Mankiewicz vs. Zanuck: Cleopatra | The Plot Thickens (S6 E5)

Episode 5 – Mankiewicz versus Zanuck

Joe’s body reaches its breaking point, and he’s forced to film the last few scenes from a wheelchair. But when production wraps, Fox installs a new studio head, Darryl F. Zanuck, who undercuts Joe’s authority and takes over the edit of Cleopatra. Soon, Joe and Zanuck wage a very public battle for control of the movie, just months before it’s finally released.

00:00 – Pinched Nerve
03:52 – Zanuck Takes Control
08:40 – Two Films, Not One
18:38 – Press Battle Royale
26:41 – Joe and Ro
32:28 – Shooting in Spain
37:55 – Rex’s Likeness Clause
40:30 – The Premiere

His studio was collapsing. His budget was skyrocketing. And his two stars were making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Those were just some of the headaches facing Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the writer and director of one of the most expensive and infamous movies ever made: Cleopatra. With Mankiewicz calling the shots and the luminous Elizabeth Taylor in the title role, Cleopatra should have been a smash. Instead, it was a shoot plagued by medical emergencies, climate disasters, nervous breakdowns, and egos as big as pyramids… not to mention Taylor’s scandalous love affair with Richard Burton. It fell to Mankiewicz to somehow wrest an epic out of chaos. Writing at night and directing during the day, he struggled to stay one step ahead of financial disaster and his own failing health. This season on The Plot Thickens, Ben Mankiewicz digs through his own family stories to understand how it turned out so badly for his Oscar-winning uncle.

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