It was an peculiar spring day in 1962 Italy… peculiar exterior of a heat greeting between the very married famous person Elizabeth Taylor and the very married actor Richard Burton {that a} photographer occurred to catch. The “kissing image,” as it could change into recognized, caught like wildfire, and the paparazzi by no means let up. Richard Burton dubbed the following press storm “Le Scandale,” and the judgement of the world swiftly adopted — included a condemnation from the Vatican newspaper calling it Taylor’s “erotic vagrancy.”
On the middle of Le Scandale — one which TCM host Ben Mankiewicz calls the “greatest within the historical past of American celebrities” — was a mammoth movie, maybe the most important within the historical past of American cinema: twentieth Century Fox’s “Cleopatra.”
“The primary {photograph} of them kissing because the rumors have been circulating that they have been concerned was [taken by] a paparazzo hiding underneath a automobile, underneath like a Fiat… mendacity on the bottom, taking an image of them,” Mankiewicz mentioned in an interview with IndieWire. “[Fellow ‘Cleopatra’ star] Martin Landau [said] there have been photographers within the bushes. This had by no means occurred on a film earlier than.”
The movie was at all times going to be a large enterprise, however an virtually comical sequence of unlucky occasions had curtailed it into changing into one of the vital costly footage Hollywood had ever produced… lengthy earlier than Burton even joined the mission. By the point of their steamy tryst started, “Cleopatra” had been in manufacturing — in suits and begins — for roughly 4 years. Taylor had signed on for the unheard sum of $1 million in 1959 (a wage she reportedly requested for under in jest).
Then she had well being issues (she virtually died).
The unique Marc Antony and Julius Caesar dropped out (Stephen Boyd and Peter Finch, respectively).
The primary director Rouben Mamoulian dropped out.
Footage was scrapped.
Quite a few drafts of the script have been rejected.
The complete manufacturing moved from London to Rome, the place units needed to be reconstructed.
By the point cameras have been rolling on “Cleopatra” scenes that may truly make it into the bloated four-hour epic’s remaining reduce, it was not simply over finances — it had blown previous any semblance of a finances. For a time, it was the solely manufacturing twentieth Century Fox had going. That studio lot again in Century Metropolis? Nearly empty.
It will be because of the perceived failure of the film — notoriety it maybe mustn’t have earned — that the form of studio system the American movie trade had operated underneath for the reason that ’20s would largely die. New Hollywood got here in swiftly after with an period that may be outlined by maverick filmmakers and stars with elevated monetary company and energy.
Virtually everybody and every little thing concerned with “Cleopatra” survived and thrived after its launch. Taylor and Burton outlived the scandal and appeared collectively within the all-timer “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?” Fox ultimately launched “The Sound of Music” and financially recovered. Co-star Rex Harrison led within the greatest film of 1964: “My Honest Girl,” and received an Academy Award for it.
However then there was Joseph L. Mankiewicz — the one-time boy surprise of Hollywood, who set an Oscar document by profitable back-to-back trophies for each writing and directing (1949’s “A Letter to Three Wives and 1950’s “All About Eve”). The person got here into “Cleopatra” midway, and he appeared as much as tackling the gargantuan accountability. He had loved nice success a decade earlier along with his Marlon Brando-starring “Julius Caesar,” so he knew the time interval. He had directed Taylor within the huge 1959 hit “Abruptly, Final Summer season,” so he knew the expertise. When he joined the movie, he was 51-going-on-52, very squarely in his prime.
“Cleopatra” would break Joe Mankiewicz.
By the point the film was wrapped, in theaters, and at last sending some a refund to Fox, Mankiewicz was a shell of the powerhouse he had as soon as been. He would direct simply three extra narrative options, solely one in every of which might obtain any actual important or industrial success (the sensible “Sleuth” in 1972). At one time essentially the most lauded author/director combo, he’d by no means pen one other screenplay, although he lived one other 30 years after the discharge of “Cleopatra.” Not solely that, however the filmmaker struggled to jot down something in any respect, together with private letters and Christmas playing cards.
“The Plot Thickens,” Turner Basic Motion pictures’ podcast sequence that tackles numerous features of Hollywood historical past, will discover the troubled historical past of this unwieldy Egyptian epic in its new season — out July 17 — via a uniquely private lens. Launched first for IndieWire, TCM has unveiled a trailer, narrated by Joe Mankiewicz’s nice nephew, Ben, who serves because the sequence host.
“[Joe] would have mentioned his greatest skilled remorse actually would have been ‘Cleopatra.’ He mentioned it was an act of ‘whoredom.’ He did it for the cash. However I imply, lots of people in Hollywood do issues for cash, after which make one thing nice,” Ben Mankiewicz mentioned.
“Cleopatra” grew to become an albatross for Ben’s uncle… a nightmare he was by no means capable of escape and one thing he by no means once more needed to debate. By private diaries that Joe’s grandson Nick Davis additionally utilized in his twin bio of Joe and Herman “Competing With Idiots” in 2021, “The Plot Thickens” reconstructs the historical past of the sophisticated manufacturing via the eyes of its author/director.
