce. 1480 01:37:57,416 --> 01:37:59,208 Give me the gun, Shelly. 1481 01:38:23,208 --> 01:38:24,041 Take 'em, Mank. 1482 01:38:26,666 --> 01:38:29,458 Go on home. I'll be fine. 1483 01:39:15,125 --> 01:39:16,125 Is he with you? 1484 01:39:17,500 --> 01:39:18,750 He wouldn't come. 1485 01:39:20,458 --> 01:39:21,833 Tell me you got the gun. 1486 01:39:29,125 --> 01:39:30,083 Oh, my God! 1487 01:39:31,875 --> 01:39:34,458 -What? -He had a whole box. 1488 01:39:49,333 --> 01:39:50,541 Mank. 1489 01:39:52,166 --> 01:39:53,583 You have another visitor. 1490 01:39:55,250 --> 01:39:56,250 What? 1491 01:40:17,458 --> 01:40:18,583 Drink it fast. 1492 01:40:19,250 --> 01:40:21,208 In this heat, it'll flash to sugar. 1493 01:40:28,958 --> 01:40:30,791 Why the wine and dine, Marion? 1494 01:40:31,625 --> 01:40:33,083 Good cop, bad cop? 1495 01:40:33,166 --> 01:40:36,083 -How do you mean, Mank? -First Joe, now you. 1496 01:40:38,041 --> 01:40:40,291 Can't you just tell me what's on your mind? 1497 01:40:42,166 --> 01:40:45,000 Well, I read the script. 1498 01:40:45,083 --> 01:40:46,291 Who hasn't? 1499 01:40:46,375 --> 01:40:48,791 It's very grand, Mank, in its own way, 1500 01:40:48,875 --> 01:40:50,250 and very much you. 1501 01:40:51,166 --> 01:40:53,083 I would've loved to play me ten years ago. 1502 01:40:53,166 --> 01:40:55,208 It was never meant to be you. 1503 01:40:55,291 --> 01:40:57,875 For myself, I don't care, Mank. Really, I don't. 1504 01:40:58,750 --> 01:41:02,833 But I beg you, don't kick Pops when he's down. 1505 01:41:02,916 --> 01:41:04,750 Willie, down? 1506 01:41:07,833 --> 01:41:09,625 I haven't told a soul this, 1507 01:41:10,333 --> 01:41:14,083 but I had to loan him a million dollars just to save San Simeon. 1508 01:41:14,166 --> 01:41:15,791 You hocked your jewels? 1509 01:41:16,375 --> 01:41:20,083 Of course not, just some real estate. He bought me most of it anyway. 1510 01:41:20,625 --> 01:41:22,125 Willie sent you. 1511 01:41:23,083 --> 01:41:23,958 Didn't have to. 1512 01:41:27,458 --> 01:41:28,958 That surprises you? 1513 01:41:29,458 --> 01:41:31,375 You're the most observant man I know. 1514 01:41:31,458 --> 01:41:34,583 -Then you deserve better. -That's very sweet. 1515 01:41:37,208 --> 01:41:38,458 I always wanted better. 1516 01:41:39,416 --> 01:41:40,541 Mama Rose, too. 1517 01:41:40,625 --> 01:41:43,333 She made sure her daughters learned to sing and dance. 1518 01:41:44,041 --> 01:41:46,291 We were never gonna end up in Brooklyn. 1519 01:41:46,958 --> 01:41:50,500 I was only 16 when I was cast in Stop! Look! Listen! 1520 01:41:50,583 --> 01:41:52,333 That's some title. 1521 01:41:53,125 --> 01:41:55,833 Willie came to the show. Same seat, every night. 1522 01:41:55,916 --> 01:42:00,625 And all the other girls said to watch out. He was too old for me and too interested. 1523 01:42:00,708 --> 01:42:03,458 Come now, he wasn't your only admirer. 1524 01:42:05,500 --> 01:42:08,041 The thing you got so right in your script… 1525 01:42:08,875 --> 01:42:11,416 was how lonely he'd been as a boy. 1526 01:42:14,458 --> 01:42:18,333 When my own mother heard he was one of the richest men in America, 1527 01:42:19,000 --> 01:42:20,791 she said, "Kick a little higher." 1528 01:42:23,333 --> 01:42:26,625 He has always been so kind to me. 1529 01:42:28,458 --> 01:42:30,000 I love the old guy, Mank. 1530 01:42:31,750 --> 01:42:33,333 Maybe I didn't always, 1531 01:42:33,416 --> 01:42:36,000 back when he was my social security. 