October 14, 2022
Anthony Mann Career Summary:
Occupational Inheritance: No
Social Class: Upper-middle; father academic (Catholic); mother drama teacher (of Jewish descent)
Nationality: US; San Diego, California
Education:
Training: Assistant to Selznick; actor; assistant director (Preston Sturges)
First Film: Dr. Broadway (1942), Paramount; aged 36
First Oscar Nomination: No
Other Nominations: No
Genre (specialties): film noirs; westerns, biopics
Collaborators: Actor Jimmy Stewart; cinematographer John Alton.
Popular Films: Winchester 73; Glenn Miller; El Cid
Last Film:1968; aged 62; posthumously
Contract: several studios, RKO, MGM
Career Output: 40 features (check uncredited jobs)
Career Span: 1942-1965; 23
Marriage: 3 wives; second singer Sarita Montiel; third ballerina
Politics:
Retirement: No
Death: died 1967 heart attack; aged 60
Anthony Mann (June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967)
Mann is best remembered for his work in the film noir and Westerns genres.
As a director, he often collaborated with the cinematographer John Alton.
He directed films for a variety of production companies, from RKO to MGM, and worked with many major stars of the era.
He made several Westerns with James Stewart, such as Winchester ’73 (1950), and he was the director of the medieval epic El Cid (1961), working with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren.
He also directed the big-budget film Cimarron (1960), which starred Glenn Ford and Maria Schell.
Mann was born Emil Anton Bundsmann in San Diego, California. His father, Emile Theodore Bundsmann, an academic, was from an Austrian Catholic family, and his mother, Bertha Weichselbaum, a drama teacher, was an American of Bavarian Jewish descent.
Shortly after their marriage, Mann’s parents joined the proto-hippie religious cult of Lomaland in San Diego County where there was an emphasis on artistic, religious, and military training and where children were raised separately from their parents.
When Mann was 3, his parents returned to his father’s native Austria to seek treatment for Professor Bundsmann’s ill health, leaving Mann behind in Lomaland.
Mann’s mother did not return for Mann until he was 14, 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.
When his father permanently institutionalized, Mann and his mother struggled financially in Newark, New Jersey. Mann maintaining many odd jobs throughout the remainder of his middle and high school years.
Mann appeared in some high school productions with his friend and classmate, future Hollywood studio executive Dore Schary. Schary would graduate from Newark’s Central High School, but Mann dropped out in his senior year.
Mann movde to New York and took a night job that enabled him to look for stage work during the day. He used the name “Anton Bundsmann.”
Mann as Stage Actor and Director
He appeared as an actor in The Blue Peter (1925), The Little Clay Cart (1926), and Uncle Vanya (1929).
In 1930 he began directing as well, but he continued to act, appearing in The Streets of New York, or Poverty is No Crime (1931), and The Bride the Sun Shines On (1933). He directed Thunder on the Left (1933).
He worked for various stock companies. In 1934, he set up his own which later became Long Island’s Red Barn Playhouse.
He later directed So Proudly We Hail (1936).
During these years he met and married his first wife Mildred, when they both worked at Macy’s department store in New York City. Contrary to misleading newspaper reports, Mildred was a clerk and not a store executive or manager. They had two children and divorced in 1956.
Selznick International Pictures
In 1937, Mann accepted an offer to work for Selznick International Pictures as a talent scout, casting director and screen test director. Among the films he worked on were The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Intermezzo (1939) and Rebecca (1940).
He stayed in New York City and continued to direct plays, such as Haiti for the Federal Theatre, The Big Blow (1938), and The Hard Way (1940).
Mann became an assistant director by the 1940s, helping Preston Sturges on the film Sullivan’s Travels (1941).
He subsequently directed low-budget assignments for RKO and Republic Pictures.
Directorial Debut
Mann made his directorial debut with Dr. Broadway (1942) at Paramount.
He followed it with Moonlight in Havana (1943) at Universal.
Mann went to Republic where he made Nobody’s Darling (1944), My Best Gal (1944), Strangers in the Night (1944), and The Great Flamarion (1945).
Mann then moved to RKO to direct Two O’Clock Courage (1945) and Sing Your Way Home (1945), then went back to Republic for Strange Impersonation (1946).
He directed The Bamboo Blonde (1946) at RKO.
