Sorting Out the Manziewiczes

OK, in short, Herman (1897) co-wrote Citizen Kane.

And younger brother Joe (1909) wrote and directed All About Eve.

There you go.

Herman was a WW1 Marine, journalist and hard-drinker, film writer from silent days - notably wrote the titles of The Last Command - was Head of Paramount's script department, where he also produced the Marx Brothers films Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and (the greatest of them all) Duck Soup. He then adapted Dinner at Eight for MGM, seems to have contributed uncredited to several films including The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful World and Comrade X, won Oscar for Citizen Kane (co-written with Orson Welles, and in essence the heart of the biopic Mank), then known best for The Enchanted Cottage and Pride of the Yankees. Also A Woman's Secret (1949). Died aged 55.

Joe of course missed the war, started like his brother as a titles writer for the last of the silent films, worked at Paramount on films including If I Had a Million (1932) and Alice in Wonderland (1933); then Manhattan Melodrama (1934), clearly having moved to MGM. Here he began producing such films as the Borzage pictures The Shining Hour and Three Comrades, and The Shopworn Angel, the classic The Philadelphia Story and the first Tracy-Hepburn movie Woman of the Year.

Directing then beckoned, Dragonwyck, Somewhere in the Night, The Ghost and Mrs Muir and House of Strangers notable amongst his first. But where he really comes into his own is as a writer-director, beginning with A Letter to Three Wives (won Oscars for writing and directing) and then the multi-Oscar winning All About Eve (again won for writing and directing). People Will Talk and The Barefoot Contessa were also notable in this category.

He may not wish to be remembered for directing the epic flop Cleopatra in 1963; The Honey Pot in 1967 was his final film as writer-director (an adaptation, with Rex Harrison and Susan Hayward. Mixed reviews, DVD is cut version.). He went out on a high by directing Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth in 1972 (receiving Oscar nomination). Died in 1993 aged 83.

Herman's son Don wrote extensively for television, though did have one or two feature credits such as  I Want to Live! Brother Frank was a journalist.

Tom Mankiewicz, writer or co-writer of Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun and The Eagle Has Landed, was Joe's son. Tom brought humour to the first Bond referred to here, writing Wint and Kidd to finish each other's sentences, for example, or showing them taking snapshots of their murder victim.