1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:25,666 --> 00:00:28,125 [suspenseful instrumental music playing] 4 00:01:14,875 --> 00:01:16,833 [wind gusting] 5 00:01:56,083 --> 00:01:58,083 [sign creaking] 6 00:02:00,416 --> 00:02:01,583 [birds singing] 7 00:02:13,750 --> 00:02:15,041 [typewriter dings] 8 00:02:17,750 --> 00:02:19,041 [dog barking in distance] 9 00:02:24,291 --> 00:02:27,250 [Mank straining] It's all right. I've got this. I'm good. 10 00:02:28,291 --> 00:02:30,375 -[horse neighs in distance] -[Mank grunts] 11 00:02:36,458 --> 00:02:37,458 [man] Here. 12 00:02:37,541 --> 00:02:38,458 [Mank sighs] 13 00:02:46,583 --> 00:02:50,708 I had them set you up out here so you wouldn't feel quite so confined. 14 00:02:50,791 --> 00:02:53,166 The ladies will scandalize the neighborhood 15 00:02:53,250 --> 00:02:55,375 by occupying both bedrooms. 16 00:02:55,458 --> 00:02:58,416 I will be staying in town at a bucolic spa called, 17 00:02:58,500 --> 00:03:01,166 if you can believe it, the Shoulder Arms. 18 00:03:01,250 --> 00:03:03,208 I will do my editing there. 19 00:03:03,291 --> 00:03:04,291 As you know, 20 00:03:04,375 --> 00:03:06,625 Fraulein Freda is not only a nurse and physical therapist, 21 00:03:06,708 --> 00:03:09,166 she studied nutrition back in the old country. 22 00:03:09,250 --> 00:03:12,166 -Ja, liebes Fräulein? -Jawohl, Herr Houseman. 23 00:03:13,250 --> 00:03:14,500 It's a dry house. 24 00:03:15,166 --> 00:03:17,375 The owner of the ranch doesn't permit alcohol. 25 00:03:17,458 --> 00:03:19,666 -[Mank grunts] -[Houseman] But you're from Pennsylvania. 26 00:03:19,750 --> 00:03:21,208 You're no doubt used to it. 27 00:03:21,291 --> 00:03:24,125 [chuckles] Saved by the proverbial bell. 28 00:03:24,750 --> 00:03:26,000 Set it here, please. 29 00:03:27,125 --> 00:03:28,375 And, uh, careful. 30 00:03:28,458 --> 00:03:30,500 -Careful. Thank you. -[Mank sighs] 31 00:03:34,625 --> 00:03:35,750 [door closes] 32 00:03:35,833 --> 00:03:37,458 -Observe. -[button clicks] 33 00:03:39,583 --> 00:03:41,583 Naturally, you'll do your damnedest to get at it. 34 00:03:41,666 --> 00:03:44,958 By the time you finish the first draft, which is to say, in 90 days, 35 00:03:45,041 --> 00:03:47,625 you should be a world-class sprinter. 36 00:03:49,250 --> 00:03:50,916 Rita, come in here, will you? 37 00:03:51,833 --> 00:03:53,791 This is Mrs. Alexander. 38 00:03:53,875 --> 00:03:57,416 She types 100 perfect words a minute and takes dictation like a clairvoyant. 39 00:03:57,500 --> 00:03:59,666 Rita Alexander, Herman Mankiewicz. 40 00:03:59,750 --> 00:04:01,291 How do you do, Mr. Mankiewicz? 41 00:04:01,375 --> 00:04:03,833 Uh, that's a big question. 42 00:04:04,458 --> 00:04:08,000 Well, since you like working nights, Rita here runs on London time. 43 00:04:08,083 --> 00:04:10,625 Her husband is one of our bold lads in the RAF. 44 00:04:10,708 --> 00:04:13,875 -Flies… What is it, Rita? Spitfires? -Hurricanes. 45 00:04:13,958 --> 00:04:16,625 -My sympathy and prayers. -I beg your pardon? 46 00:04:16,708 --> 00:04:21,458 Given the speed, climb, and turning radius of the Messerschmitt Bf 109-- 47 00:04:21,541 --> 00:04:24,250 I hope we won't need your sympathy, Mr. Mankiewicz. 48 00:04:24,333 --> 00:04:26,791 We'll do the praying and the fighting. 49 00:04:26,875 --> 00:04:30,625 [Houseman] I will meet with Orson weekly. Keep him to date on our progress. 50 00:04:30,708 --> 00:04:32,666 We're expecting great things. 51 00:04:32,750 --> 00:04:36,750 What is it the writer says? "Tell the story you know." 52 00:04:36,833 --> 00:04:38,750 -[telephone ringing] -[Rita] Hmm. 53 00:04:39,250 --> 00:04:41,500 I don't know that writer. 54 00:04:44,750 --> 00:04:46,291 -Hello. -[woman speaking on phone] 55 00:04:46,375 --> 00:04:48,208 Yes. Yes, he's right here. 56 00:04:48,708 --> 00:04:52,166 Well, you should have everything. If I've forgotten, there's a clipboard. 57 00:04:55,541 --> 00:04:57,458 -Yes? Hello? -They're getting him. 58 00:04:58,125 --> 00:05:01,458 Our wunderkind does have the gift of theatrical timing. 59 00:05:02,875 --> 00:05:06,625 -Orson, hello. We just got in. -[Welles speaking indistinctly on phone] 60 00:05:06,708 --> 00:05:07,541 Oh. 61 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,000 [Mank grunts and sighs] 62 00:05:16,041 --> 00:05:17,416 -Hello. -[Welles] Mank! 63 00:05:17,500 --> 00:05:20,166 Houseman tells me we have you just where we want you. 64 00:05:20,250 --> 00:05:21,500 [Mank] Lucky me. 65 00:05:21,583 --> 00:05:24,708 -How's the leg? -"Thigh bone's connected to the hip bone." 66 00:05:24,791 --> 00:05:25,625 Excellent. 67 00:05:25,708 --> 00:05:27,833 Ready and willing to hunt the great white whale? 68 00:05:27,916 --> 00:05:29,625 Just call me Ahab. 69 00:05:30,208 --> 00:05:32,708 I understand we've 90 days. 70 00:05:32,791 --> 00:05:34,166 [Welles] Let's aim for 60. 71 00:05:34,958 --> 00:05:36,833 [softly] He's just cut a month. 72 00:05:36,916 --> 00:05:40,791 I used to do it in five for you at the Mercury. This is leisurely. 73 00:05:40,875 --> 00:05:44,750 -Sixty days, and then we can noodle. -Nothing like a good noodle. 74 00:05:44,833 --> 00:05:49,291 Uh, is the reason you lopped 30 days to run it past the RKO legal? 75 00:05:49,375 --> 00:05:52,958 [Welles] I thought I told you, Mank. I have final cut, final everything. 76 00:05:53,041 --> 00:05:54,458 There are no studio notes. 77 00:05:54,541 --> 00:05:56,750 We'll have no one but ourselves to blame. 78 00:05:56,833 --> 00:05:59,416 -[Mank] Sixty days and a noodle. -[man] Mr. Welles, we're ready. 79 00:05:59,500 --> 00:06:01,583 Gotta run. I'm doing tests for Heart of Darkness. 80 00:06:01,666 --> 00:06:04,166 Oh, little that, lesser Joe Conrad. 81 00:06:04,250 --> 00:06:06,500 If anyone should ask, tell 'em you're adapting. 82 00:06:06,583 --> 00:06:09,458 [Mank] Oh, you don't know this sun-bleached sewer here, my friend. 83 00:06:09,541 --> 00:06:11,333 Break wind at Hollywood and Vine, 84 00:06:11,416 --> 00:06:14,291 and a producer in Santa Monica reports a ruptured main. 85 00:06:14,375 --> 00:06:17,250 [Welles] No, I don't know this burgh, not yet. 86 00:06:17,333 --> 00:06:20,666 I'm toiling with you in spirit, Mank. And I don't hear any typing. 87 00:06:20,750 --> 00:06:21,708 [hangs up] 88 00:06:25,041 --> 00:06:26,125 No notes. 89 00:06:27,333 --> 00:06:29,625 And then he turns 24. 90 00:06:30,708 --> 00:06:32,875 [sighs] Trapped. 91 00:06:39,250 --> 00:06:40,375 [typewriter dings] 92 00:06:43,458 --> 00:06:45,666 -[Mank grunts] -[woman] Uh-uh. 93 00:06:46,166 --> 00:06:47,666 Let me take off these clothes. 94 00:06:48,958 --> 00:06:53,666 [slurring] They let me go just as I achieved perfect equilibrium. 95 00:06:54,166 --> 00:06:57,041 I won't work with half the producers on the lot, 96 00:06:57,125 --> 00:06:59,875 and the other half won't work with me. 97 00:06:59,958 --> 00:07:01,833 What's this, a racing form? 98 00:07:01,916 --> 00:07:04,666 -You stop reading, you stop learning. -[chuckles] 99 00:07:04,750 --> 00:07:05,875 Hold still. 100 00:07:08,291 --> 00:07:09,458 Lay back. 101 00:07:09,541 --> 00:07:10,750 [grunts] 102 00:07:11,833 --> 00:07:13,708 Cigarette, please. 103 00:07:13,791 --> 00:07:15,708 Hermie, if a match gets anywhere near your breath, 104 00:07:15,791 --> 00:07:16,833 you'll burst into flames. 105 00:07:16,916 --> 00:07:19,666 Even the dog's name is awful. 106 00:07:19,750 --> 00:07:22,250 Sounds like a Japanese houseboy. 107 00:07:22,333 --> 00:07:24,125 You mark my words, Sara. 108 00:07:24,833 --> 00:07:28,708 The Wizard of Oz is gonna sink that studio. 109 00:07:28,791 --> 00:07:30,875 Sleep. You're driving to New York tomorrow. 110 00:07:30,958 --> 00:07:35,041 [exhales] Remember when you used to take the train 111 00:07:35,125 --> 00:07:36,500 from back East? 112 00:07:36,583 --> 00:07:40,791 I'd sneak aboard in Albuquerque and climb into your compartment naked. 113 00:07:40,875 --> 00:07:44,000 I also remember how I spent my honeymoon in Berlin, 114 00:07:44,083 --> 00:07:46,083 with hookers running up and down the stairs all night 115 00:07:46,166 --> 00:07:49,125 because my dashing correspondent couldn't afford a nice hotel. 116 00:07:49,208 --> 00:07:50,291 Weren't those the days? 117 00:07:50,375 --> 00:07:52,791 Yeah, yeah, and the nights weren't bad either. 118 00:07:53,541 --> 00:07:56,041 -[Mank] Schnutz. -For the last time, what? 119 00:07:56,125 --> 00:07:59,083 -What year is it? -Herman… 120 00:07:59,166 --> 00:08:02,708 -I should have done something by now. -Oh, Hermie… 121 00:08:02,791 --> 00:08:04,833 Give me a sign, oh, Lord. 122 00:08:04,916 --> 00:08:09,875 I am as your servant Moses, though I won't work half as cheap. 123 00:08:09,958 --> 00:08:11,458 Go to sleep, meshuggener. 124 00:08:14,708 --> 00:08:16,125 -[Mank] Schnutz? -What? 125 00:08:16,208 --> 00:08:18,041 Why do you put up with me? 126 00:08:20,583 --> 00:08:21,666 [sighing] I don't know. 127 00:08:22,166 --> 00:08:24,125 That bush in the front yard, 128 00:08:24,208 --> 00:08:28,750 if it catches fire tonight, you will let me know? [grunts] 129 00:08:31,500 --> 00:08:33,541 [man] I mean, you know all kinds of things. 130 00:08:33,625 --> 00:08:36,750 Iambic pentameter, the words of the great poets. 131 00:08:36,833 --> 00:08:40,000 What about the way she signed it? "Always, Ethel." [chuckles] 132 00:08:40,083 --> 00:08:43,875 Can you beat that? Not just "Ethel." "Always, Ethel." 133 00:08:43,958 --> 00:08:46,666 Tommy, if we can find civilization by sundown, 134 00:08:46,750 --> 00:08:49,791 I hope to climb out of this crate and into a cold martini. 135 00:08:49,875 --> 00:08:52,375 She's not the kind to use "always" if she didn't mean it. 136 00:08:52,458 --> 00:08:55,250 If she meant just "Ethel," she'd write just "Ethel," not "always." 137 00:08:55,333 --> 00:08:57,291 -Wouldn't you think? -Uh, the road, Tommy. 138 00:08:57,375 --> 00:08:58,208 I know. 139 00:08:58,958 --> 00:09:01,416 You read it and see what I mean. 140 00:09:03,583 --> 00:09:05,375 -[tires squeal] -[loud crash] 141 00:09:12,041 --> 00:09:14,333 [Tommy] She loves me, don't you think? 142 00:09:22,541 --> 00:09:24,750 [footsteps echoing] 143 00:09:25,833 --> 00:09:28,625 [unsettling music playing] 144 00:09:33,708 --> 00:09:37,375 [echoing] Mank? It's Orson Welles. 145 00:09:38,708 --> 00:09:42,875 -Of course it is. -[Welles] I think it's time we talked. 146 00:09:43,708 --> 00:09:45,750 I'm all ears. 147 00:09:45,833 --> 00:09:48,750 [Welles's laughter echoing] 148 00:09:52,541 --> 00:09:55,166 [Mank] Once a castle on a hill, 149 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,833 now a memory of what once was. 150 00:09:59,791 --> 00:10:05,250 Alone in his unfinished, already decaying pleasure palace, 151 00:10:05,333 --> 00:10:09,208 aloof, seldom visited, never photographed, 152 00:10:10,125 --> 00:10:15,458 we see an old man in a robe, smoking a pipe, 153 00:10:15,541 --> 00:10:17,875 sitting alone by his pool… 154 00:10:17,958 --> 00:10:19,583 -[fly buzzing] -[Mank grunts] 155 00:10:19,666 --> 00:10:24,291 …um, uh, discarded pages scattered at his feet. 156 00:10:25,041 --> 00:10:26,208 Narrator, 157 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:33,708 "An emperor of newsprint continued to direct his failing empire, 158 00:10:33,791 --> 00:10:36,666 vainly attempting to sway, as he once did, 159 00:10:36,750 --> 00:10:38,166 the destinies of a nation 160 00:10:38,250 --> 00:10:40,583 which had long since ceased to listen to him…" 161 00:10:41,083 --> 00:10:43,625 No. "Had ceased to trust him." 162 00:10:44,125 --> 00:10:49,125 We see through trees as an aide pushes this old man in a wheelchair 163 00:10:49,208 --> 00:10:51,916 across neatly groomed lawns. 164 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,791 Narrator, "There, last month, 165 00:10:55,541 --> 00:10:59,375 as it must to all men, death came to--" 166 00:10:59,458 --> 00:11:01,041 -[thwacks] -[chuckles] 167 00:11:01,958 --> 00:11:04,291 -Let's have that cuppa, Mrs. A. -Oh. 168 00:11:12,083 --> 00:11:14,916 -I know who it is. -[Mank chuckles softly] 169 00:11:18,083 --> 00:11:20,833 [Rita] Or who it's meant to be. 170 00:11:22,500 --> 00:11:25,250 What makes you think it's meant to be anybody? 171 00:11:25,333 --> 00:11:26,333 Oh, come, now. 172 00:11:26,416 --> 00:11:29,166 Everyone in the English-speaking world will recognize him instantly. 173 00:11:29,250 --> 00:11:31,500 Exactly what he would say. 174 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,333 -Did you know the man? -Maybe. 175 00:11:37,208 --> 00:11:38,083 I used to. 176 00:11:39,125 --> 00:11:41,833 -You wrote for one of his papers? -Oh, no, praise God. 177 00:11:41,916 --> 00:11:45,666 I met him after he started bankrolling his girlfriend's pictures. 178 00:11:47,166 --> 00:11:48,875 You knew Marion Davies? 179 00:11:49,625 --> 00:11:51,750 -If anyone did. -Really? 180 00:11:52,750 --> 00:11:54,000 What's she like? 181 00:11:54,083 --> 00:11:58,208 Why is it when you scratch a prim, starchy English schoolgirl, 182 00:11:58,291 --> 00:12:00,791 you get a swooning moving-picture fan 183 00:12:00,875 --> 00:12:03,791 who has forgotten all she ever learned about the Battle of Hastings? 184 00:12:03,875 --> 00:12:07,250 Hastings. 14 October 1066, 185 00:12:07,333 --> 00:12:08,791 ten centigrade. 186 00:12:12,875 --> 00:12:13,916 [typewriter dings] 187 00:12:19,125 --> 00:12:21,250 [upbeat music playing] 188 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,000 [studio bell rings] 189 00:12:31,625 --> 00:12:32,666 [animal snarls] 190 00:12:33,833 --> 00:12:36,250 [imperceptible conversation] 191 00:12:43,916 --> 00:12:44,958 [Lederer] Mank? 192 00:12:45,833 --> 00:12:47,666 [toilet flushing] 193 00:12:51,083 --> 00:12:53,041 Sorry. Somebody told me Mankiewicz was in here. 194 00:12:53,125 --> 00:12:56,125 He is. I'm the promising brother, Joe. 195 00:12:56,958 --> 00:13:00,458 -I didn't know Herman had a brother. -Neither does anyone else. 196 00:13:01,041 --> 00:13:02,291 Let me guess. 197 00:13:02,375 --> 00:13:03,916 "There are millions to be made, 198 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:06,708 and your only competition is idiots," stop. 199 00:13:07,416 --> 00:13:08,375 How did you know? 200 00:13:08,458 --> 00:13:11,041 I hate to tell you, anyone who can rub three words together 201 00:13:11,125 --> 00:13:13,000 and make a sentence gets one. 202 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:17,916 Come on. 203 00:13:24,958 --> 00:13:28,375 It's after lunch, and we're on a deadline. He may be busy. 204 00:13:29,416 --> 00:13:32,750 -I promise I won't be a bother. -Not exactly what I meant. 205 00:13:32,833 --> 00:13:34,875 [men exclaiming] 206 00:13:38,125 --> 00:13:41,125 Come on! Hey. You know I'm good for it. 207 00:13:41,208 --> 00:13:44,291 -Fellas. -Shh. These are high stakes. 208 00:13:44,375 --> 00:13:45,333 [coin flipping] 209 00:13:45,916 --> 00:13:46,958 [man 1] Go on. 210 00:13:47,875 --> 00:13:51,166 -[laughing] Ooh, tails! That's it! -God damn it! 211 00:13:51,250 --> 00:13:53,916 -[man 2] Oh, Mank! -All right. Double or nothing. 212 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,291 This time, banjo-eyed son of a bitch, let it hit the floor. 213 00:13:56,375 --> 00:13:57,875 -"Banjo-eyed." -[man 1] Son of a bitch? 214 00:13:57,958 --> 00:13:59,583 [man 2] Mank once bet me a five-spot 215 00:13:59,666 --> 00:14:02,625 to see how long it would take a falling leaf to hit the ground. 216 00:14:02,708 --> 00:14:05,875 -Had to go to management to cover it. -For five bucks? 217 00:14:05,958 --> 00:14:07,500 Five thousand. 218 00:14:07,583 --> 00:14:08,791 [Mank] Come on, come on. 219 00:14:09,458 --> 00:14:12,750 Heads, you bastard! 220 00:14:13,500 --> 00:14:15,250 [all] Oh! 221 00:14:15,333 --> 00:14:17,458 -[man 3] Oh, Mank! -[group chuckles] 222 00:14:17,541 --> 00:14:20,250 [man 1] Ooh! Pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen. 223 00:14:20,333 --> 00:14:22,125 Hey, Charlie. 224 00:14:22,208 --> 00:14:26,708 Yeah. You all remember the Algonquin cabin boy, Charlie Lederer, 225 00:14:26,791 --> 00:14:29,250 a poor but somewhat talented magazine writer, 226 00:14:29,333 --> 00:14:31,291 come West to join our merry band. 227 00:14:31,375 --> 00:14:33,583 -Well, you know most everyone. -Mr. Kaufman. 228 00:14:33,666 --> 00:14:34,833 George is fine, kid. 229 00:14:34,916 --> 00:14:36,500 -Mr. Perelman. -Nice to meet you, son. 230 00:14:36,583 --> 00:14:38,041 Do you prefer Sidney or SJ? 231 00:14:38,125 --> 00:14:41,125 Uh, he takes what he gets. The great Charles MacArthur. 232 00:14:41,208 --> 00:14:42,750 [Lederer] Good to see you again. 233 00:14:42,833 --> 00:14:45,250 My resident jack-of-all-trades, Shelly Metcalf. 234 00:14:45,333 --> 00:14:46,625 -Hey, kid. -Mr. Metcalf. 235 00:14:46,708 --> 00:14:48,666 Oh, save the "mister" for the anointed. 236 00:14:48,750 --> 00:14:50,791 And last, not yet among them, my brother Joe. 237 00:14:50,875 --> 00:14:54,791 Have Cyclone say, "I don't mind the heat as much as I do the humanity." 238 00:14:54,875 --> 00:14:58,583 And the one and only Ben Hecht. 239 00:14:58,666 --> 00:15:00,041 Have you been laid yet? 240 00:15:00,125 --> 00:15:01,125 [all snickering] 241 00:15:01,208 --> 00:15:03,083 [Perelman] Do you have to think about that? 242 00:15:03,166 --> 00:15:05,583 [telephone ringing] 243 00:15:06,333 --> 00:15:07,208 Hello. 244 00:15:07,875 --> 00:15:09,958 Yeah. Right away. 245 00:15:10,666 --> 00:15:13,250 Selznick, everyone. Five minutes. 246 00:15:13,333 --> 00:15:15,208 [Mank] You've arrived in the well-known nick. 247 00:15:15,291 --> 00:15:18,708 Just in time for a story conference with the great David O. 248 00:15:18,791 --> 00:15:22,333 -Once more unto the breach… -[Kaufman] Breach? Hell, unto the wire… 249 00:15:22,416 --> 00:15:23,541 Without a net. 250 00:15:23,625 --> 00:15:26,250 Keep your mouth shut and watch us for your cue, okay? 251 00:15:26,333 --> 00:15:27,666 -Cue? -[Mank sighs] 252 00:15:27,750 --> 00:15:31,833 What I wouldn't give to see that in a tight sweater. 253 00:15:31,916 --> 00:15:33,666 Herm, can I use that? 254 00:15:35,208 --> 00:15:38,291 I need a status report. Boys, come on in. 255 00:15:41,083 --> 00:15:43,416 Ah, make yourselves at home. 256 00:15:45,708 --> 00:15:47,833 Now, you all know Joe von Sternberg. 257 00:15:48,583 --> 00:15:53,041 You wanted 72 hours, you got 72 hours. Tell us what you have so far. 258 00:15:55,291 --> 00:16:00,250 -Ben, why don't you start? -Well, this was tough, David. 259 00:16:00,333 --> 00:16:03,166 In the beginning, we couldn't agree on an approach. 260 00:16:03,250 --> 00:16:04,333 Really? And why was that? 261 00:16:04,416 --> 00:16:08,291 Well, we see a different kind of Paramount picture. 262 00:16:08,375 --> 00:16:09,833 [Selznick] Different how? 263 00:16:10,333 --> 00:16:13,750 Frankenstein and The Wolf Man all rolled into one, only-- 264 00:16:13,833 --> 00:16:15,833 I don't make cheap horror pictures, Universal does. 265 00:16:15,916 --> 00:16:20,208 Uh, this is different. This is about something. 266 00:16:21,666 --> 00:16:22,625 Okay… 267 00:16:23,250 --> 00:16:24,500 Sidney. 268 00:16:26,291 --> 00:16:28,875 Imagine a mad scientist, 269 00:16:28,958 --> 00:16:33,666 touring the boonies with a mechanical freak he's fabricated. 270 00:16:33,750 --> 00:16:35,208 Now, what does he mean, "fabricated"? 271 00:16:35,291 --> 00:16:40,750 And displays it to superstitious hayseeds in a giant, silk-lined casket 272 00:16:41,250 --> 00:16:42,583 for the price of admission. 