1532 01:42:36,666 --> 01:42:39,333 But now, there are things about us together… 1533 01:42:40,000 --> 01:42:41,625 that no one could possibly… 1534 01:42:45,541 --> 01:42:47,291 Am I persuading you at all? 1535 01:42:50,791 --> 01:42:53,583 I hope, if this gets made, 1536 01:42:55,416 --> 01:42:56,750 you'll forgive me. 1537 01:42:57,833 --> 01:42:58,916 And I hope, 1538 01:42:59,833 --> 01:43:00,916 if it doesn't, 1539 01:43:02,541 --> 01:43:03,666 you'll forgive me. 1540 01:43:14,000 --> 01:43:15,666 He was a modest man. 1541 01:43:16,166 --> 01:43:18,000 His name never appeared on the marquee 1542 01:43:18,083 --> 01:43:22,250 with the great stars, great producers, great directors who worked alongside him. 1543 01:43:23,416 --> 01:43:26,291 But he loved moving pictures more than he loved anything. 1544 01:43:26,375 --> 01:43:30,000 And he left his impeccable taste, his incredible attention to detail 1545 01:43:30,083 --> 01:43:32,416 on every frame he touched. 1546 01:43:32,500 --> 01:43:36,583 It is not for us to say why he was taken from us so unexpectedly. 1547 01:43:36,666 --> 01:43:38,791 Behind, he leaves his memory. 1548 01:43:39,291 --> 01:43:42,291 The memory of a great man, a talented man, 1549 01:43:42,375 --> 01:43:44,583 a man of unblemished integrity. 1550 01:43:45,416 --> 01:43:47,750 Irving G. Thalberg. 1551 01:44:01,541 --> 01:44:02,500 Mank. 1552 01:44:03,875 --> 01:44:07,666 I haven't seen you since, what was it, Jack Gilbert's funeral? 1553 01:44:07,750 --> 01:44:10,541 Well, I haven't seen you since Shelly Metcalf's. 1554 01:44:11,375 --> 01:44:12,625 Has it been that long? 1555 01:44:14,416 --> 01:44:17,041 -How you been, Mank? -Between pictures. 1556 01:44:18,125 --> 01:44:21,208 -I thought you were still at MGM. -I am. 1557 01:44:23,666 --> 01:44:27,000 Well, look. Come see me at International. Let's work something out. 1558 01:44:27,083 --> 01:44:28,500 I did come to see you. 1559 01:44:29,000 --> 01:44:32,041 You gave me the same invitation after Shelly's funeral. 1560 01:44:32,541 --> 01:44:35,708 I couldn't get past your secretary's secretary. 1561 01:44:36,916 --> 01:44:37,958 Is that right? 1562 01:44:40,750 --> 01:44:42,083 Good to see you, Mank. 1563 01:45:27,458 --> 01:45:29,375 -Hello. -Mank? 1564 01:45:30,250 --> 01:45:31,416 One moment, please. 1565 01:45:38,416 --> 01:45:39,333 Mank. 1566 01:45:39,833 --> 01:45:40,750 Mank! 1567 01:45:41,500 --> 01:45:42,375 It's Orson. 1568 01:45:43,208 --> 01:45:44,083 It's Orson. 1569 01:45:53,125 --> 01:45:54,416 -Hello. -Mank. 1570 01:45:54,500 --> 01:45:57,166 I've just finished your first draft, and I must say, 1571 01:45:57,250 --> 01:45:58,958 I'm pleased and impressed. 1572 01:45:59,041 --> 01:46:02,458 -Are you? Good news. -It'll need work, of course. 1573 01:46:02,541 --> 01:46:05,291 But there are no problems that can't be solved together. 1574 01:46:05,375 --> 01:46:07,000 Well, I'm delighted to hear it. 1575 01:46:07,083 --> 01:46:09,000 Houseman's bringing my notes. Think about 'em. 1576 01:46:09,083 --> 01:46:11,208 Meantime, I'll run everything through my typewriter. 1577 01:46:11,291 --> 01:46:12,666 Everything will thank you. 1578 01:46:12,750 --> 01:46:15,083 You're in touch with your Hollywood crowd? 1579 01:46:15,958 --> 01:46:17,166 Good old Houseman. 1580 01:46:17,250 --> 01:46:20,291 Perhaps you've heard. None of the theater chains will touch us. 1581 01:46:20,375 --> 01:46:23,500 It looks like RKO will have to sue for restraint of trade. 1582 01:46:23,583 --> 01:46:25,083 They'll countersue, of course. 1583 01:46:25,166 --> 01:46:27,250 If you own any part of that lovely home of yours, 1584 01:46:27,333 --> 01:46:30,541 it might be a good idea to put it in Poor Sara's name. 1585 01:46:31,791 --> 01:46:36,041 -You still there, Mank? -Yes. Where else would I be? 1586 01:46:36,125 --> 01:46:37,541 I've saved the best for last. 1587 01:46:37,625 --> 01:46:40,166 Guess who phoned with an offer to buy out RKO's investment 1588 01:46:40,250 --> 01:46:41,875 and shelve the picture permanently. 1589 01:46:41,958 --> 01:46:44,500 -Not Hearst? -Mank, I'm surprised. 