John Houseman, whose presentation in Mank as an shy pedantic fusspot endlessly saying "but Mank, you can't!" is a far greater reality distortion than anything else.

That is disappointing. Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock (1999) contains its own falsifications—Olive Stanton gets to be a character, but Howard Da Silva gets fictionally replaced? I thought the blacklist broke in the '60's—but Cary Elwes' Houseman is eternally quotable in our household, answering Welles' charge that the producer can't quit the production with the incontestable rebuttal, "As the producer, I can fire anybody I want, and I am fucking fired!" I believe he tosses the script over his shoulder for punctuation.

Meanwhile, Marion Davies while not suited to the dramatic heroine roles Hearst kept wanting for her was in most people's testimonies a delightful comedienne

I've seen her in both silent and sound comedies and it's true. Cain and Mabel (1936) and (briefly described) Show People (1928) seem to be the only ones I've actually written about.

And in conclusion? Watch RKO 281 instead.

I did, because I love Liev Schreiber, and its legacy is that twice in the last two weeks someone has asked me who's playing Herman J. Mankiewicz in Mank and both times I've had to stop myself from responding, "John Malkovich."