273 00:16:43,083 --> 00:16:48,875 But every full moon, the monster awakens and raises unholy hell with the villagers. 274 00:16:48,958 --> 00:16:50,916 Give it a Eastern European look, 275 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,875 men in leather shorts, gals in tattered peasant blouses. 276 00:16:53,958 --> 00:16:57,125 -Let me guess. They think it's the devil? -Villagers always think it's the devil. 277 00:16:57,208 --> 00:17:00,291 And the scientist and his creation are forced to flee 278 00:17:00,375 --> 00:17:02,041 during a raging electrical storm. 279 00:17:02,125 --> 00:17:04,541 Flee from outraged peasants… 280 00:17:04,625 --> 00:17:06,166 Who pursue them mit torches… 281 00:17:06,250 --> 00:17:08,000 Overturn their creaky wagon… 282 00:17:08,083 --> 00:17:09,375 And set fire to it. 283 00:17:10,750 --> 00:17:14,208 Tell him about the finale, Charlie. 284 00:17:16,625 --> 00:17:17,541 Oh. 285 00:17:19,875 --> 00:17:20,750 Well… 286 00:17:21,958 --> 00:17:24,500 the rain turns to sleet, 287 00:17:25,083 --> 00:17:29,083 puts out the fire, and entombs the monster in solid ice. 288 00:17:31,250 --> 00:17:35,583 While nearby, an old priest weeps. 289 00:17:37,250 --> 00:17:40,125 Hmm. A weeping priest? 290 00:17:40,208 --> 00:17:44,625 Thunder, lightning, blood, fire, religion… 291 00:17:44,708 --> 00:17:45,541 All in one film? 292 00:17:45,625 --> 00:17:47,500 And with an unseasonal thaw… 293 00:17:48,333 --> 00:17:49,458 a sequel. 294 00:17:49,958 --> 00:17:52,833 I thought you said this was about something, this was different. 295 00:17:52,916 --> 00:17:55,916 Plus, the ominous futility of man playing God. 296 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,916 The Faustian bargain of life everlasting. 297 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,583 And the triumph of the human spirit 298 00:18:00,666 --> 00:18:04,208 over the beast incarnate in our far-too-solid flesh. 299 00:18:05,291 --> 00:18:06,500 It's director-proof. 300 00:18:06,583 --> 00:18:07,583 Joe. 301 00:18:08,375 --> 00:18:09,791 -B picture. -It's not for Joe. 302 00:18:09,875 --> 00:18:12,958 Boys, this is serious. We need your help. 303 00:18:13,041 --> 00:18:15,250 We've got to get people into theaters, but… 304 00:18:16,708 --> 00:18:17,583 how? 305 00:18:22,083 --> 00:18:24,833 -Show movies in the streets. -[clicks tongue] 306 00:18:26,708 --> 00:18:28,166 [energetic music playing] 307 00:18:28,250 --> 00:18:29,500 You okay, Charlie? 308 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,833 Taken care of this weekend? 309 00:18:31,916 --> 00:18:34,958 -I'm going to see my aunt. -Oh, that sounds like fun. 310 00:18:35,041 --> 00:18:38,833 You obviously don't know my aunt. If you're not doing anything, come along. 311 00:18:38,916 --> 00:18:40,208 Careful, I just might. 312 00:18:40,875 --> 00:18:43,833 Glendale station at 7:00. Bring Sara if you like. 313 00:18:43,916 --> 00:18:46,375 -Who? -Sara, isn't that your wife? 314 00:18:46,458 --> 00:18:48,958 Oh, you mean Poor Sara. 315 00:18:49,041 --> 00:18:51,166 No, she and the kids are back East. 316 00:18:57,125 --> 00:18:59,000 [car horn tooting] 317 00:18:59,583 --> 00:19:01,666 [crowd clamoring] 318 00:19:11,458 --> 00:19:12,458 [Lederer] Herman. 319 00:19:15,958 --> 00:19:16,958 Herman. 320 00:19:22,958 --> 00:19:25,166 -Herman! -[Mank slurring] Charlie! 321 00:19:33,541 --> 00:19:36,000 -[woman screaming] -[gasps] 322 00:19:38,666 --> 00:19:39,833 [birds singing outside] 323 00:19:40,708 --> 00:19:41,708 [Mank grunts softly] 324 00:20:02,333 --> 00:20:03,333 [Mank] Ah. 325 00:20:05,041 --> 00:20:07,708 [man whistling] 326 00:20:12,208 --> 00:20:14,500 [exhales, sniffles] 327 00:20:15,833 --> 00:20:17,750 [birds squawking] 328 00:20:19,083 --> 00:20:21,375 [woman screaming] 329 00:20:29,416 --> 00:20:32,458 [indistinct chatter] 330 00:20:32,541 --> 00:20:34,000 [men vocalizing and chanting] 331 00:20:34,083 --> 00:20:37,458 [woman continues screaming] 332 00:20:38,583 --> 00:20:40,958 [director] Cut! Next setup, please. 333 00:20:43,291 --> 00:20:45,166 [indistinct chatter] 334 00:20:45,250 --> 00:20:47,250 [big band music playing on phonograph] 335 00:20:49,041 --> 00:20:50,708 What is Mank doing here? 336 00:20:51,625 --> 00:20:53,375 -Who? -Herman Mankiewicz. 337 00:20:55,375 --> 00:20:58,166 -Do I know him? -He wrote one of our Lon Chaneys. 338 00:20:58,250 --> 00:20:59,541 -Ah. -Mank! 339 00:21:01,791 --> 00:21:05,875 -Thalberg, the boy genius. -I am shocked to see you here. 340 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. 341 00:21:10,916 --> 00:21:13,666 -You wrote one of our Lon Chaneys. -[Mank] Among many. 342 00:21:13,750 --> 00:21:15,250 -Pictures? -Writers. 343 00:21:15,333 --> 00:21:19,333 -At MGM, movies are a team sport. -Which may be why I'm at Paramount. 344 00:21:19,416 --> 00:21:22,083 Since when don't Paramount use writers by the truckload? 345 00:21:22,166 --> 00:21:24,541 But all at once, not in relays. 346 00:21:24,625 --> 00:21:26,125 Helps spread the blame around. 347 00:21:26,208 --> 00:21:28,250 You remember our chairman, Louis B. Mayer? 348 00:21:28,333 --> 00:21:29,750 By reputation only. 349 00:21:29,833 --> 00:21:32,541 -Long night? -A short one. Plagued by spirits. 350 00:21:33,541 --> 00:21:36,375 A hell of a way to spend the Sabbath, fellas. 351 00:21:36,458 --> 00:21:38,000 Here in support of a friend. 352 00:21:38,083 --> 00:21:41,208 His leading lady is making a mid-career adjustment. 353 00:21:41,291 --> 00:21:45,041 Ah, I'm on my way over. Any notes from the oversight tent? 354 00:21:49,666 --> 00:21:51,750 -Who was that again? -Just a writer. 355 00:21:54,750 --> 00:21:57,166 Slumming on a Saturday, Mr. Metcalf? 356 00:21:57,250 --> 00:21:59,916 [chuckling] Mank. No, sir, helping out on B camera. 357 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,750 It's a home movie, but his idea of a home movie. 358 00:22:02,833 --> 00:22:03,916 I know you. 359 00:22:04,708 --> 00:22:06,791 [Mank] Well, what's at stake here? 360 00:22:07,541 --> 00:22:11,250 We met at John Gilbert's birthday. You're Herman Mankiewicz. 361 00:22:11,333 --> 00:22:12,208 Guilty. 362 00:22:13,083 --> 00:22:15,208 And I remember you, Miss Davies. 363 00:22:15,875 --> 00:22:20,333 Regaling us with stories about dodging trolley cars in Brooklyn. 364 00:22:21,541 --> 00:22:25,000 -Your Flatbush was showing. -[gasps] 365 00:22:26,583 --> 00:22:29,916 You fractured Wally Beery's wrist Indian wrestling. 366 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:31,125 Admittedly, a lucky break. 367 00:22:31,208 --> 00:22:33,916 Boy, was he surprised. You're stronger than you look. 368 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,500 And from what I understand, you're smarter. 369 00:22:37,583 --> 00:22:39,500 That was a compliment. 370 00:22:39,583 --> 00:22:42,125 -See what I mean? -[Marion laughing] You are interesting. 371 00:22:42,208 --> 00:22:43,083 I need a favor, 372 00:22:43,166 --> 00:22:45,208 but you're gonna have to promise you won't laugh. 373 00:22:45,291 --> 00:22:47,500 Given the state of the world, a tall order. 374 00:22:47,583 --> 00:22:48,916 You're gonna. I just know you are. 375 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. 376 00:22:54,166 --> 00:22:57,583 I'm being burned at the stake, and I am dying for a ciggie-boo. 377 00:22:57,666 --> 00:23:00,416 -[both laugh] -There. God's punishing you. 378 00:23:00,500 --> 00:23:02,708 [wood creaking] 379 00:23:02,791 --> 00:23:05,041 Watch those stairs. They're treacherous. 380 00:23:05,708 --> 00:23:08,125 [Mank] Every moment of my life is treacherous. 381 00:23:10,750 --> 00:23:12,208 Any last words? 382 00:23:12,916 --> 00:23:14,583 Welcome to San Simeon. 383 00:23:15,791 --> 00:23:16,625 I've written worse. 384 00:23:16,708 --> 00:23:20,666 -[Marion] You've never seen it? -No, but George Bernard Shaw was right. 385 00:23:21,750 --> 00:23:22,750 How's that? 386 00:23:23,375 --> 00:23:26,041 "It's what God might've built had he had the money." 387 00:23:26,583 --> 00:23:30,583 Well, as they say in the Bronx, "Make yourself to home," Mr. Mankiewicz. 388 00:23:30,666 --> 00:23:33,958 -Or shall I call you Herman? -No. Please, call me Mank. 389 00:23:34,041 --> 00:23:36,250 -Good morning, Charles. -Charlie. 390 00:23:36,333 --> 00:23:39,416 -Aunt Marion. Mank. -[Marion] You sleep well? 391 00:23:40,125 --> 00:23:42,083 Until your rather dramatic wake-up call. 392 00:23:42,166 --> 00:23:46,458 This is all Pops's idea. He wants me ready to take on the talkies. 393 00:23:46,541 --> 00:23:47,791 [director] First positions! 394 00:23:48,500 --> 00:23:49,916 Riders, ready! 395 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:52,125 Rolling! 396 00:23:52,916 --> 00:23:55,333 -Speed. -[crew member 1] Speed! Action! 397 00:23:56,208 --> 00:23:57,833 [guns firing] 398 00:24:01,166 --> 00:24:03,166 [energetic instrumental music playing] 399 00:24:05,875 --> 00:24:09,541 Help! Please! Someone save me! 400 00:24:10,125 --> 00:24:11,125 [crew member 2 coughs] 401 00:24:13,291 --> 00:24:14,291 [crew member 3] Cut! 402 00:24:14,375 --> 00:24:15,666 [coughs] 403 00:24:21,833 --> 00:24:23,875 [horse whinnies] 404 00:24:24,500 --> 00:24:28,958 [Marion] Pops, this is Herman Mankiewicz, but we have to call him Mank. 405 00:24:29,458 --> 00:24:30,458 Mankiewicz? 406 00:24:31,708 --> 00:24:35,458 Herman Mankiewicz, New York playwright and drama critic? 407 00:24:35,541 --> 00:24:38,250 Turned humble screenwriter, Mr. Hearst. 408 00:24:38,333 --> 00:24:41,458 [Hearst] Why, no need to be humble, Mr. Mankiewicz. 409 00:24:41,541 --> 00:24:43,125 Pictures that talk are the future. 410 00:24:43,208 --> 00:24:46,416 They're gonna need people who honor words, give them voice. 411 00:24:46,500 --> 00:24:50,958 There's a golden age coming when all the world will be a stage, 412 00:24:51,458 --> 00:24:53,166 and you, perhaps, their Shakespeare. 413 00:24:53,250 --> 00:24:55,041 [Mank] Oh, I wouldn't have thought 414 00:24:55,125 --> 00:24:57,333 you'd be that keenly interested in the honoring of words. 415 00:24:57,416 --> 00:24:59,416 -[Marion laughs] -What's so funny? 416 00:25:00,541 --> 00:25:04,583 I'm just surprised that a vaunted muckraker like yourself 417 00:25:04,666 --> 00:25:07,958 sees Hollywood's future as such a shiny penny. 418 00:25:08,458 --> 00:25:09,416 [director] Back to one. 419 00:25:09,500 --> 00:25:11,500 Times are changing, Mr. Mankiewicz, 420 00:25:12,125 --> 00:25:14,416 and I'm not just referring to this Depression. 421 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:15,375 All that bother. 422 00:25:15,458 --> 00:25:16,875 [Hearst] And when all this is over, 423 00:25:16,958 --> 00:25:20,250 picture-makers are gonna have to service this new entertainment. 424 00:25:21,041 --> 00:25:24,875 I intend to make pictures with the help of real literary minds. 425 00:25:24,958 --> 00:25:26,208 Mm, I support that. 426 00:25:26,291 --> 00:25:30,958 Instead, what do most studios give us? Gangster flicks, zanies. 427 00:25:31,041 --> 00:25:32,041 [Mank] Too true. 428 00:25:32,125 --> 00:25:35,125 Now, how many gangsters do Americans meet in a lifetime? 429 00:25:35,708 --> 00:25:38,083 How many families are like the Marx Brothers? 430 00:25:38,166 --> 00:25:39,625 You mean besides my own? 431 00:25:39,708 --> 00:25:40,750 [Hearst laughs] 432 00:25:40,833 --> 00:25:44,708 Very good. Have him seated next to me. 433 00:25:44,791 --> 00:25:47,583 [energetic music resumes playing] 434 00:25:48,666 --> 00:25:51,500 Miss Davies, Mr. Hearst would like Mr. Mankiewicz seated 435 00:25:51,583 --> 00:25:52,833 to his left at dinner. 436 00:25:54,583 --> 00:25:57,125 Oh, Pops likes you. 437 00:26:10,166 --> 00:26:11,666 [Mank sighs deeply] 438 00:26:12,666 --> 00:26:14,750 Why is it when Houseman edits, 439 00:26:14,833 --> 00:26:18,875 everyone ends up speaking like a constipated Oxford don? 440 00:26:18,958 --> 00:26:20,708 [telephone rings] 441 00:26:23,875 --> 00:26:25,583 -Hello? -[indistinct chatter on phone] 442 00:26:25,666 --> 00:26:28,375 Yes, he is. No, not at all. 443 00:26:28,458 --> 00:26:30,458 Please hold on. It's Poor Sa-- [gasps] 444 00:26:31,416 --> 00:26:33,625 I'm sorry. It's your wife. 445 00:26:40,458 --> 00:26:42,333 -Schnutz. -[Sara] I heard that. 446 00:26:42,416 --> 00:26:43,250 Hermie, 447 00:26:43,333 --> 00:26:44,666 Joe called four times in the last three days. 448 00:26:44,750 --> 00:26:47,375 -He wants your number up there. -[Mank] So give it to him. 449 00:26:47,458 --> 00:26:48,708 -[clattering] -Knock it off! 450 00:26:48,791 --> 00:26:49,916 [children laughing] 451 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,208 The boys are remodeling. 452 00:26:51,291 --> 00:26:54,125 He seemed concerned about something. Is everything okay? 453 00:26:54,208 --> 00:26:56,541 If I could swim, I'd be doing swimmingly. 454 00:26:56,625 --> 00:26:58,000 And don't mind Joe. 455 00:26:58,083 --> 00:27:02,416 -He's a worrisome old woman in disguise. -Well, he wants to offer you work. 456 00:27:02,500 --> 00:27:04,708 Baby Joe offering me? 457 00:27:05,666 --> 00:27:08,875 [scoffs] Well, if he calls again, give him this number, Schnutz. 458 00:27:08,958 --> 00:27:11,625 -I've gotta run. Kiss the offspring. -[kisses] 459 00:27:16,875 --> 00:27:18,500 [in British accent] I say… 460 00:27:19,250 --> 00:27:21,916 a letter from the gallant "leftenant"? 461 00:27:22,875 --> 00:27:25,458 [in normal voice] Now, let's hope it makes more sense than the last. 462 00:27:25,541 --> 00:27:27,791 Fighters off the decks of aircraft carriers. 463 00:27:27,875 --> 00:27:30,541 -Whoever had that idea? -It's not good? 464 00:27:30,625 --> 00:27:31,750 [Mank] Not good? 465 00:27:31,833 --> 00:27:34,208 German U-boats are starting to hunt in packs, 466 00:27:34,291 --> 00:27:38,500 and a Stuka dive-bomber can drop one down your stack from 500 feet. 467 00:27:39,083 --> 00:27:42,333 [in British accent] What's our valiant laddie have to say for the cause-- 468 00:27:43,708 --> 00:27:44,875 [door opens] 469 00:27:57,375 --> 00:27:58,875 It's not from her husband. 470 00:28:00,708 --> 00:28:02,333 His ship's been sunk off Norway. 471 00:28:03,041 --> 00:28:04,708 Presumed lost at sea. 472 00:28:05,583 --> 00:28:06,583 [sighs] 473 00:28:07,375 --> 00:28:10,166 Always the smartest guy in the room. 474 00:28:12,500 --> 00:28:13,583 [exhales] 475 00:28:13,666 --> 00:28:17,041 [jazz music playing on radio] 476 00:28:17,875 --> 00:28:21,291 [woman singing on radio] 477 00:28:22,708 --> 00:28:25,000 [owl hooting outside] 478 00:28:37,291 --> 00:28:38,333 You're right, of course. 479 00:28:38,416 --> 00:28:42,416 Aircraft carriers are a shitty idea, but I don't appreciate the callousness. 480 00:28:43,666 --> 00:28:45,375 I expect more of you. 481 00:28:48,250 --> 00:28:52,791 "Presumed" means they don't know, so I choose to believe he's alive until… 482 00:28:55,291 --> 00:28:56,291 Mank. 483 00:28:58,833 --> 00:28:59,750 Mank! 484 00:29:01,083 --> 00:29:02,416 -Mr. Mankiewicz? -[thuds] 485 00:29:22,458 --> 00:29:24,541 He's all right. Just sleeping. 486 00:29:25,250 --> 00:29:26,083 Well… 487 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:27,958 I shouldn't wonder. 488 00:29:28,041 --> 00:29:31,666 There's enough Seconal in those bottles to bring down a bull elephant in heat. 489 00:29:34,583 --> 00:29:37,000 Young Orson doesn't believe in chance. 490 00:29:43,708 --> 00:29:45,666 [snoring] 491 00:29:51,041 --> 00:29:52,125 [grunts] 492 00:29:56,375 --> 00:29:57,791 [indistinct conversation] 493 00:30:01,708 --> 00:30:05,000 [Mank] Houseman, you sly thing. You slipped me a Mickey. 494 00:30:05,083 --> 00:30:06,041 So we did. 495 00:30:06,541 --> 00:30:08,958 How you managed to reach it so early in your rehabilitation, 496 00:30:09,041 --> 00:30:09,875 I cannot imagine. 497 00:30:09,958 --> 00:30:11,333 How was it? Mother's milk? 498 00:30:11,416 --> 00:30:15,416 On balance, better than nothing. I plan to use it as a nightcap. 499 00:30:15,500 --> 00:30:17,750 As you Yanks say, "He went out like a light." 500 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. 501 00:30:22,583 --> 00:30:24,000 Will you stop? 502 00:30:24,083 --> 00:30:26,500 You write for the movies because you're super at it. 503 00:30:26,583 --> 00:30:29,708 Excuse me, you two, I've masses of typing to do. 504 00:30:31,833 --> 00:30:33,250 [Houseman] Seventy-six pages. 505 00:30:33,333 --> 00:30:35,833 By the time she translates your red chicken scratches, 506 00:30:35,916 --> 00:30:37,250 it'll be less than 40. 507 00:30:37,333 --> 00:30:38,833 At this rate, you'll never finish. 508 00:30:38,916 --> 00:30:41,583 What I wanna know is what you think of it. 509 00:30:41,666 --> 00:30:44,208 [Houseman] The writing is first-rate, but you know that. 510 00:30:44,291 --> 00:30:45,166 His lust for power, 511 00:30:45,250 --> 00:30:47,208 your exquisite evocation of his hunger for love 512 00:30:47,291 --> 00:30:49,166 from those who fear his worst side, but-- 513 00:30:49,250 --> 00:30:51,375 The dreaded yet foreseeable "but." 514 00:30:51,458 --> 00:30:54,541 You're asking a lot of a motion picture audience. 515 00:30:54,625 --> 00:30:57,583 -All in all, it's a bit of a jumble. -Did you say "jumble" or "jungle"? 516 00:30:57,666 --> 00:30:59,291 [Houseman] A hodgepodge of talky episodes. 517 00:30:59,375 --> 00:31:01,750 A collection of fragments that leap around in time, 518 00:31:01,833 --> 00:31:03,458 like Mexican jumping beans. 519 00:31:03,541 --> 00:31:05,083 Welcome to my mind, Old Sock. 520 00:31:05,166 --> 00:31:08,250 The story is so scattered, I'm afraid one will need a road map. 521 00:31:08,333 --> 00:31:09,333 You mean it's a mess. 522 00:31:09,416 --> 00:31:11,250 Would you consider simplifying? 523 00:31:11,333 --> 00:31:13,000 [Mank] As Pascal once said, 524 00:31:13,083 --> 00:31:16,500 "If only I'd had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." 525 00:31:16,583 --> 00:31:19,166 All I am saying is no one can write like that. 526 00:31:19,250 --> 00:31:22,791 But I can write like that, Houseman. I have. 527 00:31:22,875 --> 00:31:26,916 The narrative is one big circle, like a cinnamon roll, 528 00:31:27,416 --> 00:31:30,791 not a straight line pointing to the nearest exit. 529 00:31:30,875 --> 00:31:34,375 You cannot capture a man's entire life in two hours. 530 00:31:34,458 --> 00:31:36,916 All you can hope is to leave the impression of one. 531 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,791 [Houseman] But nobody expects Shakespeare. 532 00:31:38,875 --> 00:31:42,791 People aren't spending their hard-earned 25 cents to see Macbeth. 533 00:31:42,875 --> 00:31:45,166 Maestro the Dog-Faced Boy did Macbeth. 534 00:31:45,250 --> 00:31:48,333 Voodoo Macbeth. Don't be fooled. He's a showman. 535 00:31:48,416 --> 00:31:50,583 Busker reveling in sleight of hand. 536 00:31:51,083 --> 00:31:53,208 Save yourself the trouble, be done in 60 days. 537 00:31:53,291 --> 00:31:55,833 He'll get this, and the audience will too. 538 00:31:55,916 --> 00:31:58,125 Stop worrying. Have a pickle. 539 00:31:58,208 --> 00:31:59,875 No, thank you. I'm not hungry. 540 00:32:00,416 --> 00:32:02,250 Haven't been since we got here. 541 00:32:03,708 --> 00:32:04,541 Cheerio. 542 00:32:07,916 --> 00:32:10,916 Write hard. Aim low. 543 00:32:11,416 --> 00:32:12,250 [laughs dryly] 544 00:32:13,500 --> 00:32:14,958 [door closes] 545 00:32:18,666 --> 00:32:19,958 Where were we, chief? 546 00:32:20,833 --> 00:32:22,125 [Rita] What are you gonna do? 547 00:32:22,208 --> 00:32:23,958 -[sighs] About what? -[Rita] He's right. 