On June 30th two directors had birthdays. One of them was me. The other was Anthony Mann. I turned 62. Mann turned 120. Or at least he would have if he’d listened to those doctors and quit smoking. I can’t think of a more appropriate director for me to share a birthday with than Anthony Mann. He was a tough, no-nonsense filmmaker who made film noirs, westerns and massive epics, just like me. Sort of. Not really. In fact, we share pretty much nothing in common but our birthdays. But I like his work enormously so I stand by my statement–the one I offered a few lines ago that I can’t remember now. His film noirs included ‘T-Men’ and ‘Border Incident’, his westerns–most of which starred James Stewart-included gems like ‘Winchester 73’, ‘The Naked Spur’, ‘Bend of the River’, and his later epics–shot in Europe for the notoriously shady producer Samuel Bronston–included ‘El Cid’ and ‘The Fall Of the Roman Empire’. He died of a heart attack while shooting a movie called ‘A Dandy In Aspic’. (The star of the film, Laurence Harvey, stepped in and directed the rest of it–is that okay? Or a tad opportunistic?) According to Nina Mann, his daughter who I interviewed for my podcast a few years ago, he died while making love after dinner with his wife. Or maybe it was with his wife after dinner. We do not share that habit in common–I fall asleep in the chair after dinner. One of his more underrated films–though it was a big hit in its day–was ‘Strategic Air Command’, starring Stewart and June Allyson. Despite its cold-war propaganda spirit (which makes it a hard watch for people in these enlightened times) it’s immensely entertaining and has amazing views of big fat Air Force planes of the day. The Air Force cooperated with the filmmakers and everything you see in the movie is the real thing, aeronautically. The rest is fake,mid-50s nonsense–but enjoyable in its own way. Above is a nice little doc about the movie, detailing the various travails Mann had to go through with the Air Force and highlighting all the cool stuff that I already talked about. Below I’ve posted the original trailer. Happy birthday Anthony Mann. Say hi to the others in director heaven. I do not plan on joining you anytime soon…