The 1970s 177 didn’t say so, but he was so impressed that these hip people on television loved this movie and his son wrote it. But we were not a family like that. American Germs This was the age of the disaster movie: Earthquake, The Towering Inferno. Two producers who became very famous, Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar, later Carolco, put together a package and a script called The Cassandra Crossing. American germs—germ warfare—were on a train and suddenly got loose, and the whole train was quarantined but it kept moving. It was kind of anti-American: the implication at the end was that the Americans sent it over a faulty bridge for everybody to die. So it was a fight against time with everybody trying to save themselves. And they couldn’t get off the train. The script needed a rewrite, and Peter Guber (the wunderkind head of Columbia) said, “There’s only a couple of people who could do this, but you’ve got to do this quick.” The director was George Cosmatos, who would later direct Rambo. George smoked four packs a day. This picture was his whole life. They had signed Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, and Burt Lancaster. Sophia said, “We want top writers here. This script isn’t right.” So they gave her a list, and she said, “Tom Mankiewicz. He was here ten years ago. Get him, I love him.” I received a cable I still have from Carlo Ponti saying, “Sophia and I are wondering, could you come over for a few weeks and do some work?” I said, “Absolutely. Why don’t I send you pages right now, because I’m producing a picture”—Mother, Jugs & Speed. “I will also call Burt Lancaster, who’s in L.A.” Although he’s only in the first twenty minutes of the movie, Burt hated his part. I’d written some pages and sent them to his agent. My assistant very breathlessly came into my office and said, “Burt Lancaster’s on the phone!” I was almost as impressed as she was. I’d grown up with Trapeze, Brute Force, Elmer Gantry, and From Here to Eternity. I mean, he’s Burt Lancaster. I got on the phone. He talked just like Burt Lancaster. “These pages are good, kid. They’re very good. Much better. I have a few suggestions.” I said, “Please, anything.” “Could I stop by your office at Fox?” “Absolutely, any time.” “Say about ten in the morning.” “I could come down to you.” My Life as a Mankiewicz 178 He said, “No, no, I’ll be in town. I’ll come to you. Ten o’clock. Oh, and Tom, don’t forget to leave a pass at the gate.” I thought, God, Burt Lancaster driving up to any studio, you don’t need a pass; you’re fucking Burt Lancaster! So he arrived the next morning for our meeting. And he was wonderful. He said, “I’m going off to Europe now, but you’ll send the pages to me.” I said, “Absolutely.” He said, “It’s very nice to meet you.” I said, “Could you do me a favor before you leave?” “What is that?” “Some people today are being brought up on Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, but I was brought up on Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Before you leave, could you just laugh for me?” He said, “You mean like ha, ha, ha?” And he went, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” like in his movies, and I started laughing. He went louder, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” And he backed out of my office going, “Ha, ha, ha, ha!” It was just wonderful. I was in hysterics. The only time I ever met him. I don’t care whether my father was in the movies or not, when you run into one of your heroes, it elicits the same reaction every time like when I was seventeen and turned around and there was John Wayne. You’re a movie fan. I was so thrilled to be in the same room with Burt Lancaster. If he had said about the script, “No, here I think I should rape five people,” I would have said, “Yeah, good idea, good idea!” because I’m with Burt Lancaster. So during Mother, Jugs & Speed, over six or seven weeks, I did some work on the Cassandra script. It had an all-star cast: Ingrid Thulin, who was one...