548 00:32:24,041 --> 00:32:25,791 You won't be done till Christmas. 549 00:32:25,875 --> 00:32:28,041 -What? -[Rita] You made a promise. 550 00:32:28,125 --> 00:32:30,875 -I did what? -Sixty days is two weeks from now. 551 00:32:30,958 --> 00:32:32,666 [car engine starts] 552 00:32:32,750 --> 00:32:34,291 Where were we? 553 00:32:39,166 --> 00:32:42,250 Bernstein's speech, the young woman on the ferry boat. 554 00:32:42,750 --> 00:32:44,666 Read it back, please. 555 00:32:46,041 --> 00:32:49,708 "A white dress she had on, and she was carrying a white parasol, 556 00:32:50,666 --> 00:32:55,000 and I only saw her for one second, and she didn't see me at all." 557 00:32:56,125 --> 00:33:00,875 "But I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl." 558 00:33:02,750 --> 00:33:04,833 A snapshot from the Mankiewicz family album? 559 00:33:04,916 --> 00:33:06,166 You might say that. 560 00:33:07,708 --> 00:33:09,750 It really is a gorgeous-- 561 00:33:09,833 --> 00:33:11,375 Spot to get stuck? 562 00:33:14,666 --> 00:33:16,458 Is Bernstein meant to be Louis Mayer? 563 00:33:17,041 --> 00:33:18,666 If form follows function. 564 00:33:18,750 --> 00:33:22,416 Mayer is the same pathetic sort of lap dog to our Charles Foster? 565 00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:25,000 Bernstein is a far nicer character. 566 00:33:25,083 --> 00:33:27,125 You don't much like Mayer. 567 00:33:27,208 --> 00:33:32,583 If I ever go to the electric chair, I'd like him to be sitting in my lap. 568 00:33:33,625 --> 00:33:34,625 [gasps] 569 00:33:38,083 --> 00:33:41,041 $750 a week? That's half what you make, Herman. 570 00:33:41,125 --> 00:33:43,625 -You're a junior writer, Joe. -So? 571 00:33:43,708 --> 00:33:46,166 So, you're only half the wit your big brother is. 572 00:33:46,250 --> 00:33:49,625 -How many half-wits make that? -Herm, how do I look? 573 00:33:50,291 --> 00:33:54,291 -You look like you. Fine. -[sighs] What should I be expecting? 574 00:33:54,375 --> 00:33:57,916 You're related to me. He already thinks you're a genius. 575 00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000 Enough. 576 00:33:59,500 --> 00:34:02,208 [Mank] The job will be yours if you can do two things. 577 00:34:02,291 --> 00:34:06,125 One, don't roll your eyes. Two, try not to fall asleep. 578 00:34:06,791 --> 00:34:08,208 [Mayer] This isn't Gower Gulch. 579 00:34:08,291 --> 00:34:10,625 You want I should make a picture about a prostitute? 580 00:34:10,708 --> 00:34:11,833 [Gilbert] What's wrong? 581 00:34:11,916 --> 00:34:13,750 My mother was nothing but a whore. [grunts] 582 00:34:13,833 --> 00:34:16,416 [Mayer] You would talk about your own mother that way? 583 00:34:16,500 --> 00:34:19,083 The woman who gave you life? 584 00:34:19,166 --> 00:34:21,916 You ungrateful bastard! I ought to cut your balls off! 585 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,583 Do it, you fucking junk dealer! I'll still be the better man! 586 00:34:29,333 --> 00:34:31,958 L.B., this is my brother, Joe. 587 00:34:32,041 --> 00:34:34,458 Nice to meet you, Joseph. I'm Louis Mayer. 588 00:34:34,541 --> 00:34:37,083 I can't tell you what this means to him, Louis. 589 00:34:37,583 --> 00:34:41,250 -They're all there, Mr. Mayer. -On my way. Joe, walk with me. 590 00:34:47,500 --> 00:34:50,291 My boy, there are three work rules at this studio. 591 00:34:50,375 --> 00:34:53,916 Rule number one. Ars gratia artis, art for art's sake. 592 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:54,916 How you doing? 593 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,625 One million dollars a year we spend on stories we never even film. 594 00:34:58,708 --> 00:35:02,333 Why not? I'll tell you. They don't make me cry. 595 00:35:02,416 --> 00:35:04,791 What makes me cry? Emotion. 596 00:35:04,875 --> 00:35:06,958 Where do I feel emotion? 597 00:35:07,041 --> 00:35:09,583 Here, here, and here. 598 00:35:09,666 --> 00:35:10,833 Rule number two. 599 00:35:10,916 --> 00:35:14,000 You may have heard MGM has more stars than there are in the heavens. 600 00:35:14,083 --> 00:35:15,333 Do not believe this. 601 00:35:15,416 --> 00:35:19,250 Hiya. We have only one star. That is Leo the Lion. 602 00:35:19,333 --> 00:35:20,625 Never forget that. 603 00:35:20,708 --> 00:35:23,750 Many stars have, and now they twinkle elsewhere. 604 00:35:23,833 --> 00:35:24,708 Rule number three. 605 00:35:24,791 --> 00:35:28,333 People think MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 606 00:35:28,416 --> 00:35:29,625 It does not. 607 00:35:29,708 --> 00:35:34,375 It stands for Mayer's gantze mishpokhe, Mayer's whole family. 608 00:35:34,458 --> 00:35:35,708 Never forget that. 609 00:35:35,791 --> 00:35:37,791 You got a problem, come to Papa. 610 00:35:38,458 --> 00:35:42,666 This is a business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory. 611 00:35:42,750 --> 00:35:45,541 What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. 612 00:35:45,625 --> 00:35:49,375 That's the real magic of the movies, and don't let anybody tell you different. 613 00:35:49,458 --> 00:35:50,583 [studio bell rings] 614 00:35:53,500 --> 00:35:55,250 [crowd murmuring] 615 00:36:04,166 --> 00:36:08,250 [applause] 616 00:36:11,708 --> 00:36:17,541 I find myself in a horrendous position, and I come to all of you on bended knee. 617 00:36:19,458 --> 00:36:22,500 We are suffering, as all Americans are, 618 00:36:22,583 --> 00:36:25,000 from our country's terrible economic woes. 619 00:36:25,791 --> 00:36:29,125 Good people, everyday people, can't afford to go to the movies. 620 00:36:29,208 --> 00:36:33,125 So even our preeminent dream factory… 621 00:36:34,291 --> 00:36:36,875 is in grave financial difficulty. 622 00:36:36,958 --> 00:36:38,833 [crowd murmuring] 623 00:36:38,916 --> 00:36:44,500 I am asking everyone in the MGM family to take a painful step. 624 00:36:45,333 --> 00:36:48,875 -I am asking to roll back salaries. -[crowd grumbling] 625 00:36:48,958 --> 00:36:50,708 [Mayer] I don't want to, 626 00:36:50,791 --> 00:36:55,625 but for this hallowed place to continue to exist, I am forced to. 627 00:36:56,250 --> 00:37:00,416 I won't break up this family over something like money. 628 00:37:01,125 --> 00:37:03,625 -How long are you asking for? -Shouldn't be long. 629 00:37:04,208 --> 00:37:05,958 -How much are you asking for? -[Mayer] Half. 630 00:37:06,458 --> 00:37:07,833 -[worker 1] Half? -Could be less. 631 00:37:07,916 --> 00:37:10,291 Is everybody going to be pitching in? Are you, Mr. Mayer? 632 00:37:10,375 --> 00:37:13,958 Real families root for each other in the good times, 633 00:37:14,041 --> 00:37:17,125 take care of each other in tough ones. 634 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:19,000 We're with you, L.B. 635 00:37:19,083 --> 00:37:20,541 You may be, Mr. Barrymore, 636 00:37:20,625 --> 00:37:23,083 but a 50% pay cut for grips and electricians-- 637 00:37:23,166 --> 00:37:26,375 Eight weeks, my friends, eight short weeks. 638 00:37:26,458 --> 00:37:31,125 As soon as FDR reopens the banks, you'll get back every penny. 639 00:37:31,208 --> 00:37:36,541 On that, you have the sacred word of L.B. Mayer. 640 00:37:44,333 --> 00:37:45,583 Well, I vote yes. 641 00:37:47,791 --> 00:37:50,375 -I do as well. -Me too. 642 00:37:50,458 --> 00:37:51,750 [all chuckling] 643 00:37:51,833 --> 00:37:53,416 [crowd murmuring] 644 00:37:58,541 --> 00:37:59,625 [murmurs] 645 00:38:10,208 --> 00:38:12,708 -How'd I do, Ben? -It was great, Mr. Mayer. 646 00:38:12,791 --> 00:38:13,708 Ah. 647 00:38:13,791 --> 00:38:15,791 [upbeat jazz music playing] 648 00:38:18,041 --> 00:38:21,208 Not even the most disgraceful thing I've ever seen. 649 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,000 -[Fraulein Freda] Good. -[Mank moans] 650 00:38:30,500 --> 00:38:32,416 -[Fraulein Freda] Okay. -[Mank moans] 651 00:38:33,208 --> 00:38:35,000 -Yeah? -[Mank] Oh, yeah. 652 00:38:35,083 --> 00:38:37,375 [Fraulein Freda] Yeah? Okay. 653 00:38:37,458 --> 00:38:39,583 Maybe a little bit left? 654 00:38:39,666 --> 00:38:41,375 -Yeah? -Yeah. 655 00:38:41,458 --> 00:38:42,291 Here? 656 00:38:42,375 --> 00:38:45,416 -Ooh, yeah. -I've got to get typewriter ribbon. 657 00:38:45,500 --> 00:38:48,250 -Here are this morning's pages. -[Mank] Dreck. It's all dreck! 658 00:38:48,333 --> 00:38:50,291 Don't flagellate. At least you're writing again. 659 00:38:50,375 --> 00:38:53,083 -[telephone rings] -None of it sings. None of it. Not a note. 660 00:38:53,166 --> 00:38:54,625 You're not writing an opera. 661 00:38:56,041 --> 00:38:57,041 Hello? 662 00:38:59,041 --> 00:39:00,708 But I am writing an opera. 663 00:39:03,916 --> 00:39:04,916 It's for you. 664 00:39:07,708 --> 00:39:09,708 -Yeah? -Herman, it's Joe. 665 00:39:09,791 --> 00:39:11,750 Hey, hey, kid. What's up? 666 00:39:11,833 --> 00:39:14,958 -Checking in. How are you getting around? -Gingerly. 667 00:39:15,041 --> 00:39:17,416 -Any rest? -Haven't seen a sunrise yet. 668 00:39:17,500 --> 00:39:19,333 You've never seen a sunrise. 669 00:39:19,416 --> 00:39:22,333 -Sara said you wanted this number. -Just to hear your voice. 670 00:39:22,416 --> 00:39:26,833 Oh. She said you had some work you wanted to talk about. 671 00:39:26,916 --> 00:39:31,458 Ah. I was thinking about that old play, The Wild Man of Borneo, 672 00:39:31,541 --> 00:39:33,041 the one you wrote in the Ice Age. 673 00:39:33,125 --> 00:39:36,416 One never remembers one's disasters. It's considered gauche. 674 00:39:36,500 --> 00:39:37,791 A play is never a disaster 675 00:39:37,875 --> 00:39:39,125 till the movies say it is. 676 00:39:39,208 --> 00:39:41,666 -[Mank laughs] -I brought it to my people at the studio. 677 00:39:41,750 --> 00:39:43,125 We want W.C. Fields. 678 00:39:43,208 --> 00:39:47,541 -We want you to adapt. -I'm kind of on something right now. 679 00:39:47,625 --> 00:39:50,416 I can get you paid for the play and the adaptation. 680 00:39:50,916 --> 00:39:52,333 Sounds great. 681 00:39:52,416 --> 00:39:53,625 I'll have to think about it. 682 00:39:53,708 --> 00:39:55,500 You know how these things have their moment. 683 00:39:55,583 --> 00:39:58,166 So this isn't an offer. It's a subtle ultimatum. 684 00:39:58,250 --> 00:40:01,333 [sighs] Nobody could ever tell you what to do. 685 00:40:02,250 --> 00:40:03,958 Did Sara put you up to this? 686 00:40:04,041 --> 00:40:06,583 Not at all, but I know how things are. 687 00:40:06,666 --> 00:40:08,083 I can tell by her voice. 688 00:40:08,166 --> 00:40:11,041 -And how bad is that, baby brother? -How bad? 689 00:40:11,125 --> 00:40:12,500 I went to a party last night 690 00:40:12,583 --> 00:40:16,208 where Scott Fitzgerald referred to you as a ruined man. 691 00:40:16,291 --> 00:40:18,458 -[laughs] -That's how bad things can get. 692 00:40:18,541 --> 00:40:20,125 -That's good. I may use that. -[chuckles] 693 00:40:20,208 --> 00:40:22,458 -Hermie-- -[sighs] Please, stop, Joey. 694 00:40:22,541 --> 00:40:24,333 Just tell me what's on your mind. 695 00:40:24,416 --> 00:40:28,625 [sighs] I hear you're hunting dangerous game. 696 00:40:29,583 --> 00:40:34,208 Word on the street is radio's golden boy wants to go toe-to-toe with Willie Hearst, 697 00:40:34,291 --> 00:40:36,375 and you're helping in the kitchen. 698 00:40:39,708 --> 00:40:40,625 Oh? 699 00:40:42,041 --> 00:40:43,416 -And? -"And?" 700 00:40:45,125 --> 00:40:46,333 Herman, "And?" 701 00:40:46,416 --> 00:40:47,500 How stupid of me. 702 00:40:47,583 --> 00:40:50,958 I thought I was rejecting a humiliating handout, 703 00:40:51,041 --> 00:40:54,208 when all the time, I was nixing a respectable bribe. 704 00:40:54,291 --> 00:40:56,000 And I'm sorry I ever cared. 705 00:40:56,666 --> 00:40:57,666 [hangs up] 706 00:41:00,250 --> 00:41:01,291 Oops. 707 00:41:08,458 --> 00:41:10,291 -[Fraulein Freda] Come on. -[grunts] 708 00:41:13,125 --> 00:41:14,083 [sighs] 709 00:41:17,291 --> 00:41:18,291 [typewriter dings] 710 00:41:18,375 --> 00:41:21,875 [Hearst] Marion and I are pleased you all could come stay for the weekend. 711 00:41:22,375 --> 00:41:24,708 I hope the train ride wasn't too arduous. 712 00:41:25,833 --> 00:41:30,458 And tonight, we're celebrating our great friend's birthday 713 00:41:30,541 --> 00:41:33,625 in our little hillside home. Charlie. 714 00:41:33,708 --> 00:41:37,458 -[playing piano] -[all] ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ 715 00:41:37,541 --> 00:41:41,083 ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ 716 00:41:41,166 --> 00:41:45,625 ♪ Happy birthday, dear Louis ♪ 717 00:41:45,708 --> 00:41:48,791 ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ 718 00:41:48,875 --> 00:41:50,458 -[man] Happy birthday! -[guests cheer] 719 00:41:50,541 --> 00:41:51,958 [blowing] 720 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:56,750 Louis, you should be joyous. You don't look a day over 48. 721 00:41:56,833 --> 00:41:58,500 I feel 35. 722 00:41:58,583 --> 00:41:59,625 [all laughing] 723 00:42:03,583 --> 00:42:06,791 Mr. Hearst, Marion, all of you, 724 00:42:07,333 --> 00:42:09,916 my heart is full to bursting. 725 00:42:10,958 --> 00:42:12,958 I can't express in words… 726 00:42:13,041 --> 00:42:14,791 [muttering] Please don't try. 727 00:42:14,875 --> 00:42:21,250 W. R., nothing is more precious to me than your friendship and sage advice. 728 00:42:21,333 --> 00:42:23,875 I am blessed to call you my friend. 729 00:42:25,416 --> 00:42:28,166 God bless William Randolph Hearst. 730 00:42:28,250 --> 00:42:30,375 -[all] Cheers. -[softly] God bless us, everyone. 731 00:42:31,458 --> 00:42:34,041 -Hear, hear. -A very happy birthday, Louis. 732 00:42:34,125 --> 00:42:37,708 Our country should be flattered you picked its birth date as your own. 733 00:42:37,791 --> 00:42:41,250 The rest of us have to be satisfied with the one we happen to be born on. 734 00:42:41,333 --> 00:42:42,666 -Mank. -[all chuckling] 735 00:42:42,750 --> 00:42:46,375 Here's to your rich Canadian imagination. 736 00:42:46,458 --> 00:42:49,500 [all] Rich Canadian imagination! 737 00:42:49,583 --> 00:42:50,916 Here's to banks reopening. 738 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:52,875 -And to freedom. -[all] Freedom! 739 00:42:52,958 --> 00:42:55,875 I believe you've met our distinguished guest, 740 00:42:55,958 --> 00:42:57,708 Mr. Rexford Tugwell. 741 00:42:57,791 --> 00:43:00,666 Now, Rex is special assistant to President Roosevelt, 742 00:43:00,750 --> 00:43:03,916 and we're all interested in what you might share with us. 743 00:43:04,500 --> 00:43:06,541 We all wanna welcome the Thalbergs 744 00:43:06,625 --> 00:43:09,583 back from Irving's long convalescence in Europe. 745 00:43:09,666 --> 00:43:12,041 -Thank you, W.R. -[Hearst] Good to see you, Irving. 746 00:43:12,125 --> 00:43:13,500 -Thank you, Mr. Hearst. -Norma. 747 00:43:13,583 --> 00:43:16,125 [plays flourish on piano] Anybody seen anything good lately? 748 00:43:16,208 --> 00:43:20,208 I just saw 42nd Street. It blew my wig! 749 00:43:20,291 --> 00:43:22,041 You can take the girl outta Bed-Stuy. 750 00:43:22,125 --> 00:43:24,666 -When was that? -Over the weekend. 751 00:43:24,750 --> 00:43:27,541 You were in D.C. I went to the pictures in Santa Barbara. 752 00:43:27,625 --> 00:43:30,541 -We have a fine screening room here. -[Mayer] Warner's picture? 753 00:43:30,625 --> 00:43:32,291 -Why waste money on that? -[all laugh] 754 00:43:32,375 --> 00:43:34,583 -Next time, I'll go with you. -[Marion] Of course. 755 00:43:34,666 --> 00:43:38,875 I am bonkers about Movietone News. I love Lowell Thomas's voice. 756 00:43:38,958 --> 00:43:41,416 -Oh, is he single? -[both laugh] 757 00:43:41,500 --> 00:43:43,916 I sat across from him at the Brown Derby once. 758 00:43:44,791 --> 00:43:46,250 -He bought me a drink. -He didn't! 759 00:43:46,333 --> 00:43:47,500 [actress] Not technically. 760 00:43:47,583 --> 00:43:50,375 But I made sure to run into him in the parking lot after. 761 00:43:50,458 --> 00:43:53,541 -I asked him, "Do you need a lift?" -You didn't! What did he say? 762 00:43:54,125 --> 00:43:56,916 -I'll never tell. -There's a point to this, dear? 763 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:01,666 Well, yes, they showed that Hitler giving a speech, kissing babies. 764 00:44:01,750 --> 00:44:03,166 He is creepers! 765 00:44:03,250 --> 00:44:06,250 Lederhosen and suspenders. Terrifying. 766 00:44:06,333 --> 00:44:08,708 -No, it's the mustache that's the horror. -[all laugh] 767 00:44:08,791 --> 00:44:11,458 [Hearst] Don't be alarmed, Marion. He won't be around for long. 768 00:44:11,541 --> 00:44:14,541 The Germans are a thoughtful, considerate people. 769 00:44:14,625 --> 00:44:16,333 Enough about Nazis. 770 00:44:16,416 --> 00:44:19,375 Irving, tell us about your travels. Where were you? 771 00:44:19,458 --> 00:44:22,333 -[inhales sharply] Uh… Berlin, in fact. -[all chuckle] 772 00:44:23,041 --> 00:44:24,333 But it was quite interesting. 773 00:44:24,416 --> 00:44:27,541 Thugs in brown shirts goose-stepping past our hotel all night, 774 00:44:27,625 --> 00:44:29,333 screaming anti-Semitic slogans. 775 00:44:29,916 --> 00:44:32,666 -I was terrified the whole time. -This Hitler sounds like an utter drip. 776 00:44:32,750 --> 00:44:35,416 Shouldn't the United States do something, Mr. Tugwell? 777 00:44:35,500 --> 00:44:37,125 We are weighing all options. 778 00:44:37,208 --> 00:44:40,041 Can't last. Who in the world takes a lunatic like that seriously? 779 00:44:40,125 --> 00:44:42,666 Well, the last time I looked, 40 million Germans. 780 00:44:42,750 --> 00:44:45,250 Mank! You're always so wonderfully contrary. 781 00:44:45,333 --> 00:44:47,583 "Chase & Sanborn's der coffee." 782 00:44:47,666 --> 00:44:50,125 [in German accent] "Can 40 million Nazis all be wrong?" 783 00:44:50,208 --> 00:44:53,333 I just read they've opened their first concentration camps 784 00:44:53,416 --> 00:44:54,916 and started burning books. 785 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,791 -What's next? Movies? -Enough. 786 00:44:57,875 --> 00:45:00,000 -Is that true, Irving? -Yes, L.B. 787 00:45:00,500 --> 00:45:02,250 Ah, Hitler, schmitler! 788 00:45:02,916 --> 00:45:05,000 You don't turn your back on a market as big as Germany. 789 00:45:05,083 --> 00:45:08,875 Please. It's upsetting enough Marion had to endure the man in newsreel. 790 00:45:08,958 --> 00:45:10,583 What's a concentration camp? 791 00:45:10,666 --> 00:45:12,958 It was fascinating. Those people adore him. 792 00:45:14,916 --> 00:45:18,541 -I'm probably talking nonsense. -You're the first tonight that isn't. 793 00:45:18,625 --> 00:45:21,125 [Selznick] Speaking of socialists, how about Upton Sinclair's book? 794 00:45:21,208 --> 00:45:22,041 No! 795 00:45:22,125 --> 00:45:24,250 He wants to turn private enterprise over to the state. 796 00:45:24,333 --> 00:45:26,125 There's one we won't be optioning. Eh, Irving? 797 00:45:26,208 --> 00:45:27,583 Well, it's selling like crazy. 798 00:45:27,666 --> 00:45:30,541 Walter Winchell says Sinclair may run for governor next election. 799 00:45:30,625 --> 00:45:33,666 That rat Bolshevik belongs right up there with Hitler 800 00:45:33,750 --> 00:45:36,583 on the list of people not to be taken seriously. 801 00:45:36,666 --> 00:45:39,041 There's a world of difference between communism and socialism. 802 00:45:39,125 --> 00:45:41,125 [Mayer] They both want something for nothing. 803 00:45:41,208 --> 00:45:42,666 Like a workforce for free? 804 00:45:42,750 --> 00:45:44,416 Half, and only in the interim. 