1590 01:46:44,583 --> 01:46:47,750 Would Othello snoop on Desdemona when he has Iago? 1591 01:46:48,541 --> 01:46:51,958 Mayer. What did RKO say? 1592 01:46:52,041 --> 01:46:55,041 No dice, but they're on their uppers. Whether they-- 1593 01:46:55,125 --> 01:46:57,958 -You'd better drive up. -I plan to, as soon as I'm done-- 1594 01:46:58,041 --> 01:46:59,916 Today, if possible. 1595 01:47:00,416 --> 01:47:02,791 Dear Jove, did I say something I shouldn't have? 1596 01:47:02,875 --> 01:47:05,000 I hope you haven't lost your nerve. 1597 01:47:05,083 --> 01:47:07,250 Nerve's about all I've got left. 1598 01:47:14,875 --> 01:47:18,000 What a year you've had, Louis. How have you weathered it? 1599 01:47:18,083 --> 01:47:23,291 Despite everything, the MGM ship, I'm happy to say, is full steam ahead. 1600 01:47:23,375 --> 01:47:28,833 We're on track with this recent slate for our most successful year ever. 1601 01:47:28,916 --> 01:47:30,125 Well, that's great news. 1602 01:47:30,750 --> 01:47:32,625 Would you like to go and lay down? 1603 01:47:32,708 --> 01:47:34,750 I think I'd rather stay upright. 1604 01:47:34,833 --> 01:47:39,166 -Perhaps we can find you a costume. -Well, why would I need a cost-- 1605 01:47:42,250 --> 01:47:45,583 Hello, everyone. Better late than never. 1606 01:47:45,666 --> 01:47:47,208 Mank! Where's Sara? 1607 01:47:47,291 --> 01:47:49,958 Caring for clan Mankiewicz. 1608 01:47:50,041 --> 01:47:54,958 -And what train did you take? -Glendale. I missed my stop. 1609 01:47:55,041 --> 01:47:57,416 Got a taxi from Morro Bay. 1610 01:47:57,500 --> 01:47:58,375 I'm confused. 1611 01:47:58,458 --> 01:48:01,708 I thought the invitation called for circus attire, 1612 01:48:01,791 --> 01:48:03,500 not flea circus. 1613 01:48:03,583 --> 01:48:07,500 I was cornered by a man who sold vacuum cleaners. 1614 01:48:07,583 --> 01:48:11,500 A show of hands, who knows what a vacuum cleaner is? 1615 01:48:11,583 --> 01:48:14,208 Martin, would you set a place for Mr. Mankiewicz, 1616 01:48:14,291 --> 01:48:16,541 somewhere where he might get some air? 1617 01:48:19,041 --> 01:48:20,791 Would you follow me this way, sir? 1618 01:48:21,416 --> 01:48:23,083 And offer him some coffee. 1619 01:48:23,166 --> 01:48:26,125 Yeah. Mr. Monkeywitz could use some coffee. 1620 01:48:32,916 --> 01:48:35,625 And how's Marie Antoinette coming together? 1621 01:48:36,458 --> 01:48:39,166 Previews have been a struggle for general audiences. 1622 01:48:39,250 --> 01:48:41,875 We made some trims, but I should've known. 1623 01:48:42,541 --> 01:48:45,500 Versailles, all those costumes and wigs. 1624 01:48:45,583 --> 01:48:46,958 You can't tell those stories 1625 01:48:47,041 --> 01:48:49,333 without overhauling them for a modern audience. 1626 01:48:49,416 --> 01:48:51,458 How's the performance of your leading lady? 1627 01:48:51,541 --> 01:48:53,166 The picture depends upon her. 1628 01:48:53,250 --> 01:48:56,291 Norma put her heart and soul into it. 1629 01:48:56,375 --> 01:48:58,958 I should've insisted she take some time. 1630 01:48:59,041 --> 01:49:02,833 -It's a lot to deal with a loss like that. -Marion would've made it her own. 1631 01:49:02,916 --> 01:49:05,416 Marion would have been perfection. 1632 01:49:05,958 --> 01:49:08,958 -Marion Antoinette. -But it was Irving's picture. 1633 01:49:09,041 --> 01:49:10,291 Marionette. 1634 01:49:11,708 --> 01:49:14,333 I'm not interested in educating our customers. 1635 01:49:15,041 --> 01:49:17,541 You want to send a message? Call Western Union. 1636 01:49:19,458 --> 01:49:20,833 Literary pictures. 1637 01:49:20,916 --> 01:49:22,416 "Let them get cake." 1638 01:49:23,000 --> 01:49:24,333 Who needs to see that? 1639 01:49:28,583 --> 01:49:29,875 Joanna, come along now. 1640 01:49:29,958 --> 01:49:32,083 I'll show you those horses we talked about. 1641 01:49:40,250 --> 01:49:41,416 She's very pretty. 1642 01:49:42,125 --> 01:49:45,916 Also, very bright, bullheaded, and British. 1643 01:49:47,833 --> 01:49:50,208 Are you here to try your luck, too, Schnutz? 