“[When] most individuals consider Cleopatra, they consider the in regards to the affair and the scandal, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, after which these type of myths [about] the film that destroyed a studio,” Ben Mankiewicz mentioned. “We dispatch quite a lot of these myths within the podcast, however we in all probability wouldn’t have performed [the podcast] with out the household angle… Joe was damaged by it in actually substantive methods. And he had been one of many actually most interesting filmmakers of the Nineteen Fifties. However it did a quantity on him and that was price inspecting.”
The Mankiewicz household is true Hollywood royalty. Joe’s brother Herman received an Oscar for some ignored gem known as “Citizen Kane.” Joe’s son Tom wrote three James Bond flicks. Herman’s son Don wrote a rating of options within the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Ben’s father Frank was president of Nationwide Public Radio, was Robert F. Kennedy, Sr.’s press secretary, and headed up George McGovern’s 1972 presidential marketing campaign. Frank’s different son Josh is a journalist on NBC’s “Nightline.”
“There was a line I heard lots rising up. Relations used to say it,” Ben Mankiewicz says in “The Plot Thickens” promo. “The road was that my grandfather wrote the very best film ever made — ‘Citizen Kane’ — and that my nice uncle directed the worst film ever made.”
By its reframing in “The Plot Thickens,” it turns into clear that the efforts on the middle of “Cleopatra” have been that of passionate movie professionals — individuals who cared in regards to the films. If Joe Mankiewicz had his approach, in truth, it could’ve been two epics as an alternative of 1: one half centered on Julius Caesar, the opposite on Marc Antony.
“This type of historic costume drama will not be my form of film, however… one of many myths is that it’s the worst film ever made. It’s not even one of many 3,000 worst films ever made. A few of it’s fairly good. And I feel that if Joe Mankiewicz, my uncle, had gotten his approach and launched it as two three-hour films, that a few of the points — the pacing issues, the place it truly appears sluggish — would have been higher, since you would have had two tighter, three-hour films,” Ben defined. “It’s humorous. Now, in the event you say, ‘Pay attention, I do know you requested me to shoot one film, however I’ve truly shot two. Would you like each?’ Each studio could be like, ‘Is that this a trick query? Yeah, we’ll take two, positive.’”
Because it stands, although there have been numerous variations introduced over time, “Cleopatra” exists as one 243 minute movie. However it could ultimately be a hit on the books. It scored a Finest Image nomination, and although it didn’t truly flip a revenue for a number of years because of its reported $44 million finances, it was not the entire monetary catastrophe some later claimed — in actuality, it was the highest grossing film of 1963.
“Spyros Skouras had been the president of the corporate previous to Darryl Zanuck coming again. Spyros stop, however principally acquired fired,” Ben defined. “However his time had come to an finish, and he and the board type of blamed him for the fiasco of ‘Cleopatra,’ after which Zanuck got here and blamed Joe. Spyros Skouras… what he actually [was good at was] his relationships and [setting] up offers with theater house owners, and he had arrange a deal the place they’d pay as you go for ticket gross sales of ‘Cleopatra.’ And so, proper off the bat, ‘Cleopatra’ had $20 million are available in a short time… after which extra after that on the field workplace, to the place — okay, it misplaced some huge cash — however nonetheless introduced again, let’s say, $25 million. And clearly, Fox doesn’t get all that, however they get quite a lot of it. And by the point 1965 rolls round, once they promote it to community TV, it’s within the black.”
So this specific “The Plot Thickens” season is a bit of bit totally different for TCM’s resident savant. Greater than the narrator of a captivating chapter in movie historical past, Mankiewicz is recasting his circle of relatives’s heritage and the repute of a movie whose affect, whereas nice, is maybe unfairly perceived.
“What you get from this podcast is [that] Joe threw every little thing into this. I imply, he poured his coronary heart and soul into this film. Due to the cash, [there was] this notion that he got here in, he wasn’t the correct director, [and] he didn’t know what he was doing. He positively knew what he was doing,” Ben mentioned. “He simply tried to do an excessive amount of, among the many different issues, tried to do an excessive amount of. To begin with, he was a therapist to Elizabeth and to Richard and to Rex and to everyone else on the forged.”
Joe Mankiewicz used pace, Ben defined, to assist him via the grueling shoot days. He truly ended principal images within the wheelchair after mistakenly taking pictures up and hitting a sciatic nerve.
“He’s in a wheelchair, and he’s acquired to recover from sand. In order that they carried him out to the shot on a stretcher. And he’s like writing on the stretcher, whereas a bunch of men carry him out so he can sit and and direct the scene,” Ben recounted. “[His] diaries reveal a man who was a director within the day, after which continuously would go residence [and] write the screenplay at evening… He wanted assist.”
This, together with the controversies surrounding Le Scandale, climate delays, the recurrent well being problems with forged members, the haggling over the movie’s remaining reduce, and, after all, the film’s legacy because the movie that modified Hollywood… all can be explored when “The Plot Thickens: Cleopatra” begins dropping weekly episodes beginning July 17, wherever you get your podcasts.
Take a look at the trailer, launched first completely to IndieWire, under: