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Dont let this get around.
The Classic ABCs ofMank,if you will, in a simple glossary format.
Dont let it get around.
Unsuspecting Netflix perusers will need it.
Its no surprise they were eventually headed for collision.
In point of fact, this actually happened.
If Hedda or Louella took a disliking to an up-and-coming star, they could kill careers in the cradle.
They had informers all over Los Angeles.
Hedda was famous for her staunch conservatism, and both were deeply in thrall to the Hearst newspapers.
Hes seen inMankas the right-hand man to Louis B. Mayer, though much different in temperament to his boss.
Thalberg was the first to introduce test screenings for select audiences.
When Hearst learned aboutCitizen Kane, he did as much as he could to obstruct its release.
Its against this contentious backdrop that much ofManktakes place.
The version that made it to the screen, however, is far more charitable to Welles.
Around the time of the Depression, its output included the classicKing Kong(1933).
Writers were low down on the studio totem pole in the Golden Age.
Most screenplays during this era could be swapped around, censored, and changed to suit producers whims.
Of course, Xanadu is a fictionalized version of San Simeon, known more widely as Hearst Castle.
Its there that we see Mankiewicz go for various drunken soirees and a wee-hours wander past the giraffes.
This is the kind of media landscapeCitizen Kanewas taking aim at at the time.
