Delbert Mann

from the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television

Like many directors of television's "golden age," Delbert Mann came from a theatrical background. While studying political science at Vanderbilt University, Mann became involved with a Nashville community theater group where he worked with Fred Coe, who went on to produce the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse. He received an M.F.A. in Directing from Yale School of Drama and then worked as a director/producer at the Town Theatre (Columbia, South Carolina) and as a stage manager at the Wellesley Summer Theater. When he first went to New York, Mann worked as a floor manager and assistant director for NBC.

In 1949, Mann began directing dramas for Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, where he was one of a stable of directors that included Vincent Donahue, Arthur Penn, and Gordon Duff. During the 1950s, Mann also directed productions for Producers' Showcase, Omnibus, Playwrights '56, Ford Star Jubilee, and Ford Startime. Although he worked almost exclusively on anthology series, Mann also directed live episodes of the first domestic situation comedy, Mary Kay and Johnny.

Mann is perhaps most often identified with the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse (and subsequent film) production of Paddy Chayefsy's Marty, which has been thought by many of today's critics to be one of the most outstanding original dramas produced by Fred Coe and the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse. Although it did not receive outstanding reviews when it first aired, it was one of the first television plays to receive any major press coverage and more than one line in a reviewer's column. When Mann directed the film version of Marty two years later, he was awarded the Oscar for Best Director, and the film won the Cannes Film Festival and Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay. The film was nominated but did not win Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, and Art Direction.

Many of Mann's works tackled social issues, such as the plight of the elderly in Ernie Barger is Fifty. However, the director contends that, at the time, the plays were not thought of in terms of their social issues--they were stories about people and "just awfully good drama."

Mann's theatrical training was a tremendous influence on his television work. Cameras are fairly static and actors are staged within the frame. At Coe's direction, close-ups were used only to emphasize something or if there was a dramatic reason for doing so. The static camera is particularly effective in the Marty dance sequence, which Mann filmed with one camera and no editing. Actors were carefully choreographed to turn to the camera at the exact moment when they needed to be seen. Combined with the crowded, relatively small set, the static camera focused the audience's attention on the characters and their sense of uneasiness in the situation. Chayefsky has credited the success of The Bachelor Party to Mann's direction noting that, through simple stage business and careful balancing of scenes, Mann was able to illustrated the emptiness of life in the small town and the protagonist's increasing depression.

Many of Mann's works are period pieces based on the director's own love of history, which he tried to recreate accurately. But historical context serves as background to the personal relationships in the story. The Man Without a Country, produced during the height of anti-Vietnam protests, is a patriotic story of love of country and flag intended to stir a sense of nationalism during the Civil War and, simultaneously, the intimate story of one man's oppression.

Mann shifted to filmmaking in the 1960s but periodically returned to television to pursue more personal, people-oriented stories in made-for-television films. Productions such as David Copperfield and Jane Eyre allowed him to, once again, tell stories of personal relationships in an historical setting.

Mann returned to his live television roots for the productions of All The Way Home (1981) and Member of the Wedding (1982) for NBC's Live Theater Series. These productions differed from live television in the 1950s in that they were staged as a theatrical production in a theater rather than a studio and were filmed with a live audience in order to show their reaction to the piece.

Mann has been nominated for three Emmy awards for directing: Our Town (1955, Producers' Showcase, 1955), Breaking Up (ABC special, 1977), and All Quiet on the Western Front (CBS special, 1979).

-Susan Gibberman