Anthony Mann

Anthony Mann was an American film director and stage actor. He came to prominence as a skilled director of film noir and Westerns, and for his historical epics.
Mann started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where he worked as a talent scout and casting director. He then became an assistant director, most notably working for Preston Sturges. His directorial debut was Dr. Broadway. He directed several feature films for numerous production companies, including RKO Pictures, Eagle-Lion Films, Universal Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first major success was T-Men, garnering notable recognition for producing several films in the film noir genre through modest budgets and short shooting schedules. As a director, he often collaborated with cinematographer John Alton.
During the 1950s, Mann shifted to directing Western films starring several major stars of the era, including James Stewart. He directed Stewart in eight films, including Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, and The Man from Laramie. While successful in the United States, these films became appreciated and studied among French film critics, several of whom would become influential with the French New Wave. In 1955, Jacques Rivette hailed Mann as "one of the four great directors of postwar Hollywood". The other three were Nicholas Ray, Richard Brooks, and Robert Aldrich.
By the 1960s, Mann turned to large-scale filmmaking, directing the medieval epic El Cid, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, and The Fall of the Roman Empire. Both films were produced by Samuel Bronston. Mann then directed the war film The Heroes of Telemark and the spy thriller A Dandy in Aspic. In 1967, Mann died from a heart attack in Berlin before he had finished the latter film; its star Laurence Harvey completed the film, albeit uncredited.

Early life

Mann was born Emil Anton Bundsmann in San Diego, California. His father, Emile Theodore Bundsmann, an academic, was born in the village of Rosice, Chrudim, Bohemia to a Sudeten-German Catholic family. His mother, Bertha, a drama teacher from Macon, Georgia, was an American of Bavarian Jewish descent. At the time of his birth, Mann's parents were members of the Theosophical Society community of Lomaland in San Diego County.
When Mann was three, his parents moved to Austria to seek treatment for his father's ill health, leaving Mann behind in Lomaland. Mann's mother did not return for him until he was fourteen, and only then at the urging of a cousin who had paid him a visit and was worried about his treatment and situation at Lomaland. In 1917, Mann's family relocated to New York where he developed a penchant for acting. This was reinforced with Mann's participation in the Young Men's Hebrew Association. He continued to act in school productions, studying at East Orange Grammar and Newark's Central High School. At the latter school, he portrayed the title role in Alcestis; one of his friends and classmates was future Hollywood studio executive Dore Schary. After his father's death in 1923, Mann dropped out during his senior year to help with the family's finances.

Career

1925–1937: Theater career

Back in New York, Mann took a job as a night watchman for Westinghouse Electric, which enabled him to look for stage work during the day. Within a few months, Mann was working full-time at the Triangle Theater in Greenwich Village. Using the name "Anton Bundsmann", he appeared as an actor in The Dybbuk with an English translation by Henry Alsberg, The Little Clay Cart, and The Squall by Jean Bart. Towards the end of the decade, Mann appeared in the Broadway productions of The Blue Peter and Uncle Vanya.
In 1930, Mann joined the Theatre Guild, as a production manager and eventually as a director. Nevertheless, he continued to act, appearing in The Streets of New York, or Poverty is No Crime, and The Bride the Sun Shines On portraying the "Duke of Calcavalle". In 1933, Mann directed a stage adaptation of Christopher Morley's Thunder on the Left, which was performed at the Maxine Elliott's Theatre. In a theatre review for The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson dismissed the play, writing "its medley of realism and fantasy grows less intelligible scene by scene, and some of the acting is disenchantingly profane." He later directed Cherokee Night, So Proudly We Hail, and The Big Blow. He worked for various stock companies, and in 1934, he established his own, which later became Long Island's Red Barn Playhouse.

1937–1941: Move to Hollywood and television career

In 1937, Mann began working for Selznick International Pictures as a talent scout and casting director. He also directed screen tests for a number of films, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Intermezzo, Gone with the Wind, and Rebecca. One of the unknown actresses he tested was Jennifer Jones. After a few months at Selznick, Mann moved to Paramount Pictures to serve as an assistant director for several film directors, most particularly for Preston Sturges on Sullivan's Travels. Mann recalled, " let me go through the entire production, watching him direct – and I directed a little. I'd stage a scene and he'd tell me how lousy it was. Then I watched the editing and I was able gradually to build up knowledge. Preston insisted I make a film as soon as possible." He served three years in the position.
Meanwhile, Mann did notable, but mostly lost, work as a director for NBC's experimental television station W2XBS from 1939 to 1940. This included condensations of the hit Western play The Missouri Legend and the melodrama The Streets of New York. A five-minute silent clip of the latter show survives in the Museum of Television and Radio, including noted actors Norman Lloyd and George Coulouris.

