JUST A LOOK

"I love working with Del," she said. "Besides, Delbert Mann and I are joined at the hip. We can communicate with just a look; he's very special."

That "just a look" telepathy made the filming of "Torn Between Two Lovers," a film plagued with personality conflicts, a little less trying for both director and actress.

Delbert Mann illustrated this unique connection between them with this story: "One incident has always remained with me as a great example of understanding and trust between actor and director. After working all night in a large office complex, we came to the last set-ups just as dawn was beginning to break. We were doing a final confrontation scene between Lee and Joe (Bologna).

"We lined up the wide master shot over Joe's shoulder to Lee and shot it. She was excellent. We marked it for a print and changed to a longer lens for a medium shot. It was a scene of big emotion so, being experienced and aware that the emotion can sometimes seem too big when the camera is closer; she pulled down the playing level of the scene, ever so slightly. It was very good, but I went to her and said, 'Lee, I think you dropped your energy just a bit.'

'Oh,' she said. 'Let me do it again.'

"This time she brought it up just a little bit. It was perfect.

'Print it. Let's go for the close-up.'

"Remembering my last words, on this take the energy came up a tiny bit more. I felt that it was just that much too high for the big close-up we were doing. I said, 'Let's do just one more.'

"Standing behind the camera, I debated whether or not to say anything to her. I didn't want to say, 'Now lower it a bit.' It is too easy for an actor to begin to feel like a puppet on a string, everything choreographed and rigidly controlled. It all becomes mechanical. I said nothing, but after the camera rolled and we recorded the slate, instead of the usual call for action, I waited a long beat and then said, very quietly, 'All right, Lee.'

"It was almost as if she looked at me. She didn't, but there was an immediate instinctive connection. Her playing of the scene was the best of any of the takes. She had, so slightly that you couldn't really tell it, dropped the level of playing one small notch. It was perfect. It was brilliant.

'Cut. Print it. Wrap it and let's go home!'

"I walked over to her as she started off the set. I put my arm around her and said, 'You're something else.'

"She looked up at me and said simply, 'I knew what you meant.'

"Lee saved my sanity on this otherwise unhappy picture. She was some actress, and some lady!"

Resources: Delbert Mann Memoirs from "The Delbert Mann Papers"

-- by Allison