Herman Mankiewicz was working as New Yorker magazine’s first drama critic in 1925 when his colleagues – among them Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker – starting moonlighting in Hollywood.

“The half-time help of wits is no better than the full-time help of half wits,” quipped Mankiewicz, who quickly departed the magazine to become a legendary screenwriter (and was recently played by John Malkovich in “RKO 281,” an HBO movie about the making of “Citizen Kane.”)

Films by Mankiewicz and a host of other contributors are represented in “The New Yorker Goes to the Movies,” an 18-film retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade theater that opens Tuesday with two hilarious Marx Brothers vehicles – “Monkey Business” and “Horse Feathers” – devised by another New Yorker mainstay, S.J. Perelman.

Mankiewicz produced and contributed without credit to the writing of both movies, as well as to the lesser known “Million Dollar Legs,” a wild 1932 satire starring W.C. Fields as the president of Klopstokia, where all men are athletes and all women are named Angela.

It will be shown Wednesday, along with Woody Allen’s “Bananas,” an farce notable for Sylvester Stallone’s film debut (as a subway mugger) and Howard Cossell’s commentary on a Central American assassination and Allen’s character’s wedding night. Both films are accompanied by droll shorts – “How to Sleep” an “The Sex Life of the Polyp,” respectively – written and starring Benchley, who also served as the magazine’s drama critic.

Charles Brackett, who held the drama seat between Mankiewicz and Benchley, also became a noted screenwriter, usually in collaboration with Billy Wilder. He’s represented in the series (on Friday) by “Midnight,” a deliciously sophisticated 1939 romantic comedy starring Claudette Colbert as a Kansas showgirl who bewitches Parisian swells including John Barrymore, Don Ameche and Mary Astor.

Other New Yorker writers who turn up include Steve Martin (“L.A. Story,” Thursday), Dorothy Parker (“Trade Winds,” Friday), Ruth McKenney (the musical version of “My Sister Eileen” with a singing Jack Lemmon, Saturday), Sally Benson (“Meet Me in St. Louis,” Saturday), James Thurber (“The Male Animal,” Dec. 7), Truman Capote (“In Cold Blood,” Dec. 8) and Penelope Gilliatt (“Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Dec. 9).

The series – curated by the New Yorker’s current film critic, David Denby, along with Kent Jones of the Film Society of Lincoln Center – also includes John Huston’s “The Red Badge of Courage” (Dec. 8), whose making was the subject of a famous New Yorker article by Lillian Ross. Denby’s legendary predecessor, Pauline Kael, is represented by one of her favorite movies, “Last Tango in Paris” (showing this Thursday).

For information, call (212) 875-5600.

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Six new and four recent films from Iceland are being shown from Friday through Dec. 9 at the Quad Cinema.

A focus of “Northern Lights: New Films From Iceland” is four films by the country’s best known director, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, whose 1992 “Children of Nature” received an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Language Film. Fridriksson will be present to present his 1995 hit “Cold Fever” with Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens.

For information, call (212) 591-1840.

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Some 66 short films from around the world – 25 having their U.S. premieres – will be shown at the 33rd New York Exposition of Short Film and Video, opening Wednesday for a five-day run on Friday at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium.

Documentary, animation, experimental and fiction films are included in selection from 17 countries.

For information, call (212) 505-7742.