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A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Joseph L. Mankiewicz |||
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Mankiewicz directed 20 films in a 26-year period, and was very successful at every kind of film, from Shakespeare to western, drama to musical, epics to two-character pictures, and regardless of the genre, he was known as a witty dialogist, a master in the use of flashback and a talented actors' director.

The 1950 Oscar for Best Picture and Screenplay brought Mankiewicz wide recognition as a writer and a director, with his sardonic look at show business glamour and the empty lives behind it. This well orchestrated cast of brilliant and catty character actors is built around veteran actress Bette Davis and Anne Baxter as her understudy desperate for stardom.

One of Mankiewicz’ more intimate films, this highly regarded and major artistic achievement is a spirited romantic comedy set in England of the 1880’s about a widow who moves into a haunted seashore house and resists the attempts of a sea captain specter to scare her away. This is a pleasing and poignant romance that is equally satisfying as a good old ghost story.

Mankiewicz wrote and directed this witty dissection of matrimony that has three women review the ups and downs of their marriages (with all its romance, fears and foibles) after receiving a letter telling them that one of their husbands has been unfaithful. Once again Mankiewicz deftly utilizes the skills of a well-chosen ensemble, which includes a young Kirk Douglas at his dreamiest.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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Christopher Walken, Director Dobkin Sign on for New Line’s “Wedding Crashers"

By ChrisFaile

January 17th, 2004

Actor Christopher Walken and director David Dobkin have both signed on to do New Line Cinema’s “The Wedding Crashers,” FilmJerk.com has learned. Walken, who will next be seen in the April releases “Envy” and “Man on Fire,” will portray Treasury Secretary William Cleary, the father of the bride that the two leading men crash the wedding of in the film. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson signed on to do the film in October, and production is now geared to start March 15 in Los Angeles.


In the film, Jeremy Klein (Vaughn) and John Beckwith (Wilson) are a pair of rapacious divorce attorneys who score with women the quick and dirty way: they crash weddings, pretending to be guests, taking advantage of the pheromones in the air, and raid the single women like the sexual predators they are. But their lifestyle of total self-commitment runs into some well-deserved trouble when John breaks the rules and falls in love with Claire Clearly.

Another of the lead roles, that of Claire Clearly – Walken’s daughter – is now being cast, according to FilmJerk.com sources and verified by a casting document we have since obtained. Listed as being between the ages of 26 to 28, she is a very attractive woman from a powerful East Coast family and the sister of the bride. A woman with a strong sense of humor and a sense of the bizarre, she attracts John's interest by giggling during the happy couple's air-headed wedding vows, and she becomes John's primary target.

However, Claire is engaged to the wealthy, upper-crust, cruel and possessive Sack Lodge (also to be cast), a wedding that will be more a family merger than a love match. Stalked by John, who has let himself fall desperately in love with her, Claire is attracted to him, but disinclined to nuke her life on behalf of a stranger. After learning that the attentive, funny and loving John is actually a manipulative and scheming liar, she turns her back on him, ignoring her feelings— until John shows up at the moment of her wedding to Sack.

Walken, known for his eccentric personality and whose vocal delivery is often mimicked by those he works with, has appeared in more than 75 films since appearing in 1971’s “The Anderson Tapes.” He won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance in 1978’s “The Deer Hunter.”

Dobkin is no stranger to the stars, as his two-film resume includes 1998’s “Clay Pigeons” (which starred Vaughn) and 2003’s “Shanghai Knights” (which starred Wilson).

The Scorecard
Producers: Peter Abrams, Robert Levy and Andrew Panay
Director: David Dobkin
Writers: Steve Faber and Bob Fisher
Casting Directors: Lisa Beach and Sarah Katzman
Start Date: March 15, 2004
Location: Los Angeles
Production Company/Distributor: New Line Cinema