1644 01:49:50,708 --> 01:49:54,125 -At what? -Changing my mind. 1645 01:49:55,291 --> 01:49:57,625 I never had much success with that, Herman. 1646 01:49:58,125 --> 01:49:59,750 You'll do what you need to. 1647 01:49:59,833 --> 01:50:02,708 Charlie's been here, Joe's been, Marion's been. 1648 01:50:02,791 --> 01:50:06,000 For one reason or another, all of them want me to walk away. 1649 01:50:06,625 --> 01:50:08,375 You care to hear what I've decided? 1650 01:50:09,541 --> 01:50:10,416 Not really. 1651 01:50:11,833 --> 01:50:14,166 After 20 years of connubial bliss, 1652 01:50:14,250 --> 01:50:17,208 blind loyalty can get a little suffocating. 1653 01:50:17,291 --> 01:50:18,125 Okay. 1654 01:50:19,458 --> 01:50:20,416 Here goes. 1655 01:50:21,125 --> 01:50:23,041 God knows I've rehearsed it enough. 1656 01:50:23,625 --> 01:50:26,541 I've raised your kids kosher and all but by myself. 1657 01:50:26,625 --> 01:50:28,666 I've put up with your suicidal drinking, 1658 01:50:28,750 --> 01:50:31,875 your compulsive gambling, your silly platonic affairs. 1659 01:50:31,958 --> 01:50:33,458 You owe me, Herman. 1660 01:50:35,291 --> 01:50:36,791 Joe says he can't promise, 1661 01:50:36,875 --> 01:50:40,416 but he thinks if you make nice with Mayer, you can have your old job back. 1662 01:50:40,500 --> 01:50:43,708 Is that what you want me to say? I know what your answer'll be, 1663 01:50:43,791 --> 01:50:47,791 so don't ask me to give you Poor Sara's seal of approval. 1664 01:50:48,666 --> 01:50:51,375 Why do you put up with me, Schnutz? 1665 01:50:51,458 --> 01:50:54,583 My movie-star looks or my diplomat's charm? 1666 01:50:55,208 --> 01:50:58,291 I suppose because being married to you, Herman, 1667 01:50:58,375 --> 01:50:59,291 I'm never bored. 1668 01:51:00,000 --> 01:51:01,458 Exhausted, yes. 1669 01:51:01,541 --> 01:51:03,125 Exasperated, usually. 1670 01:51:03,208 --> 01:51:05,083 But having devoted so much, 1671 01:51:05,583 --> 01:51:08,041 I have to stick around to see how it turns out. 1672 01:51:12,416 --> 01:51:14,125 And whatever you decide… 1673 01:51:16,291 --> 01:51:19,833 please be mindful of those who care about you most. 1674 01:51:24,041 --> 01:51:25,291 I'm going riding. 1675 01:51:25,875 --> 01:51:28,083 Haven't seen a horse's face in years. 1676 01:51:30,791 --> 01:51:32,416 And one last thing, Herman. 1677 01:51:33,708 --> 01:51:36,625 I don't want nobody calling me Poor Sara no more. 1678 01:51:50,166 --> 01:51:53,083 I've got a great idea for a picture, Louis. 1679 01:51:53,583 --> 01:51:57,500 A picture I just know you're gonna love. 1680 01:51:58,625 --> 01:52:02,958 It's a modern-day version of Quixote. 1681 01:52:06,833 --> 01:52:10,625 Now, I know none of you read, but you know what it's about. 1682 01:52:10,708 --> 01:52:13,041 A deluded old nobleman 1683 01:52:13,125 --> 01:52:15,291 who tilts at windmills. 1684 01:52:16,791 --> 01:52:19,625 So how might we update this story? 1685 01:52:19,708 --> 01:52:21,833 -Do you want me to get someone? -No. 1686 01:52:21,916 --> 01:52:24,291 How about we make our Quixote… 1687 01:52:25,958 --> 01:52:27,250 a newspaperman? 1688 01:52:28,125 --> 01:52:31,250 Who else could make a living tilting at windmills? 1689 01:52:31,333 --> 01:52:32,500 But that's not enough. 1690 01:52:32,583 --> 01:52:33,625 No, sir. 1691 01:52:33,708 --> 01:52:36,125 No, he wants more than readership. 1692 01:52:36,208 --> 01:52:40,708 He wants more than adulation. He wants love. 1693 01:52:42,125 --> 01:52:44,500 So, he runs for public office, 1694 01:52:44,583 --> 01:52:47,041 and because he's notably rich, he wins. 1695 01:52:48,208 --> 01:52:49,916 No, wait a minute. 1696 01:52:50,000 --> 01:52:51,791 Notably rich and powerful 1697 01:52:51,875 --> 01:52:53,250 can't win over an audience 1698 01:52:53,333 --> 01:52:57,791 unless notably rich and powerful sees the error of his ways in the final reel. 1699 01:52:58,500 --> 01:53:00,375 Notably rich and powerful 1700 01:53:00,458 --> 01:53:05,708 and making no goddamn excuses for it is only admirable in real life. 1701 01:53:05,791 --> 01:53:07,166 Isn't that right, Louis? 