David and Lisa (1962)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | November 9, 2008

Categories | Movie Reviews, American Cinema, Drama, Keir Dullea

David and Lisa (1962)

David and Lisa (1962)

David and Lisa (1962)

American independent cinema has had a long and fascinating history. One of the most critically acclaimed early independent films to come out of the US was undoubtedly Frank Perry’s David and Lisa (1962), which was finally released on DVD last year by Image Entertainment.

In David and Lisa we’re introduced to two young, attractive and deeply troubled patients living at a mental health clinic. David (Keir Dullea) suffers from an extreme phobia similar to what many would refer to as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) today, which makes him go berserk anytime another person touches him. Lisa (Janet Margolin) has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and insists on speaking only in rhymes. Somehow these two mentally damaged individuals manage to overcome their personal difficulties and form an uneasy friendship. As the film unfolds their relationship deepens and they’re finally able to help each other come to terms with their psychoses.

Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin are both very good in their roles as David and Lisa. Dullea does a terrific job of portraying an angry and emotionally damaged young man, but I was especially impressed with Janet Margolin. Margolin is really lovely, but also very talented and she imbues Lisa with the perfect combination of innocence and world-weariness. It’s a shame that the actress didn’t find more worthwhile starring roles throughout her rather brief career. She clearly shows great sensitivity as an actress here and her moving performance will stick with you long after David and Lisa has ended.

The film is beautifully shot by director Frank Perry and features some truly impressive black and white cinematography from Leonard Hirschfield. There’s a wonderfully surreal aspect to the film’s eye-catching dream sequences and the melancholy mood of the institution is underscored by the use of stark shadows and startling bursts of light. The film also manages to perfectly convey the isolation that both David and Lisa are clearly feeling with expressive close-ups and long takes. Unfortunately David and Lisa suffers from its melodramatic script (written by Frank Perry’s wife at the time, Eleanor Perry) and the overbearing score by composer Mark Lawrence seems totally out of place and distracting at times, which often diminishes the film’s more subtle moments. I’d personally like to see David and Lisa re-scored by a composer who is more cautious and creative.

When David and Lisa was originally released in 1962 it caused quite a stir. Film critics applauded the movie and audiences embraced it. The film was nominated for many awards, including an Oscar for Best Director. Now that some 45 year have passed since it’s original release, it might be hard for modern audiences to fully appreciate what all the fuss was about. But when David and Lisa is compared to other films about mental illness made prior to it, I think it’s easier to understand the film’s importance. Today many are embracing pharmaceuticals over psychotherapy, but David and Lisa offers an intelligent and sensitive study of mental illness that dares to look at several possible explanations and cures. Parental culpability, childhood trauma, as well as an individual’s sensitivity to their environment, are just a few of the factors that can exacerbate mental illness and I was impressed with the way the film subtly explored them. In the end David and Lisa encourages individuals to take charge of their own lives as well as their mental health and its message should still resonate with many viewers.

David and Lisa (1962)

David and Lisa (1962)

David and Lisa (1962)

David and Lisa is currently selling at Amazon for $21.99 and it is also available for rent at Netflix and Greencine.

If you’d like to see more images from the film you can find them in my David and Lisa Flickr Gallery.

*Originally published at Cinedelica 05.24.2007

15 Comments »

  1. Jonathan Lapper says; November 10, 2008 @ 5:28 am

    I first saw this years ago after having seen Dullea in only 2001: A Space Odyssey and was intrigued by how expressive an actor he could be. Then seeing him in Bunny Lake is Missing further surprised me, where he does a great job at playing crazy. I’d like to see this again now looking at your screengrabs from it. I love the sharp, focused look of B&W cinematography of the late fifties and early sixties. And I’d like to see Margolin again too, focusing more on Dullea the first time because of the 2001 connection.

  2. cinebeats says; November 11, 2008 @ 6:25 pm

    I think we briefly discussed the film before and I’m happy to know you found things to enjoy about the film too. Dullea is terrific in this, but I was really surprised by Margolin since I’ve only seen her in a few films and she’s surprisingly good here. She died really young, but I don’t understand why she wasn’t a bigger star. The photography in the film is beautiful and really the best reason to see this film!

  3. AR says; November 12, 2008 @ 11:49 am

    I think I’ve heard about this movie, but I don’t know a lot about it. It sounds really interesting, like something I would enjoy, so I’ll have to add it to my queue and watch it at some point.

    Sadly, I haven’t been able to watch many movies lately. My boyfriend often works nights, so we are no longer able to set aside time each week for movies like we used to, which is mostly why I haven’t posted an entry in a while.

  4. Vanwall says; November 12, 2008 @ 2:38 pm

    A wonderful film - it was on TV regularly in the late sixties, early seventies. Keir Dullea always had that edgy feel in any role he played. Janet Margolin, however was amazingly real in this film, and for that matter any film she was in - I found her extremely attractive for a number of reasons, not least being her air of vulnerability. She was very god in “Morituri”, a Brando suspenser, but I’ll really always remember her for Demme’s “The Last Embrace”, with Roy Scheider, her best role IMHO - a remarkably intense and multi-leveled serial killer. She left us too early, indeed.