Mann’s career took a leap when he made T-Men (1947) for Eagle Lion, which was a critical and commercial success.
He followed it with Railroaded! (1947).
He went back to RKO for Desperate (1947) then had some other big successes at Eagle Lion with He Walked by Night (1948) and Raw Deal (1948).
Dore Schary, then head of production at MGM, hired Mann to make Border Incident (1949).
He helmed Reign of Terror (1949) for Eagle Lion, and did some uncredited work on Follow Me Quietly (1949) at RKO.
Mann’s first major film was the Western The Furies (1950) at Paramount.
He then made a Western at Universal, starring James Stewart, Winchester ’73 (1950), which was a huge success.
MGM
MGM hired Mann to direct Side Street (1950), and he stayed at that studio to do a popular Western with Robert Taylor, Devil’s Doorway (1950), and a thriller with Dick Powell, The Tall Target (1952).
Mann was reunited with Stewart for another Western at Universal, Bend of the River (1952).
The actor and director then teamed on making a contemporary adventure film, Thunder Bay (1953) at Universal, and a Western, The Naked Spur (1953) at MGM.
Mann and Stewart had their biggest success to-date with The Glenn Miller Story (1954). Also well received was their film, The Far Country (1954).
Mann went to Columbia to make a Western without Stewart, The Last Frontier (1955), starring Victor Mature.
Star and director were reunited on The Man from Laramie (1955) at Columbia.
Stewart and Mann were meant to make Night Passage (1957) together, but they had disagreement, and another director took over; they never collaborated again.
Mann directed a musical starring Mario Lanza, Serenade (1956).
He married one of the cast members, singer Sarita Montiel; they divorced in 1963.
He made a western with Henry Fonda, The Tin Star (1957), then teamed with Philip Yordan to make two movies starring Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray, Men in War (1957), a war film, and God’s Little Acre (1958).
In between, Mann directed Gary Cooper in a popular Western, Man of the West (1958).
Mann went to MGM to direct Glenn Ford in an expensive remake of Cimarron (1960), which failed to recoup its cost at the box office.
He was also the original director of Spartacus (1960), but he was fired early in production by producer-star Kirk Douglas and replaced with Stanley Kubrick.
Mann received an offer from producer Samuel Bronston to do a medieval epic written by Yordan, El Cid (1961), which was a notable success.
However, a follow up epic for the same collaborators, The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), was a huge flop and contributed to the demise of Bronston’s empire.
In 1964, he was head of the jury at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.
He then made a British war film starring Douglas and Richard Harris, The Heroes of Telemark (1965).
A year after divorcing first wife, Mann married actress Sara Montiel, who had starred in Serenade (1956). In 1963, the marriage was annulled in Madrid.
His third marriage was to Anna Kuzko, a ballerina formerly with Sadler’s Wells, who had one son, Nicholas.
On April 29, 1967, Mann died from a heart attack in Berlin while filming the spy thriller, A Dandy in Aspic. The film was completed by the film’s star Laurence Harvey.
Filmography
1940s: 17
Dr. Broadway (1942)
Moonlight in Havana (1942)
Nobody’s Darling (1943)
My Best Gal (1944)
Strangers in the Night (1944)
Sing Your Way Home (1945)
The Great Flamarion (1945)
Two O’Clock Courage (1945)
Strange Impersonation (1946)
The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
T-Men (1947)
Railroaded! (1947)
Desperate (1947) – also story
He Walked by Night (1948) director (uncredited), with Alfred L. Werker
Raw Deal (1948)
Border Incident (1949)
Reign of Terror (1949)
Follow Me Quietly (1949) director (uncredited), with Richard Fleischer; also story
1950s: 18
The Furies (1950)
Winchester ’73 (1950)
Side Street (1950)
Devil’s Doorway (1950)
Quo Vadis (1951) second-unit director (uncredited)
The Tall Target (1951)
Bend of the River (1953)
Thunder Bay (1953)
The Naked Spur (1953)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
The Far Country (1954)
The Last Frontier (1955)
The Man from Laramie (1955)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Serenade (1956)
The Tin Star (1957)
Men in War (1957) – also producer
Man of the West (1958)
God’s Little Acre (1958)
1960s: 5
Cimarron (1960)
El Cid (1961)
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
A Dandy in Aspic (1968) – also producer (last film)