1702 01:53:10,750 --> 01:53:12,208 So what do we do? 1703 01:53:14,458 --> 01:53:15,916 Anybody? 1704 01:53:18,333 --> 01:53:20,833 We give him ideals. 1705 01:53:20,916 --> 01:53:23,541 Ideals that any dirt-poor, 1706 01:53:23,625 --> 01:53:26,916 depression-weary audience can identify with. 1707 01:53:27,000 --> 01:53:29,750 Our Quixote is against crooked trusts. 1708 01:53:29,833 --> 01:53:33,625 He's for the eight-hour workday, fair income tax, better schools. 1709 01:53:33,708 --> 01:53:37,541 Why, he's even for government ownership of railroads. 1710 01:53:38,500 --> 01:53:40,250 You know what we call those people? 1711 01:53:40,333 --> 01:53:41,625 -Communists? -Anarchists? 1712 01:53:41,708 --> 01:53:43,291 No, our Quixote, 1713 01:53:43,375 --> 01:53:46,083 he's a two-fisted muckraker. 1714 01:53:46,166 --> 01:53:50,083 In fact, someone predicts that he will one day 1715 01:53:50,166 --> 01:53:53,833 win the presidency and bring about, get this… 1716 01:53:58,708 --> 01:54:01,458 a socialist revolution. 1717 01:54:01,541 --> 01:54:04,416 -What a bunch of bullshit! -Is it? 1718 01:54:05,541 --> 01:54:06,416 Tell him, Willie. 1719 01:54:07,958 --> 01:54:08,958 Tell him. 1720 01:54:10,208 --> 01:54:15,041 Upton Sinclair used exactly those words 1721 01:54:15,125 --> 01:54:18,041 to describe a young William Randolph Hearst. 1722 01:54:18,125 --> 01:54:21,000 -You miserable bastard! -How do you do? 1723 01:54:23,916 --> 01:54:27,041 Our Quixote, he hungers, he thirsts, 1724 01:54:27,125 --> 01:54:29,750 he lusts for the voters to love him. 1725 01:54:30,333 --> 01:54:32,500 Love him enough to make him president. 1726 01:54:32,583 --> 01:54:34,958 But they won't, and they don't. 1727 01:54:35,041 --> 01:54:37,333 How do you suppose that could happen? 1728 01:54:37,416 --> 01:54:39,291 Could it be because, in their hearts, 1729 01:54:39,375 --> 01:54:43,083 they know that he values power over people? 1730 01:54:44,083 --> 01:54:46,041 Disillusioned in Congress, 1731 01:54:46,125 --> 01:54:50,666 he authors not one single piece of legislation in two terms. 1732 01:54:50,750 --> 01:54:53,708 Can you believe that? That'll take some writing. 1733 01:54:54,875 --> 01:54:57,208 Placed in nomination for president, 1734 01:54:57,291 --> 01:55:00,625 but it's too radical for the boys in the back. 1735 01:55:00,708 --> 01:55:02,916 His bid goes nowhere, 1736 01:55:03,000 --> 01:55:04,791 but we're doing something. 1737 01:55:05,291 --> 01:55:07,625 We're building sympathy. 1738 01:55:08,625 --> 01:55:12,208 Rejected, he flees to lotus land, 1739 01:55:12,291 --> 01:55:15,000 where his faithful troll, Sancho, 1740 01:55:15,083 --> 01:55:17,916 has prepared a mythical kingdom. 1741 01:55:20,166 --> 01:55:21,666 Wait a minute. 1742 01:55:23,250 --> 01:55:25,250 I forgot the love interest. 1743 01:55:25,958 --> 01:55:26,916 Her name… 1744 01:55:27,958 --> 01:55:29,375 Dulcinea. 1745 01:55:29,458 --> 01:55:32,958 Funny, adventurous, smarter than she acts. 1746 01:55:33,041 --> 01:55:36,041 She's a showgirl, 1747 01:55:36,708 --> 01:55:38,291 beneath his social stratum, 1748 01:55:38,375 --> 01:55:39,333 but that's okay, 1749 01:55:39,833 --> 01:55:43,000 because true love on the big screens, 1750 01:55:43,083 --> 01:55:45,333 we all know, is blind. 1751 01:55:46,416 --> 01:55:47,458 And she… 1752 01:55:48,875 --> 01:55:50,541 Yeah, she loves him, too. 1753 01:55:52,250 --> 01:55:56,166 So he takes her away to his mythical kingdom. 1754 01:55:56,250 --> 01:55:57,708 Can I get a bicarb? 1755 01:55:58,791 --> 01:56:02,583 Now, along comes nemesis. 