805 00:45:44,500 --> 00:45:47,041 I think it's safe to assume none of us here would welcome 806 00:45:47,125 --> 00:45:50,125 a crusading socialist as California's political savior. 807 00:45:50,208 --> 00:45:52,666 Certainly not FDR. Am I right, Rex? 808 00:45:52,750 --> 00:45:55,375 Off the record, President says the man bears watching. 809 00:45:55,458 --> 00:45:58,916 Especially now that Republicans seem bent on running Frank Merriam again. 810 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,750 Sinclair's run twice before and got, what, 2% of the vote? 811 00:46:01,833 --> 00:46:05,541 -Good people, the man is an author. -As was Thomas Jefferson. 812 00:46:05,625 --> 00:46:09,500 Ha! Come now, Mank. Upton Sinclair as Thomas Jefferson? 813 00:46:09,583 --> 00:46:10,958 No, you're right, W.R. 814 00:46:11,041 --> 00:46:14,375 Jefferson never got federal laws passed to ban oil monopolies, 815 00:46:14,458 --> 00:46:17,541 or railroad trusts, or cleaned up the stockyards. 816 00:46:17,625 --> 00:46:20,958 -He's an angry scribe, a provocateur. -Because he provokes thought. 817 00:46:21,041 --> 00:46:22,916 You always side with the writer, Mank. 818 00:46:23,500 --> 00:46:26,625 Poor souls surviving a depression on five grand a week. 819 00:46:26,708 --> 00:46:28,125 -Commies. -L.B. is not wrong. 820 00:46:28,208 --> 00:46:29,916 [Mank] Irving, you're a literate man. 821 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:32,750 You know the difference between communism and socialism. 822 00:46:32,833 --> 00:46:35,000 In socialism, everyone shares the wealth. 823 00:46:35,083 --> 00:46:37,458 In communism, everyone shares the poverty. 824 00:46:37,541 --> 00:46:39,041 Thank you, Mr. Mankiewicz. 825 00:46:39,125 --> 00:46:43,000 Upton just wants you to apportion some of your Christmas bonus, Irving, 826 00:46:43,083 --> 00:46:45,041 to the people who clean your house. 827 00:46:45,125 --> 00:46:46,083 [guests laughing] 828 00:46:46,166 --> 00:46:49,625 -Now that's why I always want Mank around. -[chuckles] Me too. 829 00:46:49,708 --> 00:46:52,708 Upton, Mank? Nobody's asking to hear you sing "The Internationale." 830 00:46:52,791 --> 00:46:54,250 [plays "The Internationale"] 831 00:46:54,750 --> 00:46:57,250 -What's that? -The Communist national anthem, darling. 832 00:46:57,333 --> 00:46:59,750 I would. Do you sing? 833 00:46:59,833 --> 00:47:02,208 No one should have to hear me sing. Isn't that right, Sara? 834 00:47:02,291 --> 00:47:03,458 If at all possible. 835 00:47:03,541 --> 00:47:05,625 [Mayer] As Republican state chairman-elect, 836 00:47:05,708 --> 00:47:08,250 I'm telling you, nothing's going to happen here. 837 00:47:08,333 --> 00:47:11,750 The people who count in California won't let it. 838 00:47:11,833 --> 00:47:14,625 All this talk is so much pissing in the wind. 839 00:47:14,708 --> 00:47:15,583 Nicely put. 840 00:47:15,666 --> 00:47:19,125 I heard Pops on the phone helping to pick the president's cabinet 841 00:47:19,208 --> 00:47:20,416 like casting a movie. 842 00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:22,708 They can stop a guy like Sinclair. 843 00:47:23,291 --> 00:47:24,500 Couldn't you, Pops? 844 00:47:27,166 --> 00:47:28,166 Pardon. 845 00:47:28,250 --> 00:47:30,166 [unsettling music playing] 846 00:47:30,250 --> 00:47:32,041 I don't know what I'm saying. 847 00:47:45,333 --> 00:47:46,250 Go. 848 00:47:52,416 --> 00:47:53,625 [sighs deeply] 849 00:47:58,166 --> 00:47:59,250 [gasps] 850 00:48:06,708 --> 00:48:08,250 Hello, Tokyo? 851 00:48:10,416 --> 00:48:12,000 London, you there? 852 00:48:12,916 --> 00:48:15,208 -Ah, nerts! -[Mank] What is that? 853 00:48:15,291 --> 00:48:17,833 [Marion] Oh, Pops's radio-phones. 854 00:48:17,916 --> 00:48:20,333 Never ever be out of touch with your empire. 855 00:48:20,416 --> 00:48:25,125 -No, no. What's "nerts"? -Nerts is Brooklynese for "nuts." 856 00:48:25,708 --> 00:48:26,708 Jeepers! 857 00:48:36,250 --> 00:48:38,541 What did I do that was so terrible? 858 00:48:39,250 --> 00:48:42,208 I shouldn't have said that thing about the cabinet in front of Tugwell, 859 00:48:42,291 --> 00:48:45,833 but since when does anybody care what I have to say? 860 00:48:45,916 --> 00:48:48,125 Those things just pop out of my mouth, 861 00:48:48,208 --> 00:48:51,458 and the moment they do, I feel like… 862 00:48:51,541 --> 00:48:53,541 Like you got caught, jambes en l'air. 863 00:48:53,625 --> 00:48:55,250 [gasps] No! 864 00:48:56,208 --> 00:49:01,041 Well, do you always just say whatever you think? Hmm. 865 00:49:01,125 --> 00:49:04,000 -[chuckles] -[Mank] You're blushing. 866 00:49:04,500 --> 00:49:05,833 -Am not. -Are too. 867 00:49:05,916 --> 00:49:10,250 -Am not. -Are too. I can see it even in the dark. 868 00:49:10,333 --> 00:49:13,416 Well, what can I tell you, Mank? Marion Douras… 869 00:49:14,333 --> 00:49:15,958 went to convent school. 870 00:49:16,041 --> 00:49:18,750 -Hedda! Louella! -[laughs] 871 00:49:18,833 --> 00:49:21,500 Where's a gossip columnist around this castle when you need one? 872 00:49:22,291 --> 00:49:25,333 I hate shop talk. I never know what's going on. 873 00:49:26,291 --> 00:49:29,708 The one thing you never ever talk about is Upton Sinclair. 874 00:49:29,791 --> 00:49:31,083 I noted. 875 00:49:31,166 --> 00:49:33,708 The moment he's mentioned, the evening turns. 876 00:49:33,791 --> 00:49:36,416 -It's sort of a sore subject. -Really? 877 00:49:37,666 --> 00:49:38,708 Do tell. 878 00:49:42,375 --> 00:49:44,791 [Marion] I don't even know who this Mr. Sinclair is, 879 00:49:44,875 --> 00:49:46,750 but he wrote about us for a book. 880 00:49:47,250 --> 00:49:49,375 I used to quote it word for word. 881 00:49:50,041 --> 00:49:54,375 "I saw our richest newspaper publisher keep his movie mistress 882 00:49:54,458 --> 00:49:57,750 in a private city of palaces and cathedrals, 883 00:49:57,833 --> 00:50:01,625 furnished with shiploads of junk imported from Europe 884 00:50:01,708 --> 00:50:06,750 and surrounded by vast acres reserved for use by zebras and giraffes, 885 00:50:07,250 --> 00:50:10,916 telling in jest that he had spent six million dollars 886 00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:13,166 to make his lady's reputation 887 00:50:13,250 --> 00:50:16,291 and using his newspapers to celebrate her change of hats." 888 00:50:16,875 --> 00:50:20,250 It must be hard to be on the receiving end of that. 889 00:50:20,333 --> 00:50:22,875 People think because you're on the cover of Modern Screen, 890 00:50:22,958 --> 00:50:24,000 they know you. 891 00:50:24,083 --> 00:50:26,000 -[Mank] Hmm. -Ah, nerts! 892 00:50:26,083 --> 00:50:27,666 What do I have to complain about? 893 00:50:27,750 --> 00:50:30,666 I live in a fishbowl, but anything I want is mine. 894 00:50:31,416 --> 00:50:35,250 If I could, I'd share with everyone. You know that, Mank. 895 00:50:35,750 --> 00:50:38,916 This Upton doesn't know a thing about the real… 896 00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,958 -[gasps] -[monkeys chattering] 897 00:50:41,041 --> 00:50:46,500 [shouting] Nobody but nobody makes a monkey out of William Randolph Hearst! 898 00:50:46,583 --> 00:50:47,708 [giggles] 899 00:50:47,791 --> 00:50:50,583 -I understand why Mayer loathes him. -Why? 900 00:50:51,291 --> 00:50:55,250 -Sinclair caught him with his pants down. -[inhales sharply] Yikes! 901 00:50:55,333 --> 00:50:59,166 He wrote that Mayer took a bribe to look the other way 902 00:50:59,250 --> 00:51:01,166 so a rival could buy MGM. 903 00:51:01,250 --> 00:51:02,291 [gasps] 904 00:51:02,375 --> 00:51:05,208 -It's complicated. -Over my head? 905 00:51:05,291 --> 00:51:08,416 No, over mine. You'd need a degree in larceny. 906 00:51:08,500 --> 00:51:11,708 -Isn't bribery a crime? -That's what Sinclair said. 907 00:51:11,791 --> 00:51:14,541 The little sausage might have gone to jail. 908 00:51:14,625 --> 00:51:16,125 Jeepers! 909 00:51:16,208 --> 00:51:17,666 [Mank] The hypocrisy. 910 00:51:18,166 --> 00:51:20,666 "Mayn gantze mishpokhe. My mishpokhe." 911 00:51:20,750 --> 00:51:24,125 -[Marion] I don't speak a lot of Jewish. -[laughs] Really? 912 00:51:24,208 --> 00:51:26,541 "My mishpokhe. My family." 913 00:51:26,625 --> 00:51:30,166 Everything he does is for family, 914 00:51:30,250 --> 00:51:32,500 except when it comes to selling his last name 915 00:51:32,583 --> 00:51:35,041 to a competitor in the middle of the night. 916 00:51:35,541 --> 00:51:38,083 Wow. He would do that to his own studio? 917 00:51:38,583 --> 00:51:41,875 He doesn't own MGM any more than Sam Goldwyn. 918 00:51:41,958 --> 00:51:44,083 They just run it for the moneyboys back East. 919 00:51:44,916 --> 00:51:49,166 And jail is not something an animal like Mayer is likely to forget. 920 00:51:49,250 --> 00:51:50,875 [elephant trumpets] 921 00:51:50,958 --> 00:51:53,000 [both laugh] 922 00:51:53,500 --> 00:51:57,541 Irving must be clean. He looks like he shaves three times a day. 923 00:51:58,125 --> 00:52:00,833 Well, there's clean, and there's clean. 924 00:52:01,583 --> 00:52:04,166 Irving bought one of Sinclair's novels. 925 00:52:04,750 --> 00:52:09,291 Sinclair demanded a guarantee that not one word could be changed, 926 00:52:09,375 --> 00:52:12,375 in writing, on the back of the purchase check. 927 00:52:12,458 --> 00:52:15,750 [gasps] He didn't want notes from Irving Thalberg? 928 00:52:15,833 --> 00:52:19,208 When Thalberg refused, Sinclair took his money 929 00:52:19,291 --> 00:52:23,666 and ran off to Mexico and financed a picture about the Russian Revolution. 930 00:52:23,750 --> 00:52:26,625 [both chuckle] 931 00:52:26,708 --> 00:52:29,416 Now, that's sticking the old neck out. 932 00:52:29,916 --> 00:52:31,083 [Marion] Oh. 933 00:52:31,166 --> 00:52:33,250 [Marion laughing] 934 00:52:38,833 --> 00:52:40,083 -[gasps] -Oh. 935 00:52:40,166 --> 00:52:42,666 I'm sorry. Instinct! 936 00:52:43,250 --> 00:52:44,250 My fault. 937 00:52:45,375 --> 00:52:47,791 I've been a little sixes and sevens recently. 938 00:52:48,791 --> 00:52:51,166 Tell me something, Mank. The truth. 939 00:52:52,833 --> 00:52:54,125 Could you see me playing 940 00:52:54,208 --> 00:52:56,583 Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Marie Antoinette? 941 00:52:56,666 --> 00:53:00,833 Irving's bought 'em both, you know, because of Pops. 942 00:53:02,125 --> 00:53:03,125 What do you think? 943 00:53:03,708 --> 00:53:05,416 And honestly. 944 00:53:07,958 --> 00:53:10,000 I see you more as Dulcinea. 945 00:53:10,583 --> 00:53:12,416 -Who? -Dulcinea. 946 00:53:12,500 --> 00:53:14,708 From the Spanish, for sweetness. 947 00:53:14,791 --> 00:53:16,666 [gasps] Ah. 948 00:53:16,750 --> 00:53:21,416 "Her hair, gold. Her cheeks, roses." 949 00:53:21,500 --> 00:53:22,541 Nice. 950 00:53:22,625 --> 00:53:25,791 -"Her lips, coral." -Mmm. 951 00:53:25,875 --> 00:53:30,083 "Her neck, alabaster. Her bosom, marble." 952 00:53:30,166 --> 00:53:31,125 Marble? [scoffs] 953 00:53:31,208 --> 00:53:32,458 Maybe once. 954 00:53:32,958 --> 00:53:37,250 "Ivory, her hands, and her whiteness, snow." 955 00:53:38,083 --> 00:53:42,208 -You wrote that? -No. A fella named Cervantes. 956 00:53:42,291 --> 00:53:43,166 [clears throat] 957 00:53:43,250 --> 00:53:45,750 "There are meters of accent and meters of tone, 958 00:53:45,833 --> 00:53:48,666 but the best of all meters is to meet her alone." 959 00:53:48,750 --> 00:53:53,416 -Ah, a poem with a message. -That's just the first verse. 960 00:53:54,041 --> 00:53:55,291 The last… 961 00:53:56,250 --> 00:54:00,666 "There are letters of accent and letters of tone, 962 00:54:00,750 --> 00:54:03,416 but the best of all letters is to let her alone." 963 00:54:03,500 --> 00:54:05,041 [Marion laughs] 964 00:54:06,125 --> 00:54:08,166 Now, those I wrote. 965 00:54:09,666 --> 00:54:10,583 [Mank chuckles] 966 00:54:12,750 --> 00:54:14,500 [Marion sighs happily] 967 00:54:23,333 --> 00:54:26,125 [coyotes howling in the distance] 968 00:54:47,208 --> 00:54:50,208 [bottles clinking] 969 00:54:51,083 --> 00:54:52,250 [gasps softly] 970 00:54:54,958 --> 00:54:56,125 [Mank sighs] 971 00:54:58,666 --> 00:54:59,708 Do come in. 972 00:55:02,916 --> 00:55:06,875 -Jesus! What is that? -Sunlight. It's nearly noon. 973 00:55:06,958 --> 00:55:09,916 Mother of God! Where did the night go? 974 00:55:11,041 --> 00:55:14,916 -Your support device is here. -Oh, good. Send it in. 975 00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:16,333 As is Mr. Houseman. 976 00:55:18,833 --> 00:55:20,458 What would you like me to do? 977 00:55:21,125 --> 00:55:22,708 Well, send him in too. 978 00:55:32,541 --> 00:55:33,750 [coughs] 979 00:55:38,291 --> 00:55:40,750 Uh, put it over there, please. 980 00:55:41,791 --> 00:55:44,750 -You're early. -I thought we should talk. 981 00:55:45,333 --> 00:55:47,750 -[Mank] Why are you wearing a coat? -I always wear a coat. 982 00:55:47,833 --> 00:55:49,375 Must be 108 degrees. 983 00:55:49,458 --> 00:55:51,791 -We're at a Rubicon moment, Mank. -[Mank] Uh-huh. 984 00:55:51,875 --> 00:55:54,791 It's not the work. That's everything we hoped it would be. 985 00:55:54,875 --> 00:55:57,333 -[Mank] Enough room there? -Oh, it should be. 986 00:55:57,875 --> 00:56:00,416 [sighs] I'm sorry, John. 987 00:56:01,750 --> 00:56:04,000 -You've only written ninety pages. -Ninety-one. 988 00:56:04,083 --> 00:56:07,041 [Houseman] In my expert opinion, you're hardly out of the first act. 989 00:56:07,125 --> 00:56:11,041 I mean, how do you hope to be done in 14… 13 days? 990 00:56:11,708 --> 00:56:14,458 We gave him our solemn word we would deliver. 991 00:56:14,541 --> 00:56:16,416 -"We"? -I don't think he's going to take it well. 992 00:56:16,500 --> 00:56:17,375 Not very well at all. 993 00:56:17,458 --> 00:56:21,583 You said 90 days. Welles said 60. I'm doing the very best I can. 994 00:56:21,666 --> 00:56:25,416 -We are surely to be axed. -Not just yet. 995 00:56:26,666 --> 00:56:27,875 I've never been fired. 996 00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:31,500 -I've never not been fired. -I don't get fired. 997 00:56:31,583 --> 00:56:33,875 It's not as unpleasant as you might imagine. 998 00:56:33,958 --> 00:56:36,000 You worry too much, John. 999 00:56:36,083 --> 00:56:38,916 -What do you do for pleasure? -[telephone rings] 1000 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:42,791 -Hello? Yes, he's here. -[man speaks indistinctly on phone] 1001 00:56:43,958 --> 00:56:44,958 [softly] It's Orson. 1002 00:56:45,708 --> 00:56:47,833 [inhales sharply] Will you talk? 1003 00:56:47,916 --> 00:56:50,041 [Rita] He'd like to speak with Mr. Houseman. 1004 00:56:51,208 --> 00:56:52,125 [Houseman] Me? 1005 00:56:59,333 --> 00:57:01,791 -Orson. -[Orson speaking indistinctly] 1006 00:57:01,875 --> 00:57:04,166 I came early to see where we were with, uh… 1007 00:57:05,416 --> 00:57:08,875 No, not at all. Everything's going absolutely according… 1008 00:57:09,916 --> 00:57:12,708 Well, that's difficult to say exactly. 1009 00:57:13,250 --> 00:57:15,416 Yep. Yes, I know the clock… 1010 00:57:17,375 --> 00:57:19,708 Well, as I've told you, it's quite unique. 1011 00:57:19,791 --> 00:57:22,083 In fact, I would venture to say, one of the most… 1012 00:57:24,333 --> 00:57:27,541 Yes, well, it will absolutely need your marvelous… 1013 00:57:29,041 --> 00:57:31,666 He's on the mend, working tirelessly. 1014 00:57:32,500 --> 00:57:34,875 -[crate creaks] -[Houseman] Of course. When? 1015 00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:37,500 I'm on my way. 1016 00:57:37,583 --> 00:57:39,250 Yes. Hang on. He's right here. 1017 00:57:41,958 --> 00:57:44,458 He wants to see me right away. Wouldn't tell me why. 1018 00:57:45,250 --> 00:57:46,375 Perhaps he will you. 1019 00:57:47,166 --> 00:57:48,291 [Mank grunts] 1020 00:57:52,541 --> 00:57:55,541 -Orson. -[Welles laughs] Tell me what's up, Mank. 1021 00:57:56,125 --> 00:57:57,500 He's getting on my nerves. 1022 00:57:57,583 --> 00:57:59,666 I sensed that. I told him I had to see him at once. 1023 00:57:59,750 --> 00:58:02,083 Hopefully, I can think of a reason before he gets here. 1024 00:58:02,166 --> 00:58:04,458 I've finished my test for Heart of Darkness. 1025 00:58:04,541 --> 00:58:06,708 I'm turning my full attention to our little project. 1026 00:58:06,791 --> 00:58:08,083 [Mank] "Let there be light." 1027 00:58:08,166 --> 00:58:12,041 -[Welles] Tell me what to expect. -I thought you'd want to be surprised. 1028 00:58:12,125 --> 00:58:14,875 Ha. You're always surprising. That's why you were my only choice. 1029 00:58:14,958 --> 00:58:19,125 No one else is Mankiewicz. I can almost hear the finish line. 1030 00:58:19,208 --> 00:58:22,333 -We're about to turn a corner. -Unto the breach! 1031 00:58:23,708 --> 00:58:25,291 Slim, you may tote 1032 00:58:25,375 --> 00:58:27,208 those lovely highland beauties to the kitchen. 1033 00:58:27,291 --> 00:58:29,416 Fraulein Freda, empty the Mickeys 1034 00:58:29,500 --> 00:58:32,416 and start replacing their contents, raus schnell. 1035 00:58:35,083 --> 00:58:37,041 -Thank you, Slim. You may go. -[Mank] Slim. 1036 00:58:44,250 --> 00:58:48,125 Mr. Mankiewicz, please don't ask us to help you in this sad deception. 1037 00:58:48,208 --> 00:58:49,583 My dear Mrs. Alexander, 1038 00:58:49,666 --> 00:58:54,583 Charlie Lederer and I went to a great deal of trouble to engineer this sad deception. 1039 00:58:54,666 --> 00:58:57,625 My deadline is two weeks away and I intend-- 1040 00:58:57,708 --> 00:58:59,291 It could mean our jobs. 1041 00:58:59,375 --> 00:59:03,750 I do my best thinking before I fall asleep. 1042 00:59:03,833 --> 00:59:06,750 And I am sick and tired of having my evenings end 1043 00:59:06,833 --> 00:59:11,500 with the abrupt sensation of being struck on the head with a croquet mallet. 1044 00:59:11,583 --> 00:59:13,875 -A way to put it. -I'm not asking you to help. 1045 00:59:13,958 --> 00:59:15,333 -You're not? -I'm telling you. 1046 00:59:15,416 --> 00:59:16,250 [scoffs] 1047 00:59:17,708 --> 00:59:21,708 I'm sorry. I won't be bullied. You'll have my resignation in the morning. 1048 00:59:21,791 --> 00:59:24,625 I know Freda's been sneaking you nightcaps from the cabinet. 1049 00:59:24,708 --> 00:59:27,166 If she continues to cooperate in this cheap ruse, 1050 00:59:27,250 --> 00:59:29,083 I'll have to report the both of you. 1051 00:59:29,166 --> 00:59:31,416 -Fraulein Freda. -Ja, Herr Mank? 1052 00:59:31,500 --> 00:59:33,916 -Please do as I instructed. -Ja, Herr Mank. 1053 00:59:37,666 --> 00:59:38,875 [groans] 1054 00:59:44,416 --> 00:59:45,458 Humph. 1055 00:59:51,166 --> 00:59:53,125 Freda, you mustn't let him intimidate you. 1056 00:59:53,208 --> 00:59:54,375 [chuckles] 1057 00:59:54,458 --> 00:59:57,916 -I am not intimidated, Frau Alexander. -Then, why? 1058 01:00:00,083 --> 01:00:01,250 [Fraulein Freda sighs] 1059 01:00:02,625 --> 01:00:05,375 Herr Mank sponsored my family's entry into this country. 1060 01:00:05,458 --> 01:00:09,666 He's responsible for us getting safely out of Germany, legally and financially. 1061 01:00:10,375 --> 01:00:13,250 -Really? -Our entire village, he brought here. 1062 01:00:14,250 --> 01:00:17,458 -Entire village? -Over 100 people. 1063 01:00:19,208 --> 01:00:21,125 Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister, 1064 01:00:21,208 --> 01:00:24,166 will not allow his films to be shown in the Fatherland. 1065 01:00:25,291 --> 01:00:26,791 I didn't realize. 