CITIZEN KANE, MANK

MANK. Income inequality and blatant disregard for the working class may have prompted Herman J. Mankiewicz (Mank) to write a screenplay in 1940 that Orson Welles crafted into the greatest movie ever made, “Citizen Kane.”   With Hearst’s fairy-tale lifestyle and conspicuous consumption exemplified by his monumental San Simeon Castle, Mank had the incentive to craft a compelling screenplay.

You don’t need to know the back story to appreciate the Netflix movie “Mank” where the writer’s angst builds around W. R. Hearst’s newspapers brutal propaganda against progressive author and gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair.  Fueling Mank’s fire is movie mogul L. B. Mayer, state GOP party chair, who produced phony “newsreel” interviews with “voters” that further destroy Sinclair’s chances. The specter of “socialism” is the dog whistle employed then as it is now by the Republicans.  

Watch “Mank” in tandem with “Citizen Kane” where in an interview with the reporter “Jed,” played by Joseph Cotton, the case against Hearst/Kane is candidly stated. (“He did brutal things.”)  “Mank” connects the dots on the CK puzzle that has entertained many for almost 80 years.  For more on Hollywood writers, watch “Trumbo” and “The Player.”https://www.netflix.com/title/81117189