Anthony Mann

For other people of the same name, see Tony Mann (disambiguation).

Anthony Mann
Born	Emil Anton Bundesmann June 30, 1906(1906-06-30) San Diego, California, United States
Died	April 29, 1967(1967-04-29) (aged 60) Berlin, Germany
Years active	1942–1967
Spouse	Mildred Mann (1936–1957) Sara Montiel (1957–1963)

Anthony Mann (June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American actor and film director,^[1] most notably of film noirs and Westerns. As a director, he often collaborated with the cinematographer John Alton and with James Stewart in his Westerns.

Biography

Born Emil Anton Bundsmann in the Point Loma area of San Diego, California, Mann was the son of Jewish-Austrian immigrants Emile Theodore Bundsmann, and his wife Bertha Waxelbaum (original Jewish surname: Weichselbaum) of Macon, Georgia.

Mann started out as an actor, appearing in plays off-Broadway in New York City. In 1938, he moved to Hollywood, where he joined the Selznick International Pictures.

Mann became an assistant director in 1942, directing low-budget assignments for RKO and Republic Pictures.

Mann was respected for his acute visual sensitivity toward the American Western landscape, effortlessly blending natural vistas with human drama. Mann's dramas verged on classical tragedy, often showing anguished heroes attempting to resolve personal pain and confusion.

In 1964 he was head of the jury at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.^[2]

In 1967, Mann died from a heart attack in Berlin, Germany while filming the spy thriller A Dandy in Aspic. The film was completed by the film's star, Laurence Harvey.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Anthony Mann has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6229 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Mann first made his name as director of several film noir. Early films which made Mann a name in Hollywood include:

• T-Men (1947)
• Raw Deal (1948)
• Border Incident (1949)
• Side Street (1950)

However, Mann is probably best remembered today for his distinctive and highly influential work in the Western genre - particularly for five film collaborations with James Stewart:

• Winchester '73 (1950)
• Bend of the River (1952)
• The Naked Spur (1953)
• The Far Country (1955)
• The Man from Laramie (1955)

Strongly influenced by film noir in their brooding fatalism and hard-bitten, cynical tone, these films were important keystones in the development of the western as a mature film genre. Mann depicted the old west as a hostile, violent and amoral world in which no one can be trusted and life is cheap. In a marked contrast to the black-and-white value systems and the simple, stoic and uncomplicated heroes generally associated with westerns up to that point, Stewart's protagonists are flawed and, at times, morally ambiguous. Typically they are grim, embittered characters, driven by an obsessive quest to avenge a wrong done to them, and capable of the most ruthless and unflinching violence in pursuit of this end.

The Mann-Stewart films were critical and commercial successes and had a major impact on western-making generally, which grew notably darker and more "adult" in its themes, tone and content from the mid-1950s onward. An early and very pertinent example of Mann's influence on the genre lies in John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers (1956).

Mann's other westerns include:

• The Furies (1950), starring Barbara Stanwyck
• Devil's Doorway (1950), starring Robert Taylor
• The Tin Star (1957), starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins
• Man of the West (1958), starring Gary Cooper

In the 1960s, Mann put aside Westerns to concentrate on making two epics for producer Samuel Bronston:

• El Cid (1961)
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

He was also the original director of Spartacus (1960), but was fired early in production by producer-star Kirk Douglas and replaced with Stanley Kubrick, having shot a handful of scenes.

Complete list

• 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), together with Alfred L. Werker
• Raw Deal (1948)
• Border Incident (1949)
• Reign of Terror (1949)
• Follow Me Quietly (1949) — director (uncredited), together with Richard Fleischer; also story
• The Furies (1950)
• Winchester '73 (1950)
• Side Street (1950)
• Devil's Doorway (1950)
• 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 Film) (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)
• Cimarron (1960)
• El Cid (1961)
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
• The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
• A Dandy in Aspic (1968) — also producer

References

1. ^ Sadoul, p.167
2. ^ "Berlinale 1964: Juries". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1964/04_jury_1964/04_Jury_1964.html. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 

Bibliography

• Sadoul, Georges; Morris, Peter (1972), Peter Morris, ed., Dictionary of film makers, Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520021518 

External links

• Anthony Mann at the Internet Movie Database
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• El western de Anthony Mann (español)
• Anthony Mann Profile at Turner Classic Movies
• Anthony Mann by David Boxwell at Senses of Cinema

Persondata
Name	Mann, Anthony
Alternative names	Bundesmann, Emil Anton
Short description	Director
Date of birth	June 30, 1906
Place of birth	San Diego, California, United States
Date of death	April 29, 1967
Place of death	Berlin, Germany