Competing with Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, a Dual Portrait

Davis, the grandson of Herman Mankiewicz and great-nephew of Joe Mankiewicz, debuts with an uneven parsing of the lives of the famous screenwriters separately responsible for two of the greatest films of all time: Citizen Kane (1941) and All About Eve (1950), respectively. Davis’s mother died in a car accident in 1974 when he was nine, leaving him to sort through the “titanic” legacies of his late grandfather Herman (1897–1953) and uncle Joe (1909–1993). “Her early death robbed this book of one of its most important voices—and set this book in motion.” What emerges is a depressing story of two gifted but deeply troubled men who gave their families short shrift and disparaged others on a regular basis. (Herman’s rage even caused a frightened New Yorker editor to hide from him in a coat closet.) Davis chronicles, mostly thirdhand, their long-running Hollywood sibling rivalry, but there aren’t any new revelations here; even Davis’s theory that All About Eve was inspired by Joe’s envy of Herman gets dismissed as absurd by Joe’s widow. And Davis’s omniscient perspective—liberally describing others’ inner thoughts—causes confusion about the authority of his narration. The success of the movie Mank (about Herman Mankiewicz) will attract some readers, but those already familiar with the contours of the brothers’ stories may be disappointed. (Aug.)