1066 01:00:27,291 --> 01:00:31,625 He wrote a picture about the Nazis, which no studio anywhere will dare make. 1067 01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:37,250 I assume if he wishes to drink, he's a grown man, a good man, 1068 01:00:37,750 --> 01:00:39,333 and should be treated as such. 1069 01:00:40,666 --> 01:00:41,791 Nicht wahr? 1070 01:00:54,166 --> 01:00:56,750 To Mank-town. Or is it Mank-ville? 1071 01:00:59,500 --> 01:01:00,958 [sighs] Dear Freda. 1072 01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:04,416 What's German for blabbermouth? 1073 01:01:04,500 --> 01:01:06,583 Either you demonstrate you can handle this, 1074 01:01:06,666 --> 01:01:08,541 or we will all end up getting sacked. 1075 01:01:08,625 --> 01:01:11,833 There's nothing like a vote of confidence from one's peers. 1076 01:01:11,916 --> 01:01:13,875 To Mank-berg. Prosit. 1077 01:01:13,958 --> 01:01:16,666 Mank-heim. Bottoms up. 1078 01:01:22,041 --> 01:01:23,208 [typewriter dings] 1079 01:01:33,208 --> 01:01:36,291 Hey, Mank, you remember me? 1080 01:01:36,375 --> 01:01:39,750 [chuckles] Oh, my God. Of course I remember you, C.C. 1081 01:01:39,833 --> 01:01:42,791 C.C. for Central Casting. How you been, Mank? 1082 01:01:42,875 --> 01:01:43,833 What happened? 1083 01:01:43,916 --> 01:01:46,458 [C.C.] What happened? The goddamn Depression happened. 1084 01:01:46,541 --> 01:01:49,333 I ain't had so much as a walk-on since Tugboat Annie. 1085 01:01:49,833 --> 01:01:51,541 Listen. I hate to, you know… 1086 01:01:51,625 --> 01:01:54,916 Uh, yeah. Ed, lend me a buck. 1087 01:02:02,583 --> 01:02:07,125 Uh, me and Grady here been thinking of bummin' east to Miami. 1088 01:02:07,541 --> 01:02:08,875 I heard it from someone who knows, 1089 01:02:08,958 --> 01:02:10,875 the Hollywood studios are movin' to Florida. 1090 01:02:10,958 --> 01:02:12,958 -Who told you that? -Oh, I can't say. 1091 01:02:13,041 --> 01:02:14,166 Somebody in the know. 1092 01:02:14,250 --> 01:02:16,500 In certain echelons, it's common knowledge. 1093 01:02:16,583 --> 01:02:18,500 Well, people in certain echelons 1094 01:02:18,583 --> 01:02:21,416 don't usually trust me with sensitive information. 1095 01:02:21,500 --> 01:02:25,833 But the studios aren't moving anywhere. That's just company-town propaganda. 1096 01:02:25,916 --> 01:02:29,000 Believe what you want, but say, you think you could spare… 1097 01:02:29,791 --> 01:02:31,583 Uh… Ed? 1098 01:02:33,041 --> 01:02:34,041 [sighs] 1099 01:02:34,708 --> 01:02:36,125 [C.C.] Bless you, Mank. 1100 01:02:36,208 --> 01:02:38,416 [Joe] The bastard reneged. You were there. 1101 01:02:38,500 --> 01:02:40,166 Yes, he reinstated salaries, 1102 01:02:40,250 --> 01:02:42,541 but he never gave back the money he promised. 1103 01:02:42,625 --> 01:02:43,833 Giant surprise. 1104 01:02:43,916 --> 01:02:47,666 Come on, Mank. We need guys like you to keep people like Mayer honest. 1105 01:02:47,750 --> 01:02:50,250 I'd refer you, for that, to the power of prayer. 1106 01:02:50,333 --> 01:02:52,166 The Writers Guild doesn't have to hit the bricks 1107 01:02:52,250 --> 01:02:54,125 for the $2,500-a-week guy. 1108 01:02:54,208 --> 01:02:56,583 We're doing it for the $250-a-week guy. 1109 01:02:56,666 --> 01:03:01,208 Joe, all the $250-a-week writers I know are getting $2,500. 1110 01:03:01,791 --> 01:03:05,416 Stop crying for your just deserts, or they're liable to give them to you. 1111 01:03:05,500 --> 01:03:07,333 Then we'll all be working for 75 bucks a week. 1112 01:03:07,416 --> 01:03:10,250 I don't know if you've ever walked a picket line. You might have to. 1113 01:03:10,333 --> 01:03:11,916 And Dave Chasen will cater. 1114 01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:15,583 "Junior writers only paid $750 a week." 1115 01:03:15,666 --> 01:03:17,875 If that happens, you'd better run 1116 01:03:17,958 --> 01:03:21,541 before real folk with real troubles stone you to death. 1117 01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:26,083 Hermie, the guild's in its infancy. 1118 01:03:26,166 --> 01:03:27,833 -It needs you. -[Mank] You're telling me. 1119 01:03:27,916 --> 01:03:29,666 What writer failed to notice 1120 01:03:29,750 --> 01:03:32,291 the Screen Writers Guild needs an apostrophe? 1121 01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:34,791 As Groucho always said, 1122 01:03:34,875 --> 01:03:36,375 "Never belong to any club 1123 01:03:36,458 --> 01:03:38,833 that would have someone like you for a member." 1124 01:03:38,916 --> 01:03:40,416 [Joe groans, sighs] 1125 01:03:40,500 --> 01:03:41,583 And look at him. 1126 01:03:42,083 --> 01:03:44,833 The most miserable bastard on God's green earth. 1127 01:03:44,916 --> 01:03:48,375 I'd tell him you said that, only he'd think you were brownnosing. 1128 01:03:58,416 --> 01:03:59,833 [grill hissing] 1129 01:04:01,708 --> 01:04:02,708 Close the door. 1130 01:04:02,791 --> 01:04:04,500 [Mank sniffs] 1131 01:04:05,458 --> 01:04:08,041 Ah… summer. 1132 01:04:08,125 --> 01:04:11,541 Inez, you are not to let the Brothers Marx wait in my office. Ever. 1133 01:04:11,625 --> 01:04:13,750 They've been grilling hot dogs again. 1134 01:04:14,916 --> 01:04:15,750 Sit down. 1135 01:04:26,083 --> 01:04:29,250 [Mank exhales] 1136 01:04:32,750 --> 01:04:33,833 You wanted to see me? 1137 01:04:33,916 --> 01:04:36,666 Not that I care, but why aren't you contributing 1138 01:04:36,750 --> 01:04:38,625 to MGM's anti-Sinclair fund? 1139 01:04:38,708 --> 01:04:41,833 Well, call me old-fashioned, Irving, but I don't like being told 1140 01:04:41,916 --> 01:04:43,916 which side of a fight I'm already on. 1141 01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:46,333 How's it gonna look if the GOP chairman himself 1142 01:04:46,416 --> 01:04:48,791 can't get unanimous support from his own studio? 1143 01:04:48,875 --> 01:04:49,833 [Mank chuckles] 1144 01:04:51,375 --> 01:04:52,583 You're serious. 1145 01:04:52,666 --> 01:04:55,083 I was taught by my parents to be straightforward, 1146 01:04:55,583 --> 01:04:59,083 to ask simply for what I want, and expect that I may have to elucidate my position. 1147 01:04:59,166 --> 01:05:01,541 Well, I was encouraged by mine to use my imagination, 1148 01:05:01,625 --> 01:05:03,958 but I taught myself to avoid the consequences. 1149 01:05:04,041 --> 01:05:05,541 It's ten bucks, Mank. 1150 01:05:06,291 --> 01:05:08,416 You piss that away between hopeless bets. 1151 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. 1152 01:05:12,625 --> 01:05:16,083 -I am, and he doesn't? -And we're not gonna tell him. 1153 01:05:19,041 --> 01:05:22,041 -I could let you go for this. -It is a hanging offense. 1154 01:05:22,125 --> 01:05:24,416 I'll add the appropriate amount to your gambling debt 1155 01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:26,625 and forget we ever had this conversation. 1156 01:05:26,708 --> 01:05:27,541 You do that. 1157 01:05:28,416 --> 01:05:30,291 And the brand-spanking-new Writers Guild 1158 01:05:30,375 --> 01:05:33,708 might find it very interesting, not to mention the newspapers. 1159 01:05:33,791 --> 01:05:36,708 I'm not sure the guild intends to cover games of chance. 1160 01:05:36,791 --> 01:05:41,083 And you won't go to the press, because in California, that means Hearst. 1161 01:05:41,166 --> 01:05:44,875 Irving, you are the shrewdest executive in this town. 1162 01:05:44,958 --> 01:05:48,291 Why are you acting like some dumb ward heeler? 1163 01:05:51,333 --> 01:05:54,791 You don't need my donation. You don't need anybody's. 1164 01:05:55,375 --> 01:05:57,416 You have everything it takes right here. 1165 01:05:58,333 --> 01:05:59,333 Meaning? 1166 01:06:00,750 --> 01:06:05,708 [sighs] Meaning you can make the world swear King Kong is ten stories tall 1167 01:06:05,791 --> 01:06:08,125 and Mary Pickford a virgin at 40. 1168 01:06:08,833 --> 01:06:12,666 Yet you can't convince starving voters that a turncoat socialist 1169 01:06:12,750 --> 01:06:15,541 is a menace to everything Californians hold dear? 1170 01:06:16,458 --> 01:06:18,000 You're barely trying. 1171 01:06:18,625 --> 01:06:19,958 [door closes] 1172 01:06:24,875 --> 01:06:26,875 [indistinct chatter] 1173 01:06:32,500 --> 01:06:34,125 [man 1 on speaker] Millions of Californians 1174 01:06:34,208 --> 01:06:36,000 are being taxed out of their homes, 1175 01:06:36,083 --> 01:06:38,458 yet the Depression is one of abundance. 1176 01:06:38,541 --> 01:06:41,750 Fruit rots on the ground and vegetables are dumped into the ocean 1177 01:06:41,833 --> 01:06:43,416 because there are no markets for them. 1178 01:06:43,500 --> 01:06:47,208 [man 2] Aimee Semple McPherson says you're a godless commie, Upton. 1179 01:06:47,291 --> 01:06:48,125 [crowd booing] 1180 01:06:48,208 --> 01:06:52,416 [Sinclair] Too often, sir, the religion of Jesus is used by the ruling classes 1181 01:06:52,500 --> 01:06:55,791 to keep themselves in power and the poor ever poorer. 1182 01:06:55,875 --> 01:06:59,916 And that, my friends, is a sin and an error. 1183 01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:01,625 And I say with Thomas Jefferson, 1184 01:07:01,708 --> 01:07:06,958 "Truth has nothing to fear from error where reason is left free to combat it." 1185 01:07:07,041 --> 01:07:08,875 [crowd applauding] 1186 01:07:08,958 --> 01:07:11,000 [Sinclair] My friends, income in this country 1187 01:07:11,083 --> 01:07:14,583 is going to be redistributed by one of two methods, 1188 01:07:14,666 --> 01:07:18,041 legal enactment or violent revolution. 1189 01:07:18,125 --> 01:07:21,291 We haven't much longer to exercise our choice. 1190 01:07:21,375 --> 01:07:22,791 Thank you all for coming. 1191 01:07:22,875 --> 01:07:24,083 [crowd applauding] 1192 01:07:24,166 --> 01:07:26,083 [man 3] Tell us about Hollywood! 1193 01:07:26,166 --> 01:07:29,375 Are the studios moving to Florida like they've been saying? 1194 01:07:29,458 --> 01:07:30,750 [Sinclair] Absurd, sir. 1195 01:07:30,833 --> 01:07:34,000 If they were serious, why have the brothers Warner broken ground 1196 01:07:34,083 --> 01:07:36,875 on an additional 100,000 square feet of sound stages? 1197 01:07:37,458 --> 01:07:42,041 While MGM has the most contracts with stars in their history. 1198 01:07:42,541 --> 01:07:44,708 Well, he may not get Mayer's vote… 1199 01:07:44,791 --> 01:07:45,958 [Sinclair] Jobs will be here… 1200 01:07:46,041 --> 01:07:47,083 …but he gets mine. 1201 01:07:47,166 --> 01:07:48,458 …in California. 1202 01:07:48,958 --> 01:07:50,416 Thank you all for coming. 1203 01:07:50,500 --> 01:07:52,416 [crowd applauding and cheering] 1204 01:07:56,333 --> 01:07:58,833 [Houseman] Well, I have seen some miracles in my day, 1205 01:07:58,916 --> 01:08:02,208 but I have over 200 pages in 13 days. 1206 01:08:02,291 --> 01:08:03,958 I never would've thought it possible. 1207 01:08:05,083 --> 01:08:08,541 -To support devices. -Support devices. 1208 01:08:13,916 --> 01:08:17,125 [exhales] It's good, Mank. Damn good. 1209 01:08:17,208 --> 01:08:20,208 I have it on highest authority it's the best thing he's ever done. 1210 01:08:20,958 --> 01:08:22,958 [Houseman] As a moving picture, it's more than good. 1211 01:08:23,041 --> 01:08:28,458 I'm at a loss to even express how wealth and influence can crush a man. 1212 01:08:28,541 --> 01:08:31,208 It's Lear. The dark night of the soul. 1213 01:08:31,708 --> 01:08:33,500 And I was completely mistaken. 1214 01:08:33,583 --> 01:08:37,083 The shifting point of view is revolutionary. 1215 01:08:37,166 --> 01:08:40,000 I never thought one could care so much about a sled. 1216 01:08:40,583 --> 01:08:42,250 It's kind of you to say. 1217 01:08:42,333 --> 01:08:43,166 But. 1218 01:08:43,250 --> 01:08:45,625 [laughing] "But," again. 1219 01:08:45,708 --> 01:08:49,625 It's 327 pages. An embarrassment of riches. 1220 01:08:49,708 --> 01:08:53,250 When the Dog-Faced Boy gets here, there will be plenty of branches to prune. 1221 01:08:53,333 --> 01:08:57,750 "A far too long screenplay for the ages." John Houseman. 1222 01:08:57,833 --> 01:08:59,166 [chuckles] 1223 01:08:59,250 --> 01:09:03,500 I built him a watertight narrative and a suggested destination. 1224 01:09:04,166 --> 01:09:06,291 Where he takes it, that's his job. 1225 01:09:13,041 --> 01:09:16,000 I was, uh, looking to get you paid. 1226 01:09:16,791 --> 01:09:19,125 I don't know if you were aware or not. 1227 01:09:21,083 --> 01:09:24,250 You signed your rights to the Mercury. You agreed not to take screen credit. 1228 01:09:24,333 --> 01:09:27,416 -I needed the work. -You may want to reconsider. 1229 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. 1230 01:09:33,541 --> 01:09:34,666 Are you certain? 1231 01:09:36,166 --> 01:09:37,166 It worked out. 1232 01:09:42,750 --> 01:09:46,541 Mank, if I may be so bold, why Hearst? 1233 01:09:47,750 --> 01:09:50,333 Lord knows, outside his own blonde Betty Boop, 1234 01:09:50,416 --> 01:09:52,750 you were always his favorite dinner partner. 1235 01:09:55,083 --> 01:10:01,666 John, are you familiar with the parable of the organ grinder's monkey? 1236 01:10:08,333 --> 01:10:09,250 [typewriter dings] 1237 01:10:09,333 --> 01:10:11,333 [peppy music playing over radio] 1238 01:10:19,666 --> 01:10:22,500 [melancholy music playing] 1239 01:10:27,875 --> 01:10:29,875 [peppy music resumes] 1240 01:10:34,166 --> 01:10:36,166 [indistinct chatter over radio] 1241 01:10:41,166 --> 01:10:43,083 [tuning radio] 1242 01:10:43,166 --> 01:10:44,958 [reporter] Today, our roving reporter 1243 01:10:45,041 --> 01:10:47,208 is visiting Mrs. Elsie Hammontree of Azusa. 1244 01:10:47,291 --> 01:10:51,083 Elsie, would you mind telling the folks at home why you're voting Republican? 1245 01:10:51,166 --> 01:10:53,041 [Elsie] Young man, I'm a widow, 1246 01:10:53,125 --> 01:10:56,916 and this little home may not be much, but it's all I have left. 1247 01:10:57,000 --> 01:10:59,875 -And I intend to protect it. -Poor old woman. 1248 01:10:59,958 --> 01:11:03,250 [reporter] Would you mind telling folks why you're voting for Frank Merriam? 1249 01:11:03,333 --> 01:11:07,416 [Elsie] Well, I'm voting for Frank Merriam because I wanna keep our way of life… 1250 01:11:07,500 --> 01:11:08,791 I know that voice. 1251 01:11:10,041 --> 01:11:11,083 It is familiar. 1252 01:11:11,583 --> 01:11:13,333 That's Maude Anderson. 1253 01:11:13,416 --> 01:11:16,833 -[Elsie] I don't know much… -It is. Aunt Bertha from Lonely Trails. 1254 01:11:16,916 --> 01:11:20,958 Well, she's no widow. And she's absurdly rich. 1255 01:11:21,458 --> 01:11:25,250 That "poor old woman" has got enough oil wells south of El Segundo 1256 01:11:25,333 --> 01:11:26,750 to buy us both, Schnutz. 1257 01:11:26,833 --> 01:11:29,083 -[radio tuning] -[upbeat jazz music playing] 1258 01:11:29,166 --> 01:11:33,416 I'd know that whiskey gargle anywhere. [chuckles] 1259 01:11:47,125 --> 01:11:49,375 Hey, Mank. 1260 01:11:49,458 --> 01:11:50,875 [Mank] Well, well. 1261 01:11:50,958 --> 01:11:53,250 Looks like you found work, C.C. 1262 01:11:53,750 --> 01:11:57,000 Don't nose it around, but yeah, just in the nick. 1263 01:11:58,666 --> 01:12:00,458 -Who's hiring? -MGM. 1264 01:12:01,166 --> 01:12:04,958 They cleaned out the Washington and Culver gates like a dose of Ex-Lax. 1265 01:12:05,041 --> 01:12:07,083 Grady gets a speaking part. 1266 01:12:07,166 --> 01:12:09,375 They told us to come dressed as we are. 1267 01:12:09,458 --> 01:12:13,375 I don't know who thought of it, but it keeps a lot of us off the streets. 1268 01:12:15,208 --> 01:12:16,916 Don't forget to vote. 1269 01:12:18,041 --> 01:12:20,166 [laughs] Okay. 1270 01:12:20,250 --> 01:12:22,208 [Kaufman] He's confused with Sinclair Lewis. 1271 01:12:22,291 --> 01:12:26,166 So many hicks think he wrote Elmer Gantry, it's cost him the Dust Bowl vote. 1272 01:12:26,250 --> 01:12:27,375 I'm in. 1273 01:12:27,458 --> 01:12:29,958 Poor sap. Not only has he got no money, 1274 01:12:30,041 --> 01:12:32,333 he's an idealist, for Christ's sakes. 1275 01:12:32,416 --> 01:12:34,958 Talk about political handicaps. I'm out. 1276 01:12:35,041 --> 01:12:37,083 [Perelman] Times says he'll lose by 200,000. 1277 01:12:37,166 --> 01:12:39,458 It's amazing what $10 million against him bought. 1278 01:12:39,541 --> 01:12:40,375 Raise. 1279 01:12:40,458 --> 01:12:43,000 That's what he gets for surrounding himself with amateurs. 1280 01:12:43,083 --> 01:12:44,708 They not only charge admission to rallies, 1281 01:12:44,791 --> 01:12:47,625 they pass a plate once the suckers are inside. 1282 01:12:47,708 --> 01:12:48,666 Call. 1283 01:12:48,750 --> 01:12:51,791 He's the most famous schlub after FDR, Hitler, and Mussolini. 1284 01:12:51,875 --> 01:12:53,416 That oughta count for something. 1285 01:12:53,500 --> 01:12:55,583 -Hiya, Shell, sit in. -[Hecht] The bookies know. 1286 01:12:55,666 --> 01:12:57,708 Soon as old Maude's radio spots started running, 1287 01:12:57,791 --> 01:13:01,291 the odds went from 7-5 for to 2-1 against. 1288 01:13:01,375 --> 01:13:04,875 Could you effete political snobs please shut up and play? 1289 01:13:04,958 --> 01:13:06,083 Mank, can I talk to you? 1290 01:13:06,166 --> 01:13:09,958 I'll see you guys and bump you two big ones. 1291 01:13:10,041 --> 01:13:11,125 It's important. 1292 01:13:11,208 --> 01:13:13,333 What, now, Shelly? 1293 01:13:14,125 --> 01:13:16,666 [sighs] It better be. 1294 01:13:17,666 --> 01:13:20,291 That's the first good hand I've had all day. 1295 01:13:22,333 --> 01:13:24,875 I didn't know he knew what a good hand looked like. 1296 01:13:24,958 --> 01:13:26,041 [Mank] I'm out. 1297 01:13:26,541 --> 01:13:29,083 [reporter on film] Mind telling who you favor in this election? 1298 01:13:29,166 --> 01:13:31,458 [man 1] I'm going to vote for Frank Merriam. 1299 01:13:31,541 --> 01:13:33,375 [reporter] Tell us your principal reason. 1300 01:13:33,458 --> 01:13:36,458 Well, I want Merriam because I want a job. 1301 01:13:36,541 --> 01:13:39,583 If you drive all the capital out of the country, who's gonna pay us? 1302 01:13:39,666 --> 01:13:42,333 [reporter] You think Merriam would be safest for all of us? 1303 01:13:42,416 --> 01:13:43,458 [man 1] Absolutely. 1304 01:13:44,041 --> 01:13:46,833 It's no time to trade horses in the middle of a stream. 1305 01:13:46,916 --> 01:13:49,166 [reporter] Mr. Butler, are you voting in the election? 1306 01:13:49,250 --> 01:13:51,500 -[Butler] I am. -[reporter] Who would you vote for? 1307 01:13:51,583 --> 01:13:53,583 I'm sure that I'm gonna vote for Mr. Sinclair. 1308 01:13:53,666 --> 01:13:55,708 [reporter] You must have a good reason. 1309 01:13:55,791 --> 01:13:58,916 Mr. Sinclair's got something new. He got that EPIC Plan. 1310 01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:02,375 I feel as though it's time we should try something new out again. 1311 01:14:02,458 --> 01:14:04,416 I need prosperity. 1312 01:14:04,500 --> 01:14:06,791 [man 2] Well, first of all, I'm an American, 1313 01:14:06,875 --> 01:14:08,750 and I believe that Mr. Merriam 1314 01:14:08,833 --> 01:14:13,583 will support all the foundations and principles 1315 01:14:13,666 --> 01:14:16,916 that this country has stood for in the past 150 years. 1316 01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:18,875 I have a job now, and I wanna keep it. 1317 01:14:18,958 --> 01:14:21,916 My wife and I love California, and we'd like to stay. 1318 01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:24,666 But in case we should have to leave, 1319 01:14:24,750 --> 01:14:27,250 I'd like to have at least a couple dollars. 1320 01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:28,916 [director] Cut. 1321 01:14:29,000 --> 01:14:31,708 [indistinct chatter] 1322 01:14:34,750 --> 01:14:38,291 [reporter] Mrs. Hammontree, tell the folks why you're voting for Frank Merriam. 