1756 01:56:02,666 --> 01:56:05,416 That's Greek for any guy in a black hat. 1757 01:56:06,000 --> 01:56:08,208 Nemesis runs for governor, 1758 01:56:08,291 --> 01:56:11,375 and he's a shoo-in to win. 1759 01:56:11,458 --> 01:56:12,458 Why? 1760 01:56:13,208 --> 01:56:17,833 Because he's exactly what our Don used to be. 1761 01:56:17,916 --> 01:56:19,458 An idealist, 1762 01:56:19,541 --> 01:56:20,666 you get it? 1763 01:56:21,333 --> 01:56:22,500 And not only that, 1764 01:56:23,083 --> 01:56:26,750 nemesis is the same guy who once predicted 1765 01:56:26,833 --> 01:56:31,833 our Quixote would one day preside over a socialist revolution. 1766 01:56:33,083 --> 01:56:37,833 Our Quixote looks into the mirror of his youth 1767 01:56:37,916 --> 01:56:41,333 and decides to break this glass, 1768 01:56:41,416 --> 01:56:45,041 a maddening reminder of who he once was. 1769 01:56:45,125 --> 01:56:48,708 Assisted by his faithful Sancho 1770 01:56:48,791 --> 01:56:53,708 and armed with all the black magic at his command, 1771 01:56:53,791 --> 01:56:55,916 he does just this. 1772 01:56:56,416 --> 01:56:58,750 Destroying, in the process, 1773 01:56:58,833 --> 01:57:00,250 not one man… 1774 01:57:01,500 --> 01:57:02,708 but two. 1775 01:57:05,458 --> 01:57:07,041 Well, what do you think, Louis? 1776 01:57:08,458 --> 01:57:09,916 You think it'll play? 1777 01:57:22,541 --> 01:57:24,333 Don't worry, folks. 1778 01:57:25,541 --> 01:57:28,125 The white wine came up with the fish. 1779 01:57:30,541 --> 01:57:34,250 Who the fuck do you think you are, Mankiewicz? 1780 01:57:35,666 --> 01:57:37,916 You're nothin' but a court jester. 1781 01:57:38,833 --> 01:57:41,041 And let me let you in on a little secret. 1782 01:57:41,125 --> 01:57:44,458 Do you have any idea who pays half your salary? 1783 01:57:44,541 --> 01:57:46,791 He pays half your fucking salary. 1784 01:57:46,875 --> 01:57:48,666 Him, you fucking ingrate. 1785 01:57:49,333 --> 01:57:51,000 You didn't know that, did ya? 1786 01:57:51,083 --> 01:57:52,166 You wanna know why? 1787 01:57:52,666 --> 01:57:54,541 Because he likes the way you talk. 1788 01:57:54,625 --> 01:57:56,125 Not the way you write, 1789 01:57:56,208 --> 01:57:57,875 the way you talk. 1790 01:57:58,583 --> 01:58:00,625 Don't that chap your ass? 1791 01:58:05,416 --> 01:58:06,375 Stay. 1792 01:58:22,833 --> 01:58:25,333 -Please, follow me. -It's very quaint. 1793 01:58:33,166 --> 01:58:35,000 Rise and shine, hombre. 1794 01:58:35,958 --> 01:58:37,875 Shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. 1795 01:58:39,500 --> 01:58:42,958 Before we buckle down, you have something to get off your chest? 1796 01:58:43,041 --> 01:58:45,041 As a matter of fact, I do. 1797 01:58:45,125 --> 01:58:47,083 Frankly, I think what I said upset you. 1798 01:58:47,166 --> 01:58:50,291 I know your health's not what it might be, and that comes first. 1799 01:58:50,375 --> 01:58:53,416 -Really? -This studio fuss, this lawsuit. 1800 01:58:53,500 --> 01:58:55,458 God knows what pressure's yet to come. 1801 01:58:55,541 --> 01:58:58,250 At your age, you'd be justified in wanting out. 1802 01:58:58,333 --> 01:59:00,500 I'm 43, but that's very understanding. 1803 01:59:00,583 --> 01:59:02,500 Mayer's buyout was rejected, 1804 01:59:02,583 --> 01:59:05,166 so the fat's only starting to hit the fire. 1805 01:59:05,791 --> 01:59:09,208 Now, I talked to RKO, and I'll tell you what they're ready to do. 1806 01:59:09,291 --> 01:59:12,208 In recognition of the outstanding work you've done so far, 1807 01:59:12,291 --> 01:59:14,291 they're prepared to relieve you of the rewrite 1808 01:59:14,375 --> 01:59:16,041 and still honor your full pay… 1809 01:59:16,791 --> 01:59:19,416 plus $10,000. 1810 01:59:20,208 --> 01:59:21,041 How's that? 1811 01:59:22,875 --> 01:59:24,458 That's more than generous. 1812 01:59:25,875 --> 01:59:27,875 But I don't intend to walk. 1813 01:59:29,875 --> 01:59:30,833 All right. 