Prologue -- Rosebud -- Gertrude Slescynski -- The New Yorker -- Yes, the New Yorker -- Hollywood -- Trapped -- Monkeybitch -- American -- Fratricide -- A new heart -- Ships in the night -- Eve -- No way out -- Hooray for the Bulldog -- Man-about-town -- A river in Egypt -- Legacy

"A dual biography of brothers Herman and Joseph Mankiewicz, each a Hollywood legend"--

Herman Mankiewicz went to Hollywood in 1926, was almost immediately successful, and became one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood. His brother Joe, eleven years younger, focused, organized, a disciplined writer, produced, wrote and directed Oscar winning films before seeing his career upended by the spectacular fiasco of Cleopatra. Davis-- grandson of Herman, great-nephew of Joe, shows us their dreams and desires, fears and feuds, struggles to free themselves from their dark past; and the driving forces that kept them bound to a system they loved and hated. -- adapted from jacket