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Hail, Caesar: Revisionist Eddie Mannix Had Ties
by Sandra Olmsted
The Eddie Mannix portrayed by Josh Brolin in the Coen Brothers latest film, Hail, Caesar, bears little resemblance to any account of the real man I have encountered in my considerable research on Hollywood. The real Edie Mannix had some connection with the mob before moving into working for MGM as the studio’s “Fixer,” comptroller, and general manager.
Mannix the Fixer, who established or maintained connections to law enforcement and the mob, could be compared to in some ways to a military Dog Robber.
During the Golden Age of Hollywood, Mannix fixed the studios’ problems, primarily with talent, and he used many of the brutal and direct skills learned when he worked for the mob. The version of Mannix presented by Joel and Ethan Coen is softened considerably by showing Mannix as a man who obsessively goes to confession, much to the annoyance of his priest.
Among Eddie’s sins are mundane things like lying to his wife about smoking cigarette when he promised to quit and more unusual ones like slapping a movie star although he only confesses to slapping the male star, not the female one. By most accounts, the real Mannix did more than slap studio employees, but he kept the talent in line, protected the studios’ assets, and prevented “problems” from reaching the press and police. The Coen brothers embrace this image in their sly, raucous comedy.
The film opens with Mannix at confession and covers a few days in Mannix’s life when his biggest problem is the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), Capitol Pictures’ top star, during the shooting of a sandals-and-swords, Biblical epic. He also has to contend with:
DeeAnna Moran’s (Scarlett Johansson) out of wedlock pregnancy and desire to adopt her own child, the miscasting by East Coast executives of cowboy Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) in prestigious director Laurence Laurentz’s (Ralph Fiennes) drawing room drama, and a job offer from Lockheed while he waits for ransom instructions. Whitlock’s kidnappers, a group of communist sympathizing studio writers, plan to indoctrinate the none-too-bright Whitlock, who’s unaware that he has been kidnapped because he thinks he’s just woke up from a bender. With the ransom gotten from petty cash and instructions promised by the kidnappers, Eddie only has to content with competing, gossip-columnist twin sisters, Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton) sniffing around.
Hail, Caesar provides a carefully crafted behind-the-scenes glimpse of Golden Age Hollywood with authentic set and costume design. The film also has a passel of stars including Frances McDormand, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Fisher Stevens, Patrick Fischler, David Krumholtz and Fred Melamed, whose appearances feed audience desires to see their favorite stars. My favorite cameo is McDormand as Moviola operating editor C.C. Calhoun, and her gag is realistic, and I know that because it happened with my hair in film school.
The film is enjoyable for fans of Hollywood, has great performances, and subtle humor that requires careful listening to the dialogue, yet it lacks some of the darkly-humored comedy of Coen Brothers films like Fargo. Hail, Caesar, a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking. In theaters now, Hail, Caesar runs a delightful and fast-paced 104 minutes.