1323 01:14:38,375 --> 01:14:41,375 Well, I'm voting for Frank Merriam because I wanna keep our way of life. 1324 01:14:41,458 --> 01:14:44,083 [reporter] A Democrat wouldn't protect your way of life? 1325 01:14:44,166 --> 01:14:46,416 [scoffs] Why, that man's a socialist. 1326 01:14:46,500 --> 01:14:50,750 I don't know much about politics, but I do know this. 1327 01:14:50,833 --> 01:14:52,916 If Upton Sinclair wins this election, 1328 01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:56,083 private ownership in California won't amount to a hill o' beans. 1329 01:14:56,666 --> 01:15:00,416 [in faux Russian accent] Well, we need complete rejuvenation of our system, 1330 01:15:00,500 --> 01:15:02,500 so I vote for Comrade Upton. 1331 01:15:02,583 --> 01:15:05,666 His system work in Russia, why not here? 1332 01:15:05,750 --> 01:15:07,250 [director] Cut. Do it again. 1333 01:15:08,375 --> 01:15:09,958 -[sighs] -What'd you think? 1334 01:15:10,916 --> 01:15:13,916 Truthfully, Shelly, if the performances were any better, 1335 01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:15,500 you'd be ashamed of yourself. 1336 01:15:15,583 --> 01:15:17,666 -Only half of 'em were actors. -[sighs] 1337 01:15:17,750 --> 01:15:21,416 It's got that raw newsreel feel, hasn't it? 1338 01:15:21,916 --> 01:15:26,500 -But it isn't news and it isn't real. -I wasn't looking for an ethical debate. 1339 01:15:26,583 --> 01:15:29,541 -When did they cook this up? -At a meeting in production. 1340 01:15:29,625 --> 01:15:33,375 They were passing around a pamphlet Sinclair wrote called "Ending Poverty in…" 1341 01:15:33,458 --> 01:15:36,166 "America's unemployed will invade the Golden State." 1342 01:15:36,250 --> 01:15:39,583 -Mayer was giddy to use it against him. -Yeah, I bet he was. 1343 01:15:40,958 --> 01:15:44,375 [sighs] It's enough to persuade me that a writer is more of a menace 1344 01:15:44,458 --> 01:15:46,875 to an unsuspecting public than a party hack. 1345 01:15:46,958 --> 01:15:49,916 -Manky-- [spills drink, inhales sharply] -You okay? 1346 01:15:51,125 --> 01:15:52,250 Just nerves. 1347 01:15:53,791 --> 01:15:56,916 If it's bothering you, Shelly, why get involved? 1348 01:15:58,125 --> 01:15:59,708 They gave me a chance to direct. 1349 01:16:03,791 --> 01:16:07,166 You don't think anyone old enough to vote is gonna buy this shit? 1350 01:16:07,250 --> 01:16:10,458 Only the ones who believe King Kong is ten stories tall 1351 01:16:10,541 --> 01:16:13,083 or Mary Pickford a virgin at 40. 1352 01:16:14,541 --> 01:16:15,791 [door opens] 1353 01:16:25,458 --> 01:16:27,125 Thanks, Cedric. These are fine. 1354 01:16:32,458 --> 01:16:35,375 I've just watched our Sinclair films. 1355 01:16:35,458 --> 01:16:38,041 Ah. What did you think? 1356 01:16:38,125 --> 01:16:41,625 With all due respect to Shelly, King Kong they ain't. 1357 01:16:43,291 --> 01:16:45,000 Though I do think footage 1358 01:16:45,083 --> 01:16:48,666 of invading hobos has a certain xenophobic power 1359 01:16:48,750 --> 01:16:52,875 when front-paged in the Times and backed by those tacky billboards. 1360 01:16:52,958 --> 01:16:57,000 Shelly got a chance to direct, and I canceled your $12,000 gambling debt. 1361 01:16:57,083 --> 01:16:59,625 I'd call that a fair return on a one-minute lecture 1362 01:16:59,708 --> 01:17:01,333 for uninspired studio chieftains. 1363 01:17:02,750 --> 01:17:05,250 Your director's been stricken with a bout of conscience. 1364 01:17:05,333 --> 01:17:07,291 I'm sure he'll tell me himself. 1365 01:17:09,666 --> 01:17:12,333 Don't do this, Irving. 1366 01:17:14,083 --> 01:17:17,333 When I was just a boy passing out socialist leaflets in the Bronx, 1367 01:17:17,416 --> 01:17:20,791 a couple Tammany goons came to show me the error of my ways. 1368 01:17:20,875 --> 01:17:22,750 And one of them crushed my testicles 1369 01:17:22,833 --> 01:17:26,333 until I volunteered to distribute my wares into the East River. 1370 01:17:26,416 --> 01:17:30,458 That's politics. I didn't invent it, I don't apologize for it. 1371 01:17:35,083 --> 01:17:36,958 Mayer's not paying for this. 1372 01:17:37,958 --> 01:17:39,625 He never pays for anything. 1373 01:17:43,166 --> 01:17:44,250 Willie? 1374 01:17:46,625 --> 01:17:50,750 -Marion might be interested. -Well, you're gonna have to hurry. 1375 01:17:50,833 --> 01:17:53,583 Mayer's over there now giving her the company kiss-off. 1376 01:17:54,666 --> 01:17:55,875 Oh, haven't you heard? 1377 01:17:57,541 --> 01:18:01,208 She's taking her playpen to Warner Bros. Permanently. 1378 01:18:02,250 --> 01:18:03,208 Warner's? 1379 01:18:03,708 --> 01:18:05,541 I wouldn't let her do Marie Antoinette. 1380 01:18:06,041 --> 01:18:07,500 Goldwyn's right for once. 1381 01:18:07,583 --> 01:18:10,041 [mimics Goldwyn] "A comedienne in that role is to laugh." 1382 01:18:10,916 --> 01:18:13,916 Besides, her pictures haven't made a dime in a decade. 1383 01:18:14,625 --> 01:18:16,375 Congratulations, Irving. 1384 01:18:17,750 --> 01:18:18,750 I know what I am, Mank. 1385 01:18:19,916 --> 01:18:22,166 When I come to work, I don't consider it slumming. 1386 01:18:22,250 --> 01:18:24,666 I don't use humor to keep myself above the fray. 1387 01:18:24,750 --> 01:18:29,791 And I go to the mat for what I believe in. I haven't the time to do otherwise. 1388 01:18:31,041 --> 01:18:32,083 But you, sir, 1389 01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:37,000 how formidable people like you might be if they actually gave at the office. 1390 01:18:38,416 --> 01:18:39,583 Close the door. 1391 01:18:41,083 --> 01:18:43,541 -[indistinct chatter] -[camera flashbulbs crackling] 1392 01:18:50,250 --> 01:18:52,458 [Mank panting] 1393 01:18:57,625 --> 01:18:59,875 [photographer] Oh, that's a beautiful shot right there. 1394 01:19:01,958 --> 01:19:03,000 [sighs] 1395 01:19:24,958 --> 01:19:27,375 Mank! Are you okay? 1396 01:19:27,958 --> 01:19:30,791 No, that almost killed me. Where's Willie? 1397 01:19:31,416 --> 01:19:32,541 Cairo, I think. 1398 01:19:32,625 --> 01:19:35,791 -Can you phone him? -I don't phone him, he phones me. 1399 01:19:35,875 --> 01:19:36,958 When's he due back? 1400 01:19:37,041 --> 01:19:39,916 After November 6th. I'm joining him in Europe next week. 1401 01:19:42,125 --> 01:19:45,333 Marion, I need a favor. It's just a little joke on Willie. 1402 01:19:45,416 --> 01:19:46,666 Sure, Mank, anything. 1403 01:19:46,750 --> 01:19:49,750 I want you to go back and tell Mayer 1404 01:19:49,833 --> 01:19:53,458 Willie wants the phony Sinclair films pulled. 1405 01:19:55,625 --> 01:19:57,458 Which phony Sinclair films? 1406 01:19:57,541 --> 01:20:00,791 There isn't time to explain. I just need you to tell him that. 1407 01:20:00,875 --> 01:20:03,250 Oh, I couldn't, not even as a joke. 1408 01:20:03,333 --> 01:20:06,166 -[Mank] Why not? -You know I don't lie. 1409 01:20:06,916 --> 01:20:09,458 And that's why he'd believe you. [chuckles] 1410 01:20:09,541 --> 01:20:12,625 Marion, please, you're not in convent school anymore. 1411 01:20:16,083 --> 01:20:20,166 -I'm sorry. I… I know it's silly, but-- -But what? Why not? 1412 01:20:20,250 --> 01:20:24,500 -Promise you won't laugh. -I promise I won't laugh. 1413 01:20:25,166 --> 01:20:27,416 -My exit. -What? 1414 01:20:28,833 --> 01:20:30,875 I already made my exit. 1415 01:20:34,666 --> 01:20:35,666 [sighs] 1416 01:20:47,291 --> 01:20:50,291 [laughing uproariously] 1417 01:21:01,166 --> 01:21:03,291 -[Rita] Manky! -Whatie? 1418 01:21:03,375 --> 01:21:07,833 -It's an ash-throated flycatcher! -Congratulations! Best kind. 1419 01:21:08,916 --> 01:21:09,916 What can I say? 1420 01:21:10,708 --> 01:21:11,708 She's my aunt. 1421 01:21:11,791 --> 01:21:15,750 -Oh, it's not about her, it's about him. -Oh? 1422 01:21:15,833 --> 01:21:19,791 -Or rather, it's him, but it's not her. -It isn't? 1423 01:21:19,875 --> 01:21:23,000 The lonely showgirl, trapped in a castle, doing jigsaw puzzles. 1424 01:21:23,083 --> 01:21:27,166 It's more, her as people who don't know her imagine her to be. 1425 01:21:27,250 --> 01:21:28,375 I see. 1426 01:21:29,625 --> 01:21:32,625 It's her as they imagine her, but it's him as you knew him. 1427 01:21:32,708 --> 01:21:35,125 -Damn it, Charlie. -You asked me out here. 1428 01:21:35,208 --> 01:21:37,375 I was honored to come and read your latest. 1429 01:21:37,958 --> 01:21:41,041 -Is this a test? -A test? Of what? 1430 01:21:41,833 --> 01:21:44,708 -Friendship? Loyalty? -Oh, come now. 1431 01:21:44,791 --> 01:21:46,958 Or just your way of avoiding responsibility? 1432 01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:49,000 What do you mean? 1433 01:21:49,083 --> 01:21:52,500 Are you hoping I might absolve you of such a personal betrayal? 1434 01:21:54,333 --> 01:21:55,500 I won't give you that. 1435 01:21:59,083 --> 01:22:01,000 Are you going to say anything? 1436 01:22:03,000 --> 01:22:04,500 [sighs] 1437 01:22:06,041 --> 01:22:09,500 -I have to think about it. -Why? 1438 01:22:09,583 --> 01:22:12,208 'Cause I haven't made up my mind how she might react. 1439 01:22:12,291 --> 01:22:14,041 What does instinct tell you? 1440 01:22:14,125 --> 01:22:15,666 [Lederer] It's mighty strong medicine 1441 01:22:15,750 --> 01:22:18,250 for a lifetime of starry-eyed self-absorption. 1442 01:22:18,333 --> 01:22:21,458 It's one of those cures that could be worse than the disease. 1443 01:22:21,541 --> 01:22:23,875 But you, of all people, should know about that. 1444 01:22:27,541 --> 01:22:29,750 [car driving away] 1445 01:22:31,333 --> 01:22:32,750 He took the script? 1446 01:22:33,333 --> 01:22:34,541 Uh-huh. 1447 01:22:35,583 --> 01:22:36,583 Will he show it to her? 1448 01:22:39,916 --> 01:22:40,958 [Mank] I don't know. 1449 01:22:42,291 --> 01:22:43,583 [Rita] Do you want him to? 1450 01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:47,000 I don't know. 1451 01:22:57,291 --> 01:22:59,208 [fast jazz drumbeat playing] 1452 01:22:59,291 --> 01:23:01,208 [electricity crackling] 1453 01:23:01,291 --> 01:23:03,291 [indistinct chatter] 1454 01:23:05,708 --> 01:23:06,791 [typewriter dings] 1455 01:23:20,625 --> 01:23:23,958 -[upbeat jazz music playing] -Sinclair is yesterday's fishwrap. 1456 01:23:24,916 --> 01:23:26,458 Never stood a chance. 1457 01:23:27,625 --> 01:23:28,625 Make up your mind. 1458 01:23:28,708 --> 01:23:31,666 Are we home licking our wounds or here making the best of it? 1459 01:23:32,666 --> 01:23:34,416 We're making the best of it. 1460 01:23:37,166 --> 01:23:39,583 -Good evening. Name? -Mankiewicz. 1461 01:23:39,666 --> 01:23:40,750 Sorry, what was that? 1462 01:23:40,833 --> 01:23:44,125 M-A-N-K-I-E-W-I-C, and outta nowhere, a Z. 1463 01:23:44,208 --> 01:23:47,291 -Table 14. -Ends of the earth. Clean exit. 1464 01:23:47,375 --> 01:23:49,166 Mankiewicz, Herman. 1465 01:23:50,333 --> 01:23:53,708 Oh, terribly sorry. Table one. Right this way. 1466 01:23:55,875 --> 01:23:58,916 If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. 1467 01:24:00,041 --> 01:24:01,375 [camera flashbulbs crackling] 1468 01:24:11,291 --> 01:24:12,833 -Table one. -[woman] Sara! 1469 01:24:12,916 --> 01:24:15,583 Good grief. Look who's here. How about that? 1470 01:24:15,666 --> 01:24:18,500 -Sara. -[Mayer] What a loyal friend you are. 1471 01:24:18,583 --> 01:24:21,416 -I never thought we would see Mank. -I'm surprised. 1472 01:24:21,500 --> 01:24:23,500 I would've imagined you in pajamas by now. 1473 01:24:23,583 --> 01:24:26,375 Mank, turns out we have the same dentist on Camden. 1474 01:24:26,458 --> 01:24:29,458 Sara, we have to plan a day of shopping and catch up. 1475 01:24:29,541 --> 01:24:32,250 Herman, I met your brother. He's a chip off the old block. 1476 01:24:32,333 --> 01:24:33,416 Quite handsome. 1477 01:24:37,333 --> 01:24:38,625 Please, sit. 1478 01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:44,041 I can't tell you how much it means. I'm touched you'd come. 1479 01:24:44,125 --> 01:24:46,291 -[voice breaking] Thank you. -[woman] Oh. 1480 01:24:48,458 --> 01:24:49,666 Why do I love you? 1481 01:24:56,833 --> 01:24:58,541 What's everyone else having? 1482 01:24:58,625 --> 01:25:00,791 -[all laughing] -[sound fades out] 1483 01:25:00,875 --> 01:25:05,291 [upbeat jazz music continues playing] 1484 01:25:12,166 --> 01:25:14,583 [speaking indistinctly] 1485 01:25:25,291 --> 01:25:27,208 [radio announcer echoing] 1486 01:25:38,833 --> 01:25:42,458 -[Mayer] What a great night. Great result. -I'll drink to that. 1487 01:25:42,541 --> 01:25:45,958 You see, if you just give people what they need to know 1488 01:25:46,041 --> 01:25:49,958 in an emotional way, you can expect they'll do the right thing. 1489 01:25:50,041 --> 01:25:51,666 I think what you mean, 1490 01:25:51,750 --> 01:25:54,125 "If you keep telling people something untrue, 1491 01:25:54,208 --> 01:25:56,750 loud and long enough, they're apt to believe it." 1492 01:25:56,833 --> 01:25:58,083 That's not what he was saying. 1493 01:25:58,166 --> 01:26:01,000 What's going on here? Are we quoting Goebbels? 1494 01:26:01,083 --> 01:26:03,833 -I'd like to debate that with L.B. -I'd like to see that. 1495 01:26:03,916 --> 01:26:05,583 Mank. Have another. 1496 01:26:05,666 --> 01:26:08,250 [Mank] It's early. Every vote counts. 1497 01:26:08,333 --> 01:26:11,250 Maybe the informed of California were late leaving work. 1498 01:26:11,750 --> 01:26:14,125 The last I heard, Irving, it's still a democracy. 1499 01:26:14,208 --> 01:26:16,291 -Of the people. -By the people. 1500 01:26:16,375 --> 01:26:18,166 What are you two talking about? 1501 01:26:18,250 --> 01:26:20,875 [Mank] I tell you what, how about… 1502 01:26:22,166 --> 01:26:23,166 double or nothin'? 1503 01:26:23,250 --> 01:26:25,041 -[Mayer] What's he saying? -Herman. 1504 01:26:26,458 --> 01:26:28,375 You really will bet on anything. 1505 01:26:29,500 --> 01:26:31,750 Keep your money. I'm happy enough 1506 01:26:31,833 --> 01:26:34,625 just to nail that utopian son of a bitch to the wall. 1507 01:26:34,708 --> 01:26:37,458 I told you. Your obligation was canceled out of gratitude. 1508 01:26:38,250 --> 01:26:39,458 Wait a minute. What? 1509 01:26:40,416 --> 01:26:44,208 He wants to wager double or nothin' on a debt he doesn't even owe us? 1510 01:26:44,291 --> 01:26:45,291 Mank. 1511 01:26:45,375 --> 01:26:48,250 It's a matter of principle, L.B. You wouldn't understand. 1512 01:26:49,875 --> 01:26:54,125 I understand plenty. I'll take that bet. 1513 01:26:55,500 --> 01:26:58,125 Okay, Mank, you're on. Twenty-four grand or nothing. 1514 01:27:02,875 --> 01:27:04,083 Excuse me. 1515 01:27:05,333 --> 01:27:06,875 I'm going to throw up. 1516 01:27:16,541 --> 01:27:20,166 [distorted radio announcer delivering election results] 1517 01:27:20,250 --> 01:27:21,291 [man laughing] 1518 01:27:23,166 --> 01:27:27,791 -[unsettling music playing] -[distorted election report continues] 1519 01:27:55,791 --> 01:27:57,791 [romantic music playing] 1520 01:28:18,666 --> 01:28:19,833 I needed some air. 1521 01:28:36,458 --> 01:28:38,208 Why do you love me? 1522 01:28:52,041 --> 01:28:54,000 Excuse me, friends. 1523 01:28:54,750 --> 01:28:55,791 [clears throat] 1524 01:28:55,875 --> 01:29:00,166 The final, incomplete, count for tonight is… 1525 01:29:01,958 --> 01:29:05,333 -Upton Sinclair, the lousy Bolshevik… -[man booing] 1526 01:29:06,500 --> 01:29:09,625 …728,653. 1527 01:29:10,666 --> 01:29:11,791 Frank Merriam… 1528 01:29:11,875 --> 01:29:13,083 [guests cheering] 1529 01:29:13,166 --> 01:29:15,541 …the good Republican, 1530 01:29:15,625 --> 01:29:18,625 -948,814. -[all cheering loudly] 1531 01:29:18,708 --> 01:29:21,875 My friends! My friends! 1532 01:29:21,958 --> 01:29:25,583 Everybody get up and sing with me! 1533 01:29:25,666 --> 01:29:28,166 Sing with me! Everybody, up and sing! 1534 01:29:29,000 --> 01:29:32,916 ♪ O beautiful for spacious skies ♪ 1535 01:29:33,000 --> 01:29:34,791 It was a team effort. Thanks. 1536 01:29:34,875 --> 01:29:39,375 ♪ For amber waves of grain ♪ 1537 01:29:40,000 --> 01:29:45,041 ♪ For purple mountain majesties… ♪ 1538 01:29:46,125 --> 01:29:48,833 Uh, Mr. Mankiewicz, I'm so sorry to bother you, 1539 01:29:48,916 --> 01:29:51,875 but there's a telephone call for you. Right back this way. 1540 01:29:52,791 --> 01:29:55,208 ♪ America… ♪ 1541 01:29:57,083 --> 01:29:59,375 -Hello. -Mank, it's Shelly. 1542 01:29:59,458 --> 01:30:00,541 It's Shelly. 1543 01:30:00,625 --> 01:30:03,750 -[slurring] He lost, Mank. -[Mank] Yeah, it's been a bad night. 1544 01:30:05,375 --> 01:30:06,250 It's my fault. 1545 01:30:06,333 --> 01:30:10,833 -Oh, easy, fella, you only voted once. -He was just on the radio. 1546 01:30:10,916 --> 01:30:15,416 He said the phony newsreels cost him the election. 1547 01:30:15,500 --> 01:30:17,208 That shows how naive he is. 1548 01:30:17,291 --> 01:30:20,208 FDR cost him the election by staying on the sidelines. 1549 01:30:20,291 --> 01:30:22,916 -Sleep it off. -I'm not at home. 1550 01:30:23,000 --> 01:30:24,916 Where are you? Let me call you a cab. 1551 01:30:25,500 --> 01:30:28,041 Never mind. I'll take the Pasadena Freeway. 1552 01:30:28,125 --> 01:30:30,541 Nobody'd be on it election night. 1553 01:30:31,333 --> 01:30:32,583 Hello? 1554 01:30:32,666 --> 01:30:33,583 Hello? 1555 01:30:36,541 --> 01:30:40,041 -[operator] How may I direct your call? -Normandie, 4761. 1556 01:30:40,750 --> 01:30:42,166 He's shit-faced. 1557 01:30:42,250 --> 01:30:44,416 -[phone rings] -Shell, is that you? 1558 01:30:44,500 --> 01:30:47,166 -It's Herman Mankiewicz. Where is he? -[sighs] 1559 01:30:47,250 --> 01:30:49,458 [wife] I don't know. I'm so worried. 1560 01:30:49,541 --> 01:30:53,458 He left here very upset, and he's got a pistol with him. 1561 01:30:53,541 --> 01:30:56,000 Don't worry, Fay. I'll find him. 1562 01:30:56,083 --> 01:30:57,833 -Eve. -What? 1563 01:30:58,500 --> 01:31:01,708 -I'm Eve. Fay was his first. -I'll find him. 1564 01:31:01,791 --> 01:31:03,083 -[sighs] -[hangs up] 1565 01:31:05,833 --> 01:31:10,250 Is Houseman coming back? I never thought I'd miss him. 1566 01:31:11,291 --> 01:31:13,958 He and the wunderkind are cutting the first draft. 1567 01:31:14,041 --> 01:31:16,916 A form of creative vivisection. 1568 01:31:17,000 --> 01:31:20,041 Vital organs are exposed, nothing is learned, 1569 01:31:20,125 --> 01:31:22,000 the patient dies on the table. 1570 01:31:22,083 --> 01:31:24,500 -[car approaching] -[dog barking] 1571 01:31:27,291 --> 01:31:29,250 What have we here? 1572 01:31:31,583 --> 01:31:36,791 Why, it's a puffed-up, sharp-tailed, red-ruffled magpie. 1573 01:31:36,875 --> 01:31:38,125 A whatie? 1574 01:31:58,666 --> 01:32:03,375 -How do you like the Mojave? -God's answer for drunks and reprobates. 1575 01:32:03,458 --> 01:32:05,416 Perfect place to dry out. 1576 01:32:05,500 --> 01:32:08,875 -How's that working? -It didn't take. Cheers. 1577 01:32:09,458 --> 01:32:10,583 L'chaim. 1578 01:32:17,291 --> 01:32:18,458 Why are you doing this, Herm? 1579 01:32:19,083 --> 01:32:21,583 -Posterity. -Posterity, my ass. 1580 01:32:21,666 --> 01:32:23,958 -From the original Latin. -Don't patronize me. 1581 01:32:24,041 --> 01:32:25,708 My Latin grades were better than yours. 1582 01:32:25,791 --> 01:32:27,625 Bibamus, moriendum est. 1583 01:32:32,625 --> 01:32:34,708 I read your little script. 1584 01:32:36,375 --> 01:32:37,708 News travels fast. 1585 01:32:37,791 --> 01:32:39,250 Even without the title page, 1586 01:32:39,333 --> 01:32:41,625 you don't need to be Philip Marlowe to know who wrote it. 1587 01:32:41,708 --> 01:32:44,125 [grunts] Have at it. 1588 01:32:44,791 --> 01:32:46,125 It's very… 1589 01:32:48,208 --> 01:32:49,041 complicated. 