1942–1946: Move to directing

Through the efforts of his friend MacDonald Carey, Mann made his directorial debut with Dr. Broadway at Paramount, which starred Carey. Decades later, Mann remembered he was told to complete shooting the film in eighteen days. Upon its release, Herman Schoenfeld of Variety was dismissive of the film writing, "The dialog could have just as well have been written in baby talk, and Anton Mann's direction just wasn't. The photography is spotty and the production looks inexpensive. Acting is weak, only Edward Ciannelli as the killer who gets killed, turning in an adequate job." Harrison's Reports was more complimentary, stating the film was a "fairly good program entertainment" with "colorful characters, human interest, fast action, and situations that hold one in suspense."
His follow-up film was Moonlight in Havana at Universal Pictures. The film featured Allan Jones and Jane Frazee. In August 1944, it was reported Mann might return to Broadway to direct Mirror for Children. After nine months without directing a feature film, Mann went to Republic Pictures where he directed Nobody's Darling and My Best Gal.
He next directed Strangers in the Night. The film tells of Hilda Blake who creates an imaginary "daughter" for Sgt. Johnny Meadows who is injured in the South Pacific. After being discharged and returning to the U.S., Meadows searches for the imaginary woman. He is informed of the truth by Dr. Leslie Ross, who is later murdered by Blake; in turn, Blake plans to murder Meadows. The film was notable for its noirish mise-en-scène and psychological depth that appeared in Mann's latter films. Mann then directed The Great Flamarion, starring Erich von Stroheim and Mary Beth Hughes. During principal photography, Mann clashed with von Stroheim, describing him at length as "difficult. He was a personality, not really an actor... He drove me mad. He was a genius. I'm not a genius: I'm a worker."
Mann moved to RKO to direct Two O'Clock Courage, itself a remake of the 1936 film Two in the Dark, with Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford in the leading roles. That same year, he also directed Sing Your Way Home. Mann returned to Republic Pictures for Strange Impersonation. He directed The Bamboo Blonde at RKO.

1947–1949: Film noir and career breakthrough

By 1946, Mann had signed with Eagle-Lion Films, a fledgling studio founded by Arthur B. Krim and Robert Benjamin. There, he directed Railroaded!. According to Mann, the film was shot in ten days. A film review in Variety noted the film was "an old-type, blood-and-thunder gangster meller that's better than its no-name cast would indicate," and particular praised Mann for directing "with real acumen in developing maximum of suspense."
That same year, T-Men was released. According to Elmer Lincoln Irey, the film originated from a rejected offer to dramatize the U.S. Treasury's investigation of Al Capone on tax evasion charges. Instead, Irey brought forward three cases related to the investigation. Initially budgeted at $400,000, T-Men was shot within three weeks from July 31 to August 23, with four days of reshoots in September. For the film, Mann specifically requested cinematographer John Alton, who was loaned out from Republic for the job, marking T-Men as their first collaboration. During its release, the film earned $2.5 million worldwide.
He went back to RKO for Desperate, which he also co-wrote with Dorothy Atlas. A review in Variety positively wrote it was "a ripsnorting gangster meller, with enough gunplay, bumping off of characters and grim brutality to smack of pre-code days"; Mann's direction was noted as "being done skillfully".
Mann returned to Eagle-Lion to direct Raw Deal, reteaming with screenwriter John C. Higgins, screenwriter Leopold Atlas and actor Dennis O'Keefe. The film centers on Joe, who has been wrongly imprisoned and fingered by his old friends. He escapes from prison and goes on the run with two women, a nice social worker, Ann, whom he takes as a hostage, and a femme fatale, Pat, who helped release him. Both women are doomed to be in love with him. The film review magazine Harrison's Reports wrote: "Fast-paced and packed with action, this gangster-type melodrama should go over pretty well with adult audiences, in spite of the fact that the plot is not always logical"; it also noted "Anthony Mann's taut direction has squeezed every bit of excitement and suspense out of the material at hand." Variety noted: "Though a medium budgeter, is dressed tidily with a good production and some marquee weight furnished by" the cast. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, writing it is "a movie—and a pretty low-grade one, at that—in which sensations of fright and excitement are more diligently pursued than common sense."
Mann's success with Desperate and T-Men made him Eagle-Lion's most valuable director. In February 1948, Mann was hired to direct a dramatization of the storming of the Bastille, with Richard Basehart to portray an aide to General Lafayette. With Walter Wanger preoccupied with Joan of Arc, he handed off supervisory duties to production designer William Cameron Menzies. Principal photography lasted 29 days, from August to September 1948, and cost $850,000. Reteaming with Alton, he and Mann developed a low-cost noir style, using low lighting levels and omnipresent shadows on minimal decor, high-angled camera shots, and rear projection for wide crowd shots. The resulting film was titled Reign of Terror. After filming had begun, Mann was brought in to direct several scenes for He Walked by Night, which also starred Basehart. Mann again collaborated with Higgins and Alton on the film. However, Alfred L. Werker was given the official director's credit.
While researching on T-Men, Higgins and Mann had come across the topic of Border Patrol agents along the Mexico–United States border. Border Incident was initially developed at Eagle-Lion, but in December 1948, MGM's Dore Schary purchased the script for $50,000 and hired Mann to direct the film. Schary had also signed Mann onto a multi-picture contract with MGM.
Beforehand, in July 1947, Mann and Francis Rosenwald had written a script for Follow Me Quietly. It was first purchased by Jack Wrather Productions for Allied Artists, with Don Castle in the lead role. According to Eddie Muller, of Turner Classic Movies, Mann was slated to direct the film, but was enticed by Edward Small to instead direct T-Men and Raw Deal. Months later, in December, RKO had purchased the script from Wrather and assigned Martin Rackin write a new script. Due to Mann's absence, Richard Fleischer was hired to direct Follow Me Quietly, and there has been speculation suggesting Mann did uncredited filming. However, Muller has disagreed.
Mann and Rosenwald wrote another script titled Stakeout, which told of a police detective attempting to expose a corrupt political machine. In October 1949, independent film producer Louis Mandel purchased the script, with Larry Parks cast in the lead role. Joseph H. Lewis was set to direct the film until he left due to a contractual dispute. By March 1950, Parks's wife Betty Garrett was cast in the femme fatale role, but the project never went into production.