1814 01:59:33,250 --> 01:59:34,958 What's bothering you, then? 1815 01:59:35,041 --> 01:59:37,666 You're not going to like this, Orson. 1816 01:59:42,250 --> 01:59:43,541 I want credit. 1817 01:59:45,625 --> 01:59:46,750 Come again? 1818 01:59:47,791 --> 01:59:50,000 It's the best thing I've ever written. 1819 01:59:50,875 --> 01:59:53,250 Jack, get me some Cuban cigars. 1820 01:59:53,333 --> 01:59:55,375 -In Victorville? -Do what you can, Jack. 1821 01:59:55,458 --> 01:59:59,125 Stay, Houseman. You'll miss the third act complicator. 1822 01:59:59,208 --> 02:00:01,166 Get going, Jack. Muy pronto. 1823 02:00:01,958 --> 02:00:04,166 I believe that means right away. 1824 02:00:21,291 --> 02:00:23,000 Mank. 1825 02:00:24,541 --> 02:00:28,416 What I said was more in sorrow than in anger, Willie. 1826 02:00:31,541 --> 02:00:36,083 Are you familiar with the parable of the organ grinder's monkey? 1827 02:00:36,166 --> 02:00:40,125 Now, the organ grinder's monkey is tiny in stature, 1828 02:00:40,208 --> 02:00:42,083 and having been taken from the wild, 1829 02:00:42,166 --> 02:00:46,833 he's naturally overwhelmed by the enormous world around him. 1830 02:00:47,833 --> 02:00:49,000 But every morning, 1831 02:00:49,083 --> 02:00:51,791 a sweet elderly woman dresses him 1832 02:00:51,875 --> 02:00:53,875 in a fine suit of clothes. 1833 02:00:54,541 --> 02:00:59,041 She fits him with a red velvet vest adorned with pearl buttons 1834 02:00:59,125 --> 02:01:02,750 and a handsome red fez with a silk tassel. 1835 02:01:02,833 --> 02:01:05,583 She slips on brocade shoes 1836 02:01:05,666 --> 02:01:07,500 that curl at the toe. 1837 02:01:08,000 --> 02:01:13,416 And he's paired with a fine gilt music box on an exquisite gold chain 1838 02:01:13,500 --> 02:01:16,708 fastened to his neck and his neck alone. 1839 02:01:17,375 --> 02:01:22,000 Whenever he ventures into the city to perform, he thinks, 1840 02:01:22,083 --> 02:01:24,625 "What a powerful fellow I must be." 1841 02:01:24,708 --> 02:01:28,583 "Look how patiently everyone waits just to watch me dance." 1842 02:01:28,666 --> 02:01:29,500 Willie-- 1843 02:01:29,583 --> 02:01:32,000 "And wherever I go," he thinks, 1844 02:01:32,083 --> 02:01:34,458 "this music box must follow, 1845 02:01:34,541 --> 02:01:38,416 and with it, this poor downtrodden man." 1846 02:01:38,500 --> 02:01:41,208 "And if I chose not to dance, 1847 02:01:41,291 --> 02:01:44,333 this sorry street peddler would starve, 1848 02:01:44,416 --> 02:01:47,708 and every time I do decide to dance, 1849 02:01:47,791 --> 02:01:48,833 every time… 1850 02:01:53,708 --> 02:01:55,250 he must play." 1851 02:01:57,083 --> 02:01:58,958 "Whether he wishes to or not." 1852 02:02:00,541 --> 02:02:02,666 You've had a bit too much to drink, Herman. 1853 02:02:02,750 --> 02:02:05,625 I'll get Raymond to drive you to the station. 1854 02:02:06,916 --> 02:02:07,791 Goodbye. 1855 02:02:16,416 --> 02:02:17,916 Put aside gratitude, Mank. 1856 02:02:18,000 --> 02:02:20,166 That you've done your best work was no accident. 1857 02:02:20,250 --> 02:02:23,500 I removed any distraction, eliminated every excuse, 1858 02:02:23,583 --> 02:02:26,083 your family, your cronies, liquor. 1859 02:02:26,166 --> 02:02:27,750 I gave you a second chance. 1860 02:02:27,833 --> 02:02:30,250 And for that, I cannot thank you enough. 1861 02:02:30,333 --> 02:02:34,958 But with credit for a risky undertaking must go the weight of real responsibility. 1862 02:02:35,041 --> 02:02:37,166 Given your health, I wonder if you're up to it. 1863 02:02:37,250 --> 02:02:39,791 And frankly, I wonder too, but we'll find out. 1864 02:02:39,875 --> 02:02:42,375 You may never work in this town again, Mank! 1865 02:02:42,875 --> 02:02:44,000 Orson, please… 1866 02:02:44,083 --> 02:02:46,541 Then you force me to remind you! 1867 02:02:46,625 --> 02:02:50,125 We have a contract that you understood and agreed to. 1868 02:02:50,208 --> 02:02:53,833 If you fight this, it will go to what your new guild calls arbitration, 1869 02:02:53,916 --> 02:02:57,291 and you, my friend, will lose script, money, 1870 02:02:57,375 --> 02:02:59,875 and, assuming such a thing still exists in Hollywood, 1871 02:02:59,958 --> 02:03:01,958 the respect of those who honor their word. 1872 02:03:02,041 --> 02:03:04,708 How can I put this nicely? 