Delbert Mann

Delbert Mann (born January 30, 1920, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.—died November 11, 2007, Los Angeles, California) was an American film and television director who applied the low-budget intimacy of television to the big screen, notably in the film adaptations of such teleplays as Marty (1955) and The Bachelor Party (1957).

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

Early work

Mann attended Vanderbilt University (B.A., 1941) and later served in World War II as a bomber pilot. After the war he studied drama at Yale University and then directed stock productions before joining the television network NBC in 1949. That year he began directing features for The Philco Television Playhouse, one of the most prestigious live-television showcases for drama. He helmed more than 70 episodes of the show, most notably Marty (1953) and The Bachelor Party (1953). The teleplays were written by Paddy Chayefsky, and the success of the episodes provided Mann with his entry into Hollywood.

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In 1955 Mann directed his first film, an adaptation of Marty. The drama, a sensitive portrayal of ordinary people looking for love, was hugely popular with critics and audiences. It garnered eight Academy Award nominations and won for best picture, actor (Ernest Borgnine), and screenplay (Chayefsky). In addition, Mann won for best director, becoming one of the few to receive the award for a first film. Marty also became the first American movie to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. Mann then adapted The Bachelor Party (1957) for the big screen. The caustic drama—with Carolyn Jones, Don Murray, and E.G. Marshall—follows the attendees of a bachelor party where the celebrating turns to self-reflection.

In 1958 Mann directed Desire Under the Elms, a widely criticized adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s tragic play; Sophia Loren was miscast as a newlywed who falls in love with her stepson (Anthony Perkins). Separate Tables (1958)—adapted by Terence Rattigan from his play—was better, a potent drama that examined adultery, divorce, and spinsterhood among visitors at a British hotel. The film received an Academy Award nomination for best picture, and David Niven and Wendy Hiller won Oscars. Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, and Burt Lancaster also gave notable performances. Less successful was Middle of the Night (1959), a drama about a wealthy widower (Fredric March) who falls in love with a much younger employer (Kim Novak), and the couple decide to wed, over the objections of family and friends; Chayefsky adapted the script from his play.

Mann’s propensity for adapting stage vehicles continued with The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), a tepid version of the William Inge play about the trials and tribulations of an Oklahoma family; Robert Preston starred as the philandering husband, Dorothy McGuire as his wife, and Angela Lansbury as his mistress. With The Outsider (1961)—a biopic about Native American Ira Hamilton Hayes, who helped raise the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima during World War II—Mann finally broke away from theatrical dramas; a strong performance by Curtis in the title role anchors the film.

Mann demonstrated a deft comic touch with the Doris Day vehicles Lover Come Back (1961) and That Touch of Mink (1962); the former costarred Rock Hudson, and the latter featured Cary Grant. Both films are notable examples of early 1960s romantic comedies. Hudson also starred in the aviation film A Gathering of Eagles (1963), and Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page gave strong performances as two middle-aged people who fall in love in Dear Heart (1964).

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Mann’s next films were largely unsuccessful. Quick Before It Melts (1964) was an unsatisfying comedy about a researcher (George Maharis) at an Antarctic compound, and Mister Buddwing (1966) was a pallid drama about an amnesia victim (James Garner) trying to learn about his past life. The lacklustre comedy Fitzwilly (1967) centers on a butler (Dick Van Dyke) who plans to rob a department store on Christmas Eve—for a good cause.

Later television work

After that string of disappointing films, Mann focused on television movies, which would form the bulk of his output over the next 25 years. In 1968 he directed an adaptation of Heidi, which remains best remembered in the United States because NBC ended coverage of a National Football League (NFL) game in order to air the TV movie at its scheduled time. The decision outraged fans, who missed a come-from-behind win by the Oakland Raiders. NFL games were later required to be shown in their entirety.

Mann’s other notable TV films include a 1969 adaptation of David Copperfield, with Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Ralph Richardson, and Laurence Olivier; a 1970 adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring George C. Scott and Susannah York; a 1975 adaptation of A Girl Named Sooner, about a neglected girl (Susan Deer) who is taken from a bootlegger (Cloris Leachman) and placed with a childless couple (Richard Crenna and Lee Remick); the 1978 drama Breaking Up, starring Remick as a mother of two who is deserted by her husband (Granville Van Dusen); and a 1979 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, with Patricia Neal, Borgnine, and Richard Thomas.

Mann left television to make Night Crossing (1982), a theatrically released Disney production that was based on the real-life story of two families who escaped from East Germany via hot-air balloons; the drama starred John Hurt and Jane Alexander. Mann then made his last feature film, Brontë (1983), which set Julie Harris’s one-woman monologue about the life of Charlotte Brontë against stunning Irish locations.

Mann’s final credits were for television. He made the two-part movie A Death in California (1985), a drama based on a true story about the relationship that developed between a socialite (Cheryl Ladd) and the man (Sam Elliott) who murdered her boyfriend and then raped her, and The Last Days of Patton (1986), with George C. Scott as the U.S. Army general. Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore (1992) was a praised drama starring Walter Matthau as a small-town attorney in the 1940s who takes on an unpopular case, and Incident in a Small Town (1994) had Matthau reprising that role. After Lily in Winter (1994) Mann retired from directing.

He served (1969–71) as president of the Directors Guild of America.