1590 01:32:49,125 --> 01:32:50,833 Well, thanks for coming out. 1591 01:32:51,833 --> 01:32:53,708 Herman, this is me. 1592 01:32:54,333 --> 01:32:57,458 You pick a fight with Willie, you are finished. 1593 01:32:57,541 --> 01:32:59,458 Mayer can't save you. Nobody can. 1594 01:32:59,541 --> 01:33:01,833 Especially the boy genius from New York. 1595 01:33:01,916 --> 01:33:05,875 -You're far too political, Joe. -Self-preservation is not politics. 1596 01:33:06,458 --> 01:33:07,791 Him, I get. 1597 01:33:08,541 --> 01:33:10,500 But what did Marion ever do to deserve this? 1598 01:33:10,583 --> 01:33:12,291 It's not her! 1599 01:33:13,958 --> 01:33:17,500 You know better than anyone, not all characters are headliners. 1600 01:33:17,583 --> 01:33:18,875 Some are secondary. 1601 01:33:18,958 --> 01:33:22,875 Well, that's why I'm here. On behalf of the secondary characters. 1602 01:33:25,083 --> 01:33:27,333 I thought you'd wanna know there's a rumor in town 1603 01:33:27,416 --> 01:33:28,500 you're out to get Hearst 1604 01:33:28,583 --> 01:33:30,791 because they dropped you from L.B.'s payroll, 1605 01:33:30,875 --> 01:33:32,541 that they didn't want you around anymore. 1606 01:33:32,625 --> 01:33:34,875 Don't believe everything you hear at Schwab's. 1607 01:33:34,958 --> 01:33:37,916 Hey, you made yourself court jester. 1608 01:33:40,375 --> 01:33:42,083 Someone had to say it. 1609 01:33:51,208 --> 01:33:55,791 People are speculating Rosebud is W.R.'s pet name for Marion's genitalia. 1610 01:33:55,875 --> 01:33:57,833 Now, I know you'd never stoop to that. 1611 01:33:57,916 --> 01:33:59,750 Only because I hadn't heard. 1612 01:33:59,833 --> 01:34:04,208 [both laughing] 1613 01:34:07,666 --> 01:34:08,666 [sighs] 1614 01:34:15,166 --> 01:34:18,208 [Mank] Charlie tells me you're up for Thalberg's old job. 1615 01:34:18,291 --> 01:34:20,875 -[Joe] Not anymore. -Did I bollix that? 1616 01:34:20,958 --> 01:34:24,250 Don't flatter yourself, Herman. I did it all alone. 1617 01:34:24,333 --> 01:34:25,416 Now, there's a first. 1618 01:34:25,500 --> 01:34:29,208 I exposed myself, not entirely metaphorically, in court. 1619 01:34:29,291 --> 01:34:30,166 Do tell. 1620 01:34:30,791 --> 01:34:34,458 Somebody was bitching about Mervyn LeRoy running over budget on Wizard of Oz. 1621 01:34:34,541 --> 01:34:37,333 -Goddamn movie again. -I said, "Le Roy s'amuse." 1622 01:34:37,416 --> 01:34:39,416 I was then forced to spend the next 20 minutes 1623 01:34:39,500 --> 01:34:41,125 having to explain that "Le Roy" 1624 01:34:41,208 --> 01:34:43,958 is "le roi" in French and means "the king." 1625 01:34:44,041 --> 01:34:45,958 Or to be specific, François I, 1626 01:34:46,041 --> 01:34:48,083 and his royal habit of s'amus-ing himself 1627 01:34:48,166 --> 01:34:50,583 by diddling all the ladies of his court. 1628 01:34:50,666 --> 01:34:53,958 -[both laughing] -[Mank coughing] 1629 01:34:55,416 --> 01:34:58,916 You know, Pop was right. You should've been a professor. 1630 01:34:59,583 --> 01:35:02,250 Nobody knew what the fuck I was talking about. 1631 01:35:02,750 --> 01:35:06,125 They say I was passed over because I'm not a team player. 1632 01:35:06,791 --> 01:35:07,750 But I know better. 1633 01:35:08,250 --> 01:35:10,625 It was the goddamn French pun that did me in. 1634 01:35:10,708 --> 01:35:12,250 [laughs] 1635 01:35:17,708 --> 01:35:19,208 I'm washed up, Joe. 1636 01:35:21,500 --> 01:35:23,916 [exhales] Have been for years. 1637 01:35:29,625 --> 01:35:31,708 It's the best thing you've ever written. 1638 01:35:40,125 --> 01:35:42,125 [car driving away] 1639 01:35:48,958 --> 01:35:50,458 A rare bird, that. 1640 01:35:52,833 --> 01:35:54,000 A Mankiewicz. 1641 01:36:08,166 --> 01:36:09,500 [typewriter dings] 1642 01:36:09,583 --> 01:36:10,958 [crickets chirping] 1643 01:36:17,750 --> 01:36:20,958 -You can't do it that way. -Do what? 1644 01:36:21,041 --> 01:36:24,500 Kill yourself. I've tried. It takes years. 1645 01:36:25,000 --> 01:36:28,333 I was tired of doing inserts and pick-up shots. 1646 01:36:28,416 --> 01:36:31,125 You're not the first person to trade integrity 1647 01:36:31,208 --> 01:36:33,041 for a chance in the big chair. 1648 01:36:34,125 --> 01:36:36,875 Thalberg said this was your idea. 1649 01:36:36,958 --> 01:36:40,208 Sometimes my asides are too clever by half. 1650 01:36:43,750 --> 01:36:45,708 Go home to Fay. 1651 01:36:45,791 --> 01:36:47,958 -Eve. -Eve. Sorry. 1652 01:36:50,458 --> 01:36:54,250 Look at what we did. We can't un-ring this bell. 1653 01:36:54,333 --> 01:36:56,208 We have to be vigilant. 1654 01:36:56,291 --> 01:36:57,791 In regards to? 1655 01:36:57,875 --> 01:36:59,750 People sitting in the dark, 1656 01:36:59,833 --> 01:37:02,583 willingly checking their disbelief at the door. 1657 01:37:03,083 --> 01:37:05,583 We have a huge responsibility. 1658 01:37:07,250 --> 01:37:08,125 I got it. 1659 01:37:09,291 --> 01:37:10,250 Got what? 1660 01:37:11,750 --> 01:37:13,083 Parkinson's. 1661 01:37:17,000 --> 01:37:21,000 [sighs] No, Shelly. 1662 01:37:23,333 --> 01:37:24,541 [Mank sighs] 1663 01:37:27,250 --> 01:37:28,291 I'm so sorry. 1664 01:37:29,500 --> 01:37:31,000 First, you get the tremors, 1665 01:37:32,375 --> 01:37:34,583 and your muscles begin to fail. 1666 01:37:35,916 --> 01:37:38,291 Pretty soon, you can't get out of a chair. 1667 01:37:39,500 --> 01:37:42,625 Then smiling, speaking, 1668 01:37:42,708 --> 01:37:44,000 everything goes. 1669 01:37:45,375 --> 01:37:47,750 And it keeps going till… 1670 01:37:48,500 --> 01:37:50,333 You could always produce. 1671 01:37:50,416 --> 01:37:52,625 [laughs] 1672 01:37:54,083 --> 01:37:55,375 [Mank sighs] 1673 01:37:57,541 --> 01:37:59,208 Give me the gun, Shelly. 1674 01:38:05,583 --> 01:38:06,583 [Shelly grunts] 1675 01:38:13,500 --> 01:38:14,750 [bullets rattle] 1676 01:38:23,125 --> 01:38:24,041 Take 'em, Mank. 1677 01:38:26,666 --> 01:38:29,458 Go on home. I'll be fine. 1678 01:38:38,041 --> 01:38:40,625 [unsettling music playing] 1679 01:39:09,250 --> 01:39:10,250 [knocks] 1680 01:39:11,125 --> 01:39:13,041 [footsteps running] 1681 01:39:15,000 --> 01:39:16,125 Is he with you? 1682 01:39:17,416 --> 01:39:18,750 He… He wouldn't come. 1683 01:39:18,833 --> 01:39:21,833 [sighs] Please tell me you got the gun. 1684 01:39:22,583 --> 01:39:23,791 [bullets jingling] 1685 01:39:28,250 --> 01:39:30,375 -[bullet falls to floor] -[Eve] Oh, my God! 1686 01:39:31,750 --> 01:39:35,083 -What? -He had a whole box. [breathing shakily] 1687 01:39:38,833 --> 01:39:40,916 -[gunshot] -[loud thud] 1688 01:39:49,250 --> 01:39:50,541 -Mank. -[gasps] 1689 01:39:52,125 --> 01:39:53,583 You have another visitor. 1690 01:39:55,250 --> 01:39:56,250 What? 1691 01:40:15,416 --> 01:40:16,250 [sighs] 1692 01:40:17,458 --> 01:40:21,208 [Marion] Drink it fast. In this heat, it'll flash to sugar. 1693 01:40:28,958 --> 01:40:30,791 Why the wine and dine, Marion? 1694 01:40:31,625 --> 01:40:33,083 Good cop, bad cop? 1695 01:40:33,166 --> 01:40:36,083 -How do you mean, Mank? -First Joe, now you. 1696 01:40:38,041 --> 01:40:40,375 Can't you just tell me what's on your mind? 1697 01:40:40,458 --> 01:40:41,958 [sighs] 1698 01:40:42,041 --> 01:40:45,000 Well, I read the script. 1699 01:40:45,083 --> 01:40:46,208 Who hasn't? 1700 01:40:46,291 --> 01:40:50,250 It's very grand, Mank, in its own way, and very much you. 1701 01:40:51,166 --> 01:40:53,083 I would've loved to play me ten years ago. 1702 01:40:53,166 --> 01:40:55,208 It was never meant to be you. 1703 01:40:55,291 --> 01:40:57,875 For myself, I don't care, Mank. Really, I don't. 1704 01:40:58,750 --> 01:41:02,833 But I beg you, don't kick Pops when he's down. 1705 01:41:02,916 --> 01:41:05,500 -Willie, down? -[peppy music playing on car radio] 1706 01:41:07,833 --> 01:41:09,625 I haven't told a soul this, 1707 01:41:10,333 --> 01:41:14,083 but I had to loan him a million dollars just to save San Simeon. 1708 01:41:14,166 --> 01:41:15,791 You hocked your jewels? 1709 01:41:15,875 --> 01:41:18,125 [scoffs] Of course not. Just some real estate. 1710 01:41:18,208 --> 01:41:19,791 He bought me most of it anyway. 1711 01:41:20,625 --> 01:41:22,125 Willie sent you. 1712 01:41:22,958 --> 01:41:23,958 Didn't have to. 1713 01:41:27,458 --> 01:41:28,958 That surprises you? 1714 01:41:29,458 --> 01:41:31,375 You're the most observant man I know. 1715 01:41:31,458 --> 01:41:34,583 -Then you deserve better. -That's very sweet. 1716 01:41:37,208 --> 01:41:38,458 I always wanted better. 1717 01:41:39,416 --> 01:41:40,541 Mama Rose too. 1718 01:41:40,625 --> 01:41:43,333 She made sure her daughters learned to sing and dance. 1719 01:41:44,000 --> 01:41:45,958 We were never gonna end up in Brooklyn. 1720 01:41:46,958 --> 01:41:50,500 I was only 16 when I was cast in Stop! Look! Listen! 1721 01:41:50,583 --> 01:41:52,333 [chuckling] That's some title. 1722 01:41:53,125 --> 01:41:55,833 [Marion] Willie came to the show. Same seat every night. 1723 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. 1724 01:42:00,708 --> 01:42:03,458 Come, now, he wasn't your only admirer. 1725 01:42:05,500 --> 01:42:08,041 The thing you got so right in your script… 1726 01:42:08,875 --> 01:42:11,625 was how lonely he'd been as a boy. 1727 01:42:14,458 --> 01:42:18,000 When my own mother heard he was one of the richest men in America, 1728 01:42:19,000 --> 01:42:20,791 she said, "Kick a little higher." 1729 01:42:23,333 --> 01:42:26,625 He has always been so kind to me. 1730 01:42:28,458 --> 01:42:30,000 I love the old guy, Mank. 1731 01:42:31,750 --> 01:42:36,000 Maybe I didn't always, back when he was my social security. 1732 01:42:36,666 --> 01:42:39,333 But now, there are things about us together… 1733 01:42:40,000 --> 01:42:41,791 that no one could possibly… 1734 01:42:45,541 --> 01:42:47,291 Am I persuading you at all? 1735 01:42:50,666 --> 01:42:53,583 I hope, if this gets made, 1736 01:42:55,416 --> 01:42:56,750 you'll forgive me. 1737 01:42:57,833 --> 01:43:00,916 And I hope, if it doesn't, 1738 01:43:02,500 --> 01:43:03,750 you'll forgive me. 1739 01:43:12,583 --> 01:43:13,791 [typewriter dings] 1740 01:43:13,875 --> 01:43:16,000 [rabbi] He was a modest man. 1741 01:43:16,083 --> 01:43:18,083 His name never appeared on the marquee 1742 01:43:18,166 --> 01:43:22,166 with the great stars, producers, and directors who worked alongside him. 1743 01:43:22,250 --> 01:43:23,250 [people crying] 1744 01:43:23,333 --> 01:43:26,291 But he loved moving pictures more than he loved anything. 1745 01:43:26,375 --> 01:43:29,916 And he left his impeccable taste, his incredible attention to detail, 1746 01:43:30,000 --> 01:43:32,416 on every frame he touched. 1747 01:43:32,500 --> 01:43:36,583 It is not for us to say why he was taken from us so unexpectedly. 1748 01:43:36,666 --> 01:43:38,791 Behind, he leaves his memory. 1749 01:43:39,291 --> 01:43:44,583 The memory of a great man, a talented man, a man of unblemished integrity. 1750 01:43:45,416 --> 01:43:47,750 Irving G. Thalberg. 1751 01:43:48,250 --> 01:43:50,250 [indistinct chatter] 1752 01:44:01,541 --> 01:44:02,500 Mank. 1753 01:44:03,791 --> 01:44:07,666 I haven't seen you since, what was it, Jack Gilbert's funeral. 1754 01:44:07,750 --> 01:44:10,541 Well, I haven't seen you since Shelly Metcalf's. 1755 01:44:11,375 --> 01:44:12,500 Has it been that long? 1756 01:44:14,333 --> 01:44:15,208 How you been, Mank? 1757 01:44:15,791 --> 01:44:17,041 Between pictures. 1758 01:44:18,125 --> 01:44:19,916 I thought you were still at MGM. 1759 01:44:20,458 --> 01:44:21,458 I am. 1760 01:44:23,541 --> 01:44:27,000 Well, look, come see me at International. Let's work something out. 1761 01:44:27,083 --> 01:44:28,750 I did come see you. 1762 01:44:28,833 --> 01:44:31,833 You gave me the same invitation after Shelly's funeral. 1763 01:44:32,541 --> 01:44:35,708 I couldn't get past your secretary's secretary. 1764 01:44:36,958 --> 01:44:38,250 Is that right? 1765 01:44:40,625 --> 01:44:41,958 Good to see you, Mank. 1766 01:44:52,833 --> 01:44:54,458 [Mayer crying] 1767 01:45:12,541 --> 01:45:14,166 [Mank snoring] 1768 01:45:15,416 --> 01:45:17,000 [flies buzzing] 1769 01:45:24,208 --> 01:45:26,083 [telephone ringing] 1770 01:45:27,416 --> 01:45:29,333 -[Rita] Hello. -[Welles] Mank? 1771 01:45:30,166 --> 01:45:31,250 One moment, please. 1772 01:45:38,166 --> 01:45:39,166 Mank. 1773 01:45:39,791 --> 01:45:40,833 Mank! 1774 01:45:41,458 --> 01:45:42,625 It's Orson. 1775 01:45:43,166 --> 01:45:44,875 -It's Orson. -[Mank] Hmm. 1776 01:45:53,000 --> 01:45:53,875 Hello. 1777 01:45:53,958 --> 01:45:56,916 [Welles] Mank, I've just finished your first draft and I must say 1778 01:45:57,000 --> 01:45:58,916 I'm pleased and impressed. 1779 01:45:59,000 --> 01:46:02,708 -Are ya? Good news. -It'll need work, of course. 1780 01:46:02,791 --> 01:46:05,250 But there are no problems that can't be solved together. 1781 01:46:05,333 --> 01:46:06,958 Well, I'm delighted to hear it. 1782 01:46:07,041 --> 01:46:09,000 Houseman's bringing my notes. Think about 'em. 1783 01:46:09,083 --> 01:46:11,166 Meantime, I'll run everything through my typewriter. 1784 01:46:11,250 --> 01:46:12,625 Everything will thank you. 1785 01:46:12,708 --> 01:46:15,041 I understand you're in touch with your Hollywood crowd? 1786 01:46:15,125 --> 01:46:17,125 Oh, good old Houseman. 1787 01:46:17,208 --> 01:46:20,208 So perhaps you've heard. None of the theater chains will touch us. 1788 01:46:20,291 --> 01:46:23,458 It looks like RKO will have to sue for restraint of trade. 1789 01:46:23,541 --> 01:46:25,041 They'll countersue, of course. 1790 01:46:25,125 --> 01:46:27,208 If you own that lovely home of yours, 1791 01:46:27,291 --> 01:46:30,500 it might be a good idea to put it in Poor Sara's name. 1792 01:46:31,750 --> 01:46:36,000 -You still there, Mank? -Oh, yes. Where else would I be? 1793 01:46:36,083 --> 01:46:37,500 I've saved the best for last. 1794 01:46:37,583 --> 01:46:40,125 Guess who phoned with an offer to buy out RKO's investment 1795 01:46:40,208 --> 01:46:41,791 and shelve the picture permanently? 1796 01:46:41,875 --> 01:46:44,458 -Not Hearst? -Mank, I'm surprised. 1797 01:46:44,541 --> 01:46:47,541 Would Othello snoop on Desdemona when he has Iago? 1798 01:46:47,625 --> 01:46:51,875 Ah, Mayer. What did RKO say? 1799 01:46:51,958 --> 01:46:55,000 No dice, for now, but they're on their uppers. Whether they-- 1800 01:46:55,083 --> 01:46:57,916 -You'd better drive up. -I plan to, just as soon as I'm done-- 1801 01:46:58,000 --> 01:46:59,875 Today, if possible. 1802 01:47:00,375 --> 01:47:02,750 Dear Jove, did I say something I shouldn't have? 1803 01:47:02,833 --> 01:47:04,791 I hope you haven't lost your nerve. 1804 01:47:04,875 --> 01:47:07,208 Nerve's about all I've got left. 1805 01:47:14,833 --> 01:47:17,958 [Hearst] What a year you've had, Louis. How have you weathered it? 1806 01:47:18,041 --> 01:47:23,250 Despite everything, the MGM ship, I'm happy to say, is full steam ahead. 1807 01:47:23,333 --> 01:47:28,750 We're on track with this recent slate for our most successful year ever. 1808 01:47:28,833 --> 01:47:30,083 Well, that's great news. 1809 01:47:30,166 --> 01:47:32,875 -[loud clattering] -[man 1] Would you like to go lay down? 1810 01:47:32,958 --> 01:47:34,916 [Mank slurring] I think I'd rather stay upright. 1811 01:47:35,000 --> 01:47:37,000 [man 1] Perhaps we can find you a costume. 1812 01:47:37,083 --> 01:47:39,125 [Mank] Well, why would I need a cos… 1813 01:47:41,041 --> 01:47:42,125 [Mank clears throat] 1814 01:47:42,208 --> 01:47:45,541 Hello, everyone. Better late than never. 1815 01:47:45,625 --> 01:47:47,000 [woman] Mank! Where's Sara? 1816 01:47:47,083 --> 01:47:49,750 Uh, caring for clan Mankiewicz. 1817 01:47:49,833 --> 01:47:54,916 -[man 2] And what train did you take? -[Mank] Glendale. I missed my stop. 1818 01:47:55,000 --> 01:47:57,250 Got a taxi from Morro Bay. 1819 01:47:57,333 --> 01:48:03,458 I'm confused. I thought the invitation called for circus attire, not flea circus. 1820 01:48:03,541 --> 01:48:07,458 I was cornered by a man who sold vacuum cleaners. 1821 01:48:07,541 --> 01:48:11,458 A show of hands, who knows what a vacuum cleaner is? 1822 01:48:11,541 --> 01:48:14,166 [Hearst] Martin, would you set a place for Mr. Mankiewicz, 1823 01:48:14,250 --> 01:48:16,500 somewhere where he might get some air? 1824 01:48:19,000 --> 01:48:20,750 [Martin] Follow me this way, sir. 1825 01:48:21,375 --> 01:48:22,958 [Hearst] And offer him some coffee. 1826 01:48:23,041 --> 01:48:26,083 [Mayer] Yeah. Mr. Monkeywitz could use some coffee. 1827 01:48:26,166 --> 01:48:28,416 [guests chuckling] 1828 01:48:28,500 --> 01:48:29,833 [chair being pulled out] 1829 01:48:32,875 --> 01:48:35,541 [Hearst] And how's Marie Antoinette coming together? 1830 01:48:36,375 --> 01:48:39,125 [Mayer] Previews have been a struggle for general audiences. 1831 01:48:39,208 --> 01:48:41,833 We made some trims, but I should've known. 1832 01:48:42,500 --> 01:48:45,458 Versailles, all those costumes and wigs. 1833 01:48:45,541 --> 01:48:46,875 You can't tell those stories 1834 01:48:46,958 --> 01:48:49,291 without overhauling them for a modern audience. 1835 01:48:49,375 --> 01:48:51,416 How's the performance of your leading lady? 1836 01:48:51,500 --> 01:48:53,125 [Mayer] The picture depends upon her. 1837 01:48:53,208 --> 01:48:56,250 Norma put her heart and soul into it. 1838 01:48:56,333 --> 01:48:58,916 I should've insisted she take some time. 1839 01:48:59,000 --> 01:49:00,833 It's a lot to deal with, a loss like that. 1840 01:49:00,916 --> 01:49:02,708 Marion would've made it her own. 1841 01:49:02,791 --> 01:49:05,833 -Marion would've been perfection. -[women] Aw. 1842 01:49:05,916 --> 01:49:07,250 Marion Antoinette. 1843 01:49:07,333 --> 01:49:10,291 -[Mayer] But it was Irving's picture. -Marionette. 1844 01:49:11,666 --> 01:49:14,291 I'm not interested in educating our customers. 1845 01:49:15,000 --> 01:49:17,500 You want to send a message? Call Western Union. 1846 01:49:17,583 --> 01:49:19,333 [guests laughing] 1847 01:49:19,416 --> 01:49:20,791 [Mayer] Literary pictures. 1848 01:49:20,875 --> 01:49:22,375 "Let them get cake." 1849 01:49:22,458 --> 01:49:24,250 Who needs to see that? 1850 01:49:25,458 --> 01:49:27,000 -[glass shatters] -[all gasp] 1851 01:49:28,541 --> 01:49:29,916 Joanna, come along. 1852 01:49:30,000 --> 01:49:32,583 I'll show you those horses we talked about. [grunts] 1853 01:49:33,791 --> 01:49:35,375 [both chuckle] 1854 01:49:36,791 --> 01:49:38,125 [Joanna giggles] 1855 01:49:40,208 --> 01:49:41,375 She's very pretty. 1856 01:49:42,041 --> 01:49:45,875 Also, very bright, bullheaded, and British. 1857 01:49:47,750 --> 01:49:50,125 Are you here to try your luck, too, Schnutz? 1858 01:49:50,625 --> 01:49:54,083 -[Sara] At what? -Changing my mind. 1859 01:49:55,250 --> 01:49:57,541 I never had much success with that, Herman. 1860 01:49:58,041 --> 01:49:59,541 In the end, you'll do what you need to. 1861 01:49:59,625 --> 01:50:02,500 Charlie's been here, Joe's been, Marion's been. 1862 01:50:02,583 --> 01:50:05,708 For one reason or another, all of them want me to walk away. 1863 01:50:06,500 --> 01:50:08,333 You care to hear what I've decided? 1864 01:50:09,541 --> 01:50:10,375 Not really. 1865 01:50:11,750 --> 01:50:14,125 [Mank] After 20 years of connubial bliss, 1866 01:50:14,208 --> 01:50:17,125 blind loyalty can get a little suffocating. 