1873 02:03:05,833 --> 02:03:08,000 I may be a loose cannon, 1874 02:03:08,083 --> 02:03:11,041 but you, my friend, are an outsider. 1875 02:03:11,125 --> 02:03:14,208 They're exasperated by me, and I've earned it, 1876 02:03:14,291 --> 02:03:17,458 but you, a self-anointed savior-hyphenate, 1877 02:03:17,541 --> 02:03:20,416 they're just waiting to loathe you. 1878 02:03:20,500 --> 02:03:23,166 Remind me never again to work with a washed-up alcoholic! 1879 02:03:23,250 --> 02:03:26,083 Duly noted. Nelson Algren, please copy. 1880 02:03:26,166 --> 02:03:28,791 All right! No doubt you'll get your credit. 1881 02:03:28,875 --> 02:03:31,666 But ask yourself, "Who's producing this picture?" 1882 02:03:31,750 --> 02:03:34,333 "Directing it? Starring in it?" 1883 02:03:37,208 --> 02:03:39,375 That's what we need when Susan leaves Kane. 1884 02:03:40,125 --> 02:03:42,041 An act of purging violence. 1885 02:03:44,666 --> 02:03:45,625 Maybe. 1886 02:03:58,708 --> 02:04:01,458 Mank, where are you? 1887 02:04:02,458 --> 02:04:03,958 Mank, come quick! 1888 02:04:09,208 --> 02:04:10,291 He's alive! 1889 02:04:11,250 --> 02:04:12,583 Ian's alive! 1890 02:04:13,083 --> 02:04:15,791 -He fetched up on the Orkneys! -The what? 1891 02:04:15,875 --> 02:04:17,875 The Orkney Islands, you idiot. 1892 02:04:18,791 --> 02:04:20,375 Mank, are you ever serious? 1893 02:04:21,541 --> 02:04:23,166 Only about something funny. 1894 02:04:49,416 --> 02:04:52,125 And the winner of the best original screenplay is… 1895 02:04:53,750 --> 02:04:55,416 Herman J. Mankiewicz… 1896 02:04:57,750 --> 02:05:01,000 and Orson Welles for Citizen Kane. 1897 02:05:02,875 --> 02:05:06,625 This is the first nomination and first win for Mr. Mankiewicz and Mr. Welles. 1898 02:05:06,708 --> 02:05:08,458 Neither were able to attend tonight. 1899 02:05:08,541 --> 02:05:11,250 Accepting for both is the president of RKO Radio Pictures, 1900 02:05:11,333 --> 02:05:12,750 Mr. George Schaefer. 1901 02:05:14,541 --> 02:05:18,375 -Excuse me, Mr. Welles. -Good morning, gentlemen. 1902 02:05:18,458 --> 02:05:21,083 Morning, Mr. Welles. You missed a big night. 1903 02:05:21,166 --> 02:05:24,041 Well, I was unable to attend the Academy Awards 1904 02:05:24,125 --> 02:05:28,208 because I'm here in Rio making a marvelous motion picture. 1905 02:05:28,291 --> 02:05:31,708 Kane was nominated in nine categories, including best actor. 1906 02:05:31,791 --> 02:05:34,666 Aren't you disappointed that it only won one Oscar? 1907 02:05:35,458 --> 02:05:39,541 Well, that, my good man, is Hollywood. 1908 02:05:40,583 --> 02:05:43,541 Anything you'd like to say to your coauthor, Mr. Mankiewicz? 1909 02:05:43,625 --> 02:05:45,166 I do have a brief message. 1910 02:05:45,250 --> 02:05:46,875 You may tell him from me… 1911 02:05:48,541 --> 02:05:51,583 "Mank, you can kiss my half!" 1912 02:06:00,250 --> 02:06:05,041 You ask me what my acceptance speech might have been. 1913 02:06:06,791 --> 02:06:07,791 Well, here goes. 1914 02:06:08,875 --> 02:06:14,166 I am very happy to accept this award 1915 02:06:14,250 --> 02:06:17,625 in the manner in which the screenplay was written, 1916 02:06:18,125 --> 02:06:22,541 which is to say, in the absence of Orson Welles. 1917 02:06:25,291 --> 02:06:26,416 How's that? 1918 02:06:26,916 --> 02:06:28,333 How come he shares credit? 1919 02:06:29,750 --> 02:06:35,166 Well, that, my friend, is the magic of the movies. 1920 02:06:35,916 --> 02:06:38,875 Hold up the Oscar, Mank. Big smile.