The Plot Thickens

Season 7 Trailer 3: Stanley

Actor Sterling Hayden details the worst day of his life, which occurred on the set of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bo

Season 7 Trailer 2: Stanley

Katharina Kubrick recalls life at home with her famous father, where music was a constant presence. Stanley, the new season of The Plot Thickens, starts September 24. Le

Season 7 Trailer: Stanley

Steven Spielberg tells Ben Mankiewicz about the deal he struck with Stanley Kubrick for information about a famous cut scene from Dr. Strangelove. Stanley, an eleven-epi

Ben Answers Your Cleopatra Questions

Ben Mankiewicz received hundreds of voicemails about Cleopatra, and now he's answering them! Well, as many of them as he can. In this special bonus episode, Ben weighs in

Ask Ben Your Cleopatra Questions!

We’re doing our first-ever Q&A bonus episode, and we want your questions! Call 404-885-0013 to leave a voicemail for Ben. You can ask about Cleopatra, Ben's great-uncle J

Wildly Successful and Much Maligned

The fate of 20th Century Fox hangs in the balance as Cleopatra premieres. Critics and audiences weigh in, Elizabeth and Richard face momentous life decisions, and Joe sin

Mankiewicz vs. Zanuck

Joe’s body reaches its breaking point, and he’s forced to film the last few scenes from a wheelchair.  But when production wraps, Fox installs a new studio head, Darryl F

Le Scandale

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s love affair becomes a tabloid sensation.  Richard drinks and Elizabeth cries, they fight and make up, all while trying to keep the a

The Girl is on Salary

Joe Mankiewicz decides to recast two leading men and hires Richard Burton and Rex Harrison – major talents who turn out to be major headaches. He also moves filming to a

Joe

While Elizabeth Taylor fights for her life in a London hospital, Joe Mankiewicz begins to grapple with the movie he’s inherited. The script is dreadful, the sets are grot

London Slog

20th Century Fox pays Elizabeth Taylor a record-breaking salary to play Cleopatra, then tries to save money by filming the movie in England. That turns out to be a disast

Season 6 Trailer: Cleopatra

His studio was collapsing. His budget was skyrocketing. And his two stars were making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Those were just some of the headaches facing Jo

The Legend

After being removed from a film and ruining his friendship with Henry Fonda, John Ford begins to openly challenge his previous work. He deconstructs the Western and, for

The Mythmaker

At the height of his powers, John Ford directs his masterpiece, an anti-racist Western called The Searchers. It’s a movie of contradictions: John Wayne plays the hero, bu

Monument Valley

After D-Day, Ford goes on a historic bender then heads home... not to Hollywood but to Monument Valley, a secluded land with incredible scenery. There, he creates his own

The Search

This week, Ben traces the mystery of John Ford's missing D-Day documentary. The one time Ford talked about it, he claimed it was buried in a government film vault, too di

The Commander

Ford is finally in the military and his first assignment is… to make a sex ed film for soldiers! Soon he sees real combat and is injured while filming the battle of Midwa

The Araner

John Ford buys a yacht, where he cavorts, drinks and vacations. But he also keeps an eye on the looming threat in Europe, and uses his new vessel to enlist in the Naval R

Go West, Young Man

John Ford was born in Maine as Sean Aloysius O’Feeney… or so he says. His birth records say differently, and it would not be the last time he changes his name. As a child

Season 5 Trailer: Decoding John Ford

Meet John Ford, the curmudgeon with an eyepatch who just happened to be the greatest filmmaker of the 20th Century. Ford was a bully and a drunk who ruled Hollywood for f