Delbert Mann: 1920-2007

With the passing of Delbert Mann goes the last of the great film directors who got there start with live drama during the so-called 'Golden Age of Television'. Mann carried the small scale sensibilities of his television background with him into movies, concentrating on intament story lines, the first and most well known of which was 1955's best picture winner 'Marty', itself based on a teleplay. Mann's greatest work in my opinion was 'Separate Tables', a captivating account of two very different romantic relationships, which earned David Niven his Oscar. The Director would make his real money and extend his popular appeal with a series of Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedies, but would ultimately return to the small screen where he felt they were still interested in making movies out of the kinds of stories he wanted to tell. Ironically it was during his second television period that Mann made his largest scope production with a remake of 'All Quite on the Western Front', though the sequel to 'Patton' he directed ('The Lat Days of Patton') was every bit as intament as the first was epic. Rest in peace the anti-David Lean.