Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in consecutive years for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950), the latter of which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six.
Murder by Death is a 1976 American comedy mystery film directed by Robert Moore and written by Neil Simon. The film stars Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood.
Wild in the Country is a 1961 American musical-drama film directed by Philip Dunne and starring Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, and Millie Perkins. Based on the 1958 novel The Lost Country by J. R. Salamanca, the screenplay concerns a troubled young man from a dysfunctional family who pursues a literary career. The screenplay was written by playwright Clifford Odets.
People Will Talk is a 1951 American romantic comedy/drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck from a screenplay by Mankiewicz, based on the German play by Curt Goetz, which was made into a movie in Germany. Released by Twentieth Century Fox, it stars Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain, with supporting performances by Hume Cronyn, Finlay Currie, Walter Slezak and Sidney Blackmer.
A Pocket Full of Rye is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 9 November 1953, and in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co. the following year. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $2.75. The book features her detective Miss Marple.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a 1947 American supernatural romantic fantasy film starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and is based on a 1945 novel written by Josephine Leslie under the pseudonym of R.A. Dick. In 1945, 20th Century Fox bought the film rights to the novel, published only in the United Kingdom at that time. It was shot entirely in California.
There Was a Crooked Man... is a 1970 American Western film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda. It was the only western made by Mankiewicz. It was written by David Newman and Robert Benton, their first script after Bonnie and Clyde.
The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 American historical drama film directed by Carol Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone's 1961 biographical novel of the same name, and deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II during the 1508-1512 painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It also features a soundtrack by prolific composers Alex North and Jerry Goldsmith.
Daughter of the Dragon is a 1931 American pre-Code crime mystery film directed by Lloyd Corrigan, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Anna May Wong as Princess Ling Moy, Sessue Hayakawa as Ah Kee, and Warner Oland as Dr. Fu Manchu. The film was made to capitalize on Sax Rohmer's then current book, Daughter of Fu Manchu, which Paramount did not own the rights to adapt. Despite being the starring lead and having top billing in this film, Wong was paid only $6,000, half the money for her role that Oland was paid for his, even though Oland had less screen time than Wong. In a 2020 article about Wong, O, The Oprah Magazine linked this discrepancy to racism.
The Honey Pot, also known as The Honeypot, is a 1967 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, Capucine, Edie Adams, and Maggie Smith. The film was based on the play Mr. Fox of Venice by Frederick Knott, the novel The Evil of the Day by Thomas Sterling, and loosely on the 1606 play Volpone by Ben Jonson.
Cleopatra is a 1963 American epic historical drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, and from histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor in the eponymous role. Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Martin Landau also appear in major roles. It chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra, the young queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.
The Hoodlum Priest is a 1961 American drama film by Irvin Kershner, based on the life of Father Charles "Dismas" Clark of St. Louis, who ministered to men in prison and men coming out of prison. During his career Fr. Clark earned the nickname "The Hoodlum Priest". The film was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. The movie stars Don Murray who also co-produced and co-wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Don Deer.
The Alphabet Murders is a 1965 British detective film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot. It is based on the 1936 novel The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.
Convicts 4, also known as Reprieve, is a 1962 American neo noir crime film starring Ben Gazzara and directed by Millard Kaufman. The film is a fictionalized version of the life of death row convict John Resko, who wrote his autobiography: Reprieve.
The League of Frightened Men is a 1937 American mystery film based on the 1935 novel of the same name, the second Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the Columbia Pictures film stars Walter Connolly as Nero Wolfe, a role played by Edward Arnold in the previous year's Meet Nero Wolfe. The role of Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin was reprised by Lionel Stander.
The Bravados is a 1958 American Western film directed by Henry King, starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. The CinemaScope film was based on a novel of the same name, written by Frank O'Rourke.
Forever Amber is a 1947 American adventure drama romance film starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same title by Kathleen Winsor. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, and Jessica Tandy.
Escape! is a 1930 British crime film directed by Basil Dean and starring Gerald du Maurier, Edna Best and Gordon Harker. It was based on the 1926 play of the same title by John Galsworthy, which was adapted again as a film in 1948.
Rotten to the Core is a 1965 black and white British comedy film directed by John Boulting starring Anton Rodgers, Charlotte Rampling, Eric Sykes and Ian Bannen. It was co-written and produced by his Boulting and his brother Roy Boulting. The film received a BAFTA nomination for Alex Vetchinsky's production design.
Michael Golden was an Irish stage, film and television actor, mainly active in England. His stage work encompassed Shakespearean roles at Stratford in 1947; and as police inspectors in the original West End productions of Agatha Christie's plays Verdict and The Unexpected Guest in 1958.
