{"product_id":"book-dqt7","title":"The Brothers Mankiewicz","description":"Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for \u003ci\u003eCitizen Kane\u003c\/i\u003e and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing \u003ci\u003eAll About Eve\u003c\/i\u003e, which also won Best Picture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite triumphs as diverse as \u003ci\u003eMonkey Business \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCleopatra\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePride of the Yankees\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGuys and Dolls\u003c\/i\u003e, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have―a career in New York theater. Herman, formerly an Algonquin Round Table habitué, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e theater critic, and playwright-collaborator with George S. Kaufman, never reconciled himself to screenwriting. He gambled away his prodigious earnings, was fired from all the major studios, and drank himself to death at fifty-five. While Herman drifted downward, Joe rose to become a critical and financial success as a writer, producer, and director, though his constant philandering with prominent stars like Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Gene Tierney distressed his emotionally fragile wife who eventually committed suicide. He wrecked his own health using uppers and downers in order to direct \u003ci\u003eCleopatra \u003c\/i\u003eby day and finish writing it at night, only to be very publicly fired by Darryl F. Zanuck, an experience from which Joe never fully recovered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor this first dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49328081469744,"sku":"BDdqt7","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/538999-dqt7-Square.jpg?v=1733706018","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-dqt7","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}