SCFZ poll: Joseph Mankiewicz

[...]

It's absurd to call him misogynistic after he directed those great female leading roles. Misogynistic are films where the women are only there to ne bumped off or to be saved by the male hero.

I've got some bad news about the history of art and misogyny I'm afraid. It doesn't really work like that at all, often it is the artists who most feature women who turn out to have the most problems with them. Misogyny is often more a "desire"/hate relationship to women as it is just wishing them gone.

[wba]

It's absurd to call him misogynistic after he directed those great female leading roles. Misogynistic are films where the women are only there to ne bumped off or to be saved by the male hero.

I've got some bad news about the history of art and misogyny I'm afraid. It doesn't really work like that at all, often it is the artists who most feature women who turn out to have the most problems with them. Misogyny is often more a "desire"/hate relationship to women as it is just wishing them gone.

[MrCarmady]

Do you mind waiting a day to close this? I wanna watch 5 Fingers.

[flip]

no, don't mind at all, let me know when your ballot is finalized!

[MrCarmady]

Seen 3.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir.

The other two are great as well (Sleuth and All About Eve), should beef up my list a bit based on that.

Thanks for the extension Flip!

Seen 4.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Sleuth

5 Fingers was decent enough with a great ending and a nice performance by Mason but in the end was a bit too static and average to trouble my list - All About Eve needs a re-watch but I assume it's gonna run away with it anyway so thought I'd throw Sleuth a bone. Ghost and Mrs Muir is a masterpiece, though, so I will keep exploring his other works based on the results.

[flip]

interesting, almost every mankiewicz film got at least one vote. the only narrative feature film that got no support was there was a crooked man (which i've seen and detested). surprisingly(?) his mlk documentary, co-directed with sidney lumet, got no support, nor did his christmas carol adaptation (made for tv). but everything else did. with one other possible exception -- i see some sites crediting mankiewicz with directing a film called 'backfire' from 1946, and imdb used to list it too, but it doesn't appear there or on letterboxd any more. does anyone know what that is? i'm guessing it doesn't exist?

results

1. All About Eve (1950) -- 31 pts
2. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) -- 17 pts
3. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) -- 16 pts
4. Sleuth (1972) -- 13 pts
5. 5 Fingers (1952) -- 11 pts
6. The Quiet American (1958) -- 7 pts
6. Cleopatra (1963) -- 7 pts
8. A Letter to Three Wives (1949) -- 6 pts
9. The Barefoot Contessa (1954) -- 5 pts
10. House of Strangers (1949) -- 4 pts
11. No Way Out (1950) -- 3 pts
11. Escape (1948) -- 3 pts
11. The Honey Pot (1967) -- 3 pts
11. Guys and Dolls (1955) -- 3 pts
11. Julius Caesar (1953) -- 3 pts
16. People Will Talk (1951) -- 2 pts
16. Somewhere in the Night (1946) -- 2 pts
18. The Late George Apley (1947) -- 1 pt
18. Dragonwyck (1946) -- 1 pt

[greennui]

Guys and Dolls :'/

It's one of Rosenbaum's absolute favourite films, could have used his vote.

[flip]

posted this to letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-214/