1867 01:50:17,208 --> 01:50:20,291 Okay. Here goes. 1868 01:50:21,083 --> 01:50:23,000 [muttering] God knows I've rehearsed it enough. 1869 01:50:23,583 --> 01:50:26,500 I've raised your kids kosher and all but by myself. 1870 01:50:26,583 --> 01:50:28,625 I've put up with your suicidal drinking, 1871 01:50:28,708 --> 01:50:31,750 your compulsive gambling, your silly platonic affairs. 1872 01:50:31,833 --> 01:50:33,416 You owe me, Herman. 1873 01:50:35,166 --> 01:50:36,750 So Joe says he can't promise, 1874 01:50:36,833 --> 01:50:40,375 but he thinks if you make nice with Mayer, you can have your old job back. 1875 01:50:40,458 --> 01:50:41,958 Is that what you want me to say? 1876 01:50:42,041 --> 01:50:43,666 I know what your answer'll be, 1877 01:50:43,750 --> 01:50:47,833 so don't ask me to give you Poor Sara's seal of approval. 1878 01:50:48,625 --> 01:50:51,333 Why do you put up with me, Schnutz? 1879 01:50:51,416 --> 01:50:54,416 My movie star looks or my diplomat's charm? 1880 01:50:55,166 --> 01:50:58,250 I suppose because being married to you, Herman, 1881 01:50:58,333 --> 01:50:59,250 I'm never bored. 1882 01:50:59,958 --> 01:51:03,083 Exhausted, yes. Exasperated, usually. 1883 01:51:03,166 --> 01:51:05,458 But having devoted so much, 1884 01:51:05,541 --> 01:51:08,000 I have to stick around to see how it all turns out. 1885 01:51:12,291 --> 01:51:13,500 And whatever you decide, 1886 01:51:16,250 --> 01:51:19,791 please be mindful of those who care about you most. 1887 01:51:24,000 --> 01:51:25,250 I'm going riding. 1888 01:51:25,833 --> 01:51:28,041 Haven't seen a horse's face in years. 1889 01:51:28,875 --> 01:51:30,166 [Mank chuckles softly] 1890 01:51:30,666 --> 01:51:32,375 Oh, and one last thing, Herman. 1891 01:51:33,708 --> 01:51:36,583 I don't want nobody calling me Poor Sara no more. 1892 01:51:45,416 --> 01:51:46,750 [Mank sighs] 1893 01:51:50,125 --> 01:51:53,375 I've got a great idea for a picture, Louis. 1894 01:51:53,458 --> 01:51:57,458 A picture I just know you're gonna love. 1895 01:51:58,500 --> 01:52:02,916 [echoing] It's a modern-day version of Quixote. 1896 01:52:06,708 --> 01:52:10,583 Now, I know none of you read, but you know what it's about. 1897 01:52:10,666 --> 01:52:15,250 A deluded old nobleman who tilts at windmills. 1898 01:52:16,625 --> 01:52:19,583 So how might we update this story? 1899 01:52:19,666 --> 01:52:21,916 -Do you want me to get-- -No, no. 1900 01:52:22,000 --> 01:52:24,291 How about we make our Quixote… 1901 01:52:25,916 --> 01:52:27,208 a newspaperman? 1902 01:52:28,083 --> 01:52:31,125 Who else could make a living tilting at windmills? 1903 01:52:31,208 --> 01:52:32,458 But that's not enough. 1904 01:52:33,583 --> 01:52:36,250 No, he wants more than readership. 1905 01:52:36,333 --> 01:52:40,666 He wants more than adulation. He wants love. 1906 01:52:42,083 --> 01:52:47,000 So, he runs for public office, and because he's notably rich, he wins. 1907 01:52:48,166 --> 01:52:49,875 No, wait, wait a minute. 1908 01:52:49,958 --> 01:52:53,208 Notably rich and powerful can't win over an audience 1909 01:52:53,291 --> 01:52:57,750 unless notably rich and powerful sees the error of his ways in the final reel. 1910 01:52:58,458 --> 01:53:00,333 Notably rich and powerful 1911 01:53:00,416 --> 01:53:05,666 and making no goddamn excuses for it is only admirable in real life. 1912 01:53:05,750 --> 01:53:07,125 Isn't that right, Louis? 1913 01:53:08,083 --> 01:53:09,000 [grunts] 1914 01:53:10,208 --> 01:53:11,583 So what do we do? 1915 01:53:14,416 --> 01:53:15,875 Anybody? 1916 01:53:18,291 --> 01:53:20,791 We give him ideals. 1917 01:53:20,875 --> 01:53:23,583 Ideals that any dirt-poor, 1918 01:53:23,666 --> 01:53:26,875 depression-weary audience can identify with. 1919 01:53:26,958 --> 01:53:29,708 Our Quixote is against crooked trusts. 1920 01:53:29,791 --> 01:53:33,583 He's for the eight-hour workday, fair income tax, better schools. 1921 01:53:33,666 --> 01:53:37,375 Why, he's even for government ownership of railroads. 1922 01:53:37,458 --> 01:53:38,375 [chuckles] 1923 01:53:38,458 --> 01:53:40,208 You know what we call those people? 1924 01:53:40,291 --> 01:53:41,583 -[man] Communists? -[woman] Anarchists? 1925 01:53:41,666 --> 01:53:46,041 No, our Quixote, he's a two-fisted muckraker. 1926 01:53:46,125 --> 01:53:50,041 In fact, someone predicts that he will one day 1927 01:53:50,125 --> 01:53:53,708 win the presidency and bring about, get this… 1928 01:53:54,958 --> 01:53:58,583 [laughing] 1929 01:53:58,666 --> 01:54:01,291 …a socialist revolution. 1930 01:54:01,375 --> 01:54:04,375 -What a bunch of bullshit! -Is it? 1931 01:54:05,500 --> 01:54:06,375 Tell him, Willie. 1932 01:54:07,916 --> 01:54:09,041 Tell him. 1933 01:54:10,083 --> 01:54:15,000 Upton Sinclair used exactly those words 1934 01:54:15,083 --> 01:54:18,000 to describe a young William Randolph Hearst. 1935 01:54:18,083 --> 01:54:20,958 -You miserable bastard! -How do you do? 1936 01:54:23,875 --> 01:54:27,000 Our Quixote, he hungers, he thirsts, 1937 01:54:27,083 --> 01:54:29,708 he lusts for voters to love him. 1938 01:54:30,291 --> 01:54:32,458 Love him enough to make him president. 1939 01:54:32,541 --> 01:54:34,916 But they won't, and they don't. 1940 01:54:35,500 --> 01:54:37,125 How do you suppose that could happen? 1941 01:54:37,208 --> 01:54:39,250 Could it be because, in their hearts, 1942 01:54:39,333 --> 01:54:42,458 they know that he values power over people? 1943 01:54:43,541 --> 01:54:46,000 Disillusioned in Congress, 1944 01:54:46,083 --> 01:54:50,458 he authors not one single piece of legislation in two terms. 1945 01:54:50,541 --> 01:54:53,666 Can you believe that? That'll take some writing. 1946 01:54:54,833 --> 01:54:57,166 Placed in nomination for president, 1947 01:54:57,250 --> 01:55:00,583 but it's too radical for the boys in the back. 1948 01:55:00,666 --> 01:55:04,333 His bid goes nowhere, but we're doing something. 1949 01:55:05,291 --> 01:55:07,583 We're building sympathy. 1950 01:55:08,583 --> 01:55:12,166 Rejected, he flees to lotusland, 1951 01:55:12,250 --> 01:55:14,958 where his faithful troll, Sancho, 1952 01:55:15,041 --> 01:55:18,083 has prepared a mythical kingdom for… 1953 01:55:20,125 --> 01:55:21,625 Wait a minute. 1954 01:55:23,125 --> 01:55:25,250 I forgot the love interest. 1955 01:55:25,916 --> 01:55:26,875 Her name… 1956 01:55:27,916 --> 01:55:29,333 Dulcinea. 1957 01:55:29,416 --> 01:55:32,833 Funny, adventurous, smarter than she acts. 1958 01:55:32,916 --> 01:55:34,125 Ah, she's a… 1959 01:55:34,625 --> 01:55:38,208 she's a showgirl, beneath his social stratum, 1960 01:55:38,291 --> 01:55:39,291 but that's okay, 1961 01:55:39,791 --> 01:55:42,833 because true love on the big screens, 1962 01:55:42,916 --> 01:55:45,291 we all know, is blind. 1963 01:55:46,416 --> 01:55:47,416 And she… 1964 01:55:48,750 --> 01:55:50,500 Yeah, she loves him too. 1965 01:55:52,208 --> 01:55:56,125 So he takes her away to his mythical kingdom. 1966 01:55:56,208 --> 01:55:57,666 Can I get a bicarb? 1967 01:55:58,750 --> 01:56:02,541 Now, along comes nemesis. 1968 01:56:02,625 --> 01:56:05,375 That's Greek for any guy in a black hat. 1969 01:56:05,958 --> 01:56:11,250 Nemesis runs for governor and he's a shoo-in to win. 1970 01:56:11,333 --> 01:56:17,791 Why? Because he's exactly what our Don used to be. 1971 01:56:17,875 --> 01:56:20,625 An idealist, you get it? 1972 01:56:21,291 --> 01:56:22,458 And not only that, 1973 01:56:23,166 --> 01:56:28,000 nemesis is the same guy who once predicted our Quixote would 1974 01:56:28,083 --> 01:56:31,791 one day preside over a socialist revolution. 1975 01:56:33,000 --> 01:56:37,791 Our Quixote looks into the mirror of his youth 1976 01:56:37,875 --> 01:56:41,291 and decides to break this glass, 1977 01:56:41,375 --> 01:56:44,958 a maddening reminder of who he once was. 1978 01:56:45,041 --> 01:56:48,666 Assisted by his faithful Sancho, 1979 01:56:48,750 --> 01:56:53,791 and armed with all the black magic at his command, 1980 01:56:53,875 --> 01:56:56,291 he does just this. 1981 01:56:56,375 --> 01:57:02,458 Destroying in the process not one man… but two. 1982 01:57:05,375 --> 01:57:06,958 Well, what do you think, Louis? 1983 01:57:07,458 --> 01:57:08,333 Hmm? 1984 01:57:08,416 --> 01:57:10,000 You think it'll play? 1985 01:57:10,583 --> 01:57:11,583 [retches] 1986 01:57:15,375 --> 01:57:16,333 [vomiting continues] 1987 01:57:16,416 --> 01:57:17,916 [guests groan and clamor] 1988 01:57:21,833 --> 01:57:24,291 [Mank sighs, chuckling] Don't worry, folks. 1989 01:57:25,291 --> 01:57:28,208 Uh, the white wine came up with the fish. 1990 01:57:30,500 --> 01:57:34,208 Who the fuck do you think you are, Mankiewicz? 1991 01:57:35,625 --> 01:57:37,875 You're nothin' but a court jester. 1992 01:57:38,791 --> 01:57:40,916 And let me let you in on a little secret. 1993 01:57:41,000 --> 01:57:44,416 Do you have any idea who pays half your salary? 1994 01:57:44,500 --> 01:57:46,750 He pays half your fucking salary. 1995 01:57:46,833 --> 01:57:48,625 Him, you fucking ingrate. 1996 01:57:49,291 --> 01:57:52,416 You didn't know that, did ya? You wanna know why? 1997 01:57:52,500 --> 01:57:54,416 Because he likes the way you talk. 1998 01:57:54,500 --> 01:57:57,875 Not the way you write, the way you talk. 1999 01:57:58,541 --> 01:58:00,583 Don't that chap your ass? 2000 01:58:18,666 --> 01:58:20,375 [indistinct conversation] 2001 01:58:22,791 --> 01:58:25,291 -[Rita] Please, follow me. -[Welles] It's very quaint. 2002 01:58:33,208 --> 01:58:35,125 Rise and shine, hombre. 2003 01:58:35,708 --> 01:58:37,750 Shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. 2004 01:58:39,333 --> 01:58:42,916 Before we buckle down, I gather you have something to get off your chest? 2005 01:58:43,000 --> 01:58:44,916 As a matter of fact, I do. 2006 01:58:45,000 --> 01:58:47,041 [Welles] Frankly, I think what I said upset you. 2007 01:58:47,125 --> 01:58:50,250 I know your health's not what it might be. I understand that comes first. 2008 01:58:50,333 --> 01:58:53,375 -Really? -[Welles] This studio fuss, this lawsuit. 2009 01:58:53,458 --> 01:58:55,416 God only knows what pressure's yet to come. 2010 01:58:55,500 --> 01:58:58,208 At your age, you'd be justified in wanting out. 2011 01:58:58,291 --> 01:59:00,375 I'm 43, but that's very understanding. 2012 01:59:00,458 --> 01:59:02,458 Mayer's buyout was rejected. 2013 01:59:02,541 --> 01:59:05,125 So, the fat's only starting to hit the fire. 2014 01:59:05,750 --> 01:59:09,166 Now, I talked to RKO, and I'll tell you what they're ready to do. 2015 01:59:09,250 --> 01:59:12,041 In recognition of the outstanding work you've done so far, 2016 01:59:12,125 --> 01:59:16,000 they're prepared to relieve you of the rewrite and still honor your full pay, 2017 01:59:16,750 --> 01:59:19,333 plus $10,000. 2018 01:59:20,166 --> 01:59:21,000 How's that? 2019 01:59:22,750 --> 01:59:24,416 That's more than generous. 2020 01:59:25,833 --> 01:59:27,833 But I don't intend to walk. 2021 01:59:29,750 --> 01:59:30,791 All right. 2022 01:59:33,166 --> 01:59:34,875 What's bothering you, then? 2023 01:59:34,958 --> 01:59:37,625 You're not going to like this, Orson. 2024 01:59:39,083 --> 01:59:40,125 [sighs] 2025 01:59:42,166 --> 01:59:43,500 I want credit. 2026 01:59:45,583 --> 01:59:46,708 Come again? 2027 01:59:47,666 --> 01:59:49,958 It's the best thing I've ever written. 2028 01:59:50,833 --> 01:59:53,166 Jack, get me some Cuban cigars. 2029 01:59:53,250 --> 01:59:55,333 -In Victorville? -Do what you can, Jack. 2030 01:59:55,416 --> 01:59:59,083 Oh, stay, Houseman. You'll miss the third act complicator. 2031 01:59:59,166 --> 02:00:01,125 Get going, Jack. Muy pronto. 2032 02:00:01,916 --> 02:00:04,125 I believe that means right away. 2033 02:00:10,458 --> 02:00:13,000 [tense music playing] 2034 02:00:21,250 --> 02:00:22,750 Mank, Mank. 2035 02:00:24,500 --> 02:00:28,375 [Mank] What I said was more in sorrow than in anger, Willie. 2036 02:00:31,458 --> 02:00:36,041 Are you familiar with the parable of the organ grinder's monkey? 2037 02:00:36,125 --> 02:00:40,083 Now, the organ grinder's monkey is tiny in stature, 2038 02:00:40,166 --> 02:00:42,041 and having been taken from the wild, 2039 02:00:42,125 --> 02:00:46,791 he's naturally overwhelmed by the enormous world around him. 2040 02:00:47,666 --> 02:00:53,833 But every morning, a sweet elderly woman dresses him in a fine suit of clothes. 2041 02:00:54,500 --> 02:00:58,791 She fits him with a red velvet vest adorned with pearl buttons 2042 02:00:58,875 --> 02:01:02,708 and a handsome red fez with a silk tassel. 2043 02:01:02,791 --> 02:01:07,458 She slips on brocade shoes that curl at the toe, 2044 02:01:07,958 --> 02:01:13,208 and he's paired with a fine gilt music box on an exquisite gold chain 2045 02:01:13,291 --> 02:01:16,666 fastened to his neck and his neck alone. 2046 02:01:17,208 --> 02:01:20,791 Whenever he ventures into the city to perform, 2047 02:01:20,875 --> 02:01:24,416 he thinks, "What a powerful fellow I must be." 2048 02:01:24,500 --> 02:01:28,333 "Look how patiently everyone waits just to watch me dance." 2049 02:01:28,416 --> 02:01:29,458 Hey, Willie-- 2050 02:01:29,541 --> 02:01:31,958 "And wherever I go," he thinks, 2051 02:01:32,041 --> 02:01:38,083 "this music box must follow, and with it, this poor downtrodden man." 2052 02:01:38,583 --> 02:01:44,291 "And if I chose not to dance, this sorry street peddler would starve, 2053 02:01:44,375 --> 02:01:48,791 and every time I do decide to dance, every time… 2054 02:01:53,541 --> 02:01:55,208 he must play." 2055 02:01:57,041 --> 02:01:58,916 "Whether he wishes to or not." 2056 02:02:00,500 --> 02:02:02,625 You've had a bit too much to drink, Herman. 2057 02:02:02,708 --> 02:02:05,583 I'll get Raymond to drive you to the station. 2058 02:02:06,875 --> 02:02:07,958 Goodbye. 2059 02:02:14,583 --> 02:02:15,666 [sighs] 2060 02:02:16,333 --> 02:02:17,958 Put aside gratitude, Mank. 2061 02:02:18,041 --> 02:02:20,125 That you've done your best work was no accident. 2062 02:02:20,208 --> 02:02:23,458 I removed any distraction, eliminated every excuse, 2063 02:02:23,541 --> 02:02:26,041 your family, your cronies, liquor. 2064 02:02:26,125 --> 02:02:27,708 I gave you a second chance. 2065 02:02:27,791 --> 02:02:30,208 And for that, I cannot thank you enough. 2066 02:02:30,291 --> 02:02:34,541 But with credit for a risky undertaking must go the weight of real responsibility. 2067 02:02:35,041 --> 02:02:37,125 Given your current health, I wonder if you're up to it. 2068 02:02:37,208 --> 02:02:39,750 Frankly, I wonder, too, but we'll find out. 2069 02:02:39,833 --> 02:02:42,250 You may never work in this town again, Mank! 2070 02:02:42,333 --> 02:02:43,958 [laughing] Orson, please… 2071 02:02:44,041 --> 02:02:46,416 Then you force me to remind you! 2072 02:02:46,500 --> 02:02:50,083 We have a contract that you understood and agreed to! 2073 02:02:50,166 --> 02:02:53,791 If you fight this, it will go to what your new guild calls arbitration, 2074 02:02:53,875 --> 02:02:57,250 and you, my friend, will lose script, money, 2075 02:02:57,333 --> 02:02:59,833 and assuming such a thing still exists in Hollywood, 2076 02:02:59,916 --> 02:03:01,916 the respect of those who honor their word. 2077 02:03:02,000 --> 02:03:04,666 How can I put this nicely? 2078 02:03:05,750 --> 02:03:07,916 I may be a loose cannon, 2079 02:03:08,000 --> 02:03:10,916 but you, my friend, are an outsider. 2080 02:03:11,000 --> 02:03:14,166 They're exasperated by me, and I've earned it, 2081 02:03:14,250 --> 02:03:17,416 but you, a self-anointed savior-hyphenate, 2082 02:03:17,500 --> 02:03:19,875 they're just waiting to loathe you. 2083 02:03:19,958 --> 02:03:23,125 Remind me never again to work with a washed-up alcoholic! 2084 02:03:23,208 --> 02:03:25,541 Duly noted. Nelson Algren, please copy. 2085 02:03:25,625 --> 02:03:28,750 All right! No doubt you'll get your credit. 2086 02:03:28,833 --> 02:03:31,625 But ask yourself, "Who's producing this picture?" 2087 02:03:31,708 --> 02:03:34,250 "Directing it? Starring in it?" 2088 02:03:37,000 --> 02:03:39,333 That's just what we need when Susan leaves Kane. 2089 02:03:40,041 --> 02:03:42,000 An act of purging violence. 2090 02:03:44,625 --> 02:03:45,583 Maybe. 2091 02:03:48,916 --> 02:03:50,375 [kicking glass shards] 2092 02:03:52,583 --> 02:03:53,500 [door slams] 2093 02:03:58,666 --> 02:04:01,833 [Rita] Mank! Mank, where are you? 2094 02:04:02,416 --> 02:04:03,916 Mank, come quick! 2095 02:04:04,000 --> 02:04:05,541 [car engine starts] 2096 02:04:09,166 --> 02:04:10,250 He's alive! 2097 02:04:11,208 --> 02:04:12,333 Ian's alive! 2098 02:04:13,041 --> 02:04:15,666 -He fetched up on the Orkneys! -The what? 2099 02:04:15,750 --> 02:04:17,833 The Orkney Islands, you idiot. 2100 02:04:18,333 --> 02:04:20,333 Oh, Mank, are you ever serious? 2101 02:04:21,375 --> 02:04:24,208 -Only about something funny. -[sighs exasperatedly] 2102 02:04:37,958 --> 02:04:40,916 [audience applauding] 2103 02:04:41,875 --> 02:04:43,125 [typewriter dings] 2104 02:04:47,750 --> 02:04:52,083 [clears throat] And the winner of the best original screenplay is… 2105 02:04:53,625 --> 02:04:57,625 -Herman J. Mankiewicz… -[audience applauding] 2106 02:04:57,708 --> 02:05:00,625 …and Orson Welles for Citizen Kane. 2107 02:05:02,833 --> 02:05:04,916 [reporter] This is the first nomination and first win 2108 02:05:05,000 --> 02:05:06,583 for Mr. Mankiewicz and Mr. Welles. 2109 02:05:06,666 --> 02:05:08,416 Neither were able to attend tonight. 2110 02:05:08,500 --> 02:05:11,208 Accepting for both is the president of RKO Radio Pictures, 2111 02:05:11,291 --> 02:05:12,875 Mr. George Schaefer. 2112 02:05:14,541 --> 02:05:18,375 -[reporter] Excuse me, Mr. Welles. -[real Orson Welles] Good morning. 2113 02:05:18,458 --> 02:05:21,166 [reporter] Good morning, Mr. Welles. You missed a big night. 2114 02:05:21,250 --> 02:05:24,125 [real Orson Welles] I was unable to attend the Academy Awards 2115 02:05:24,208 --> 02:05:28,250 because I'm here in Rio making a marvelous motion picture. 2116 02:05:28,333 --> 02:05:31,750 [reporter] Kane was nominated in nine categories, including best actor. 2117 02:05:31,833 --> 02:05:34,750 Aren't you disappointed that it only won one Oscar? 2118 02:05:35,416 --> 02:05:39,500 [real Orson Welles] Well, that, my good man, is Hollywood. 2119 02:05:39,583 --> 02:05:40,458 [men laughing] 2120 02:05:40,541 --> 02:05:43,500 [reporter] Anything you'd like to say to your coauthor, Mr. Mankiewicz? 2121 02:05:43,583 --> 02:05:47,083 [real Orson Welles] I do have a message. You may tell him from me… 2122 02:05:48,500 --> 02:05:51,541 Mank, you can kiss my half! 2123 02:05:51,625 --> 02:05:53,125 [men laughing] 2124 02:06:00,208 --> 02:06:05,000 You ask me what my acceptance speech might have been. 2125 02:06:06,791 --> 02:06:08,208 Well, here goes. 2126 02:06:08,833 --> 02:06:13,708 I am very happy to accept this award 2127 02:06:14,208 --> 02:06:17,333 in the manner in which the screenplay was written, 2128 02:06:18,083 --> 02:06:22,500 which is to say, in the absence of Orson Welles. 2129 02:06:25,208 --> 02:06:28,166 -How's that? -[reporter] How come he shares credit? 2130 02:06:29,250 --> 02:06:34,750 [sighs] Well, that, my friend, is the magic of the movies. 2131 02:06:34,833 --> 02:06:35,833 [man laughs] 2132 02:06:35,916 --> 02:06:38,833 [reporter] Hold up the Oscar, Mank. Big smile. 2133 02:06:39,416 --> 02:06:40,583 [camera shutter clicks] 2134 02:06:41,083 --> 02:06:43,541 [dulcet music playing] 2135 02:08:43,541 --> 02:08:45,541 [slow piano music playing]