  5. cinebeats says; November 13, 2008 @ 12:16 pm

    AR - I think you’d find the film interesting if you get the opportunity to see it. The photography is really fantastic and I suspect that you’d appreciate it a lot.

    Vanwall - I’m glad to hear from another Janet Margolin fan. I always suspect good things from Keir Dullea since he’s one of my favorite American actors, but I had only previously seen Margolin in Bus Riley’s Back in Town, Nevada Smith and the two Woody Allen films she was in (Take the Money and Run and Annie Hall). She always stood out to me because she was so naturally beautiful and her performances (even in small roles) were really effortless. I haven’t seen Morituri or The Last Embrace so many thanks for the viewing suggestions. Both films are now high on my “must see” list!

  6. Marilyn says; November 14, 2008 @ 12:56 pm

    I always remember the moment when David says to Lisa that he can’t rhyme anymore, that’s it too hard. She reacts violently, but then comes across that bridge of understanding. It’s a very moving scene.

    One of my very favorite Keir Dullea films is The Lathe of Heaven, based on the great book by Ursula Le Guin. Caught in copyright hell for a while, it’s now pretty available.

  7. cinebeats says; November 14, 2008 @ 4:42 pm

    I haven’t seen The Lathe of Heaven, so thanks for the suggestion Marilyn! I’ve read a little bit about the book and I suspect I’d enjoy it. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to see it in the future.

  8. Vanwall says; November 14, 2008 @ 5:08 pm

    Marilyn - are you speaking of the 1980 version of Lathe of Heaven? Was Kier Dullea in that one?

  9. ARBOGAST says; November 15, 2008 @ 10:47 pm

    Keir Dullea wasn’t in The Lathe of Heaven but he did do a version of Brave New World around the same time - that may be the source of the confusion. I was deeply in love with Janet Margolin and very saddened by her untimely death from cancer. She was great in a seldom-seen TV movie, The Plutonium Incident, which was a thinly-disguised spin on the Karen Silkwood story before the Mike Nichols film. Other must-sees on the Margolin front are Annie Hall and The Last Embrace. She acted with her husband, Ted Wass, in The Triangle Shirt Factory Fire Scandal, another TV movie of that time (late 70s) that’s worth seeing.

  10. Uraniumwilly says; November 19, 2008 @ 7:04 am

    Looks like a fascinating study. I skimmed your blog the other day and assumed by the images this was a British film. But I am more excited to see that it is an American one. I recently picked up a couple films by Samuel Fuller. I dd not know much about except from blog passages. I really liked the two films, I think they are called The Naked Kiss and The Steel Helmet. I need to get this one soon.

  11. cinebeats says; November 19, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

    The film has problems (which I mentioned above) but I do think it’s worth a look.

    Fuller is an interesting guy and an important filmmaker. He’s influenced a lot of directors in Europe and in the states. I highly recommend checking out the 1996 documentary on Fuller called The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera. I also recommend giving Fuller’s Pickup on South Street, Shock Corridor, The Big Red One and White Dog a look too.

  12. zensixties says; November 23, 2008 @ 9:48 pm

    I liked your review, but completely disagree that the score was overbearing and the script melodramatic. For me the score was a great enhancement of the film and completely appropriate. The script was a great adaptation of the novelette and far superior to the later play version (which was just a rip-off of this script).
    The psychiatrist Theodore Isaac Rubin who wrote the original definitely used an original approach to these issues. As you say the norm today is drug first and ask questions later; this is mostly due to the lucrative (and corrupt) pharmaceutical industry.
    As far as “Morituri” and “Last Embrace”, they’re worth seeing, but don’t expect something on the level of “David and Lisa” which consider to be one of the best films of the era.

  13. cinebeats says; November 24, 2008 @ 12:09 am

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts about David & Lisa, zensixties. Even though we disagree about the soundtrack and script, I appreciated reading your thoughts. And we do agree on one thing - the lucrative pharmaceutical industry is extremely corrupt. Doctors have become drug pushers.

  14. bonnieL says; December 11, 2008 @ 7:55 pm

    Incredible screen grabs, and equally incredible
    website. thanks!

    bonnieL
    richmond, va

  15. Alex Clarke says; February 14, 2009 @ 6:17 pm

    I agree - the screengrabs are very evocative. I knew ‘Bunny Lake Is Missing’, of course, but I’d never even heard of this film. That clock-axe picture is beautifully composed and lit. It is sad that by the 60s, directors and film-makers knew everything that black-and-white film could do - just as colour was sweeping it away.


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  • Cinebeats chronicles one woman's love affair with '60s & '70s era cinema. Or as she likes to call it, cinema's Platinum Age! Blog design, updates and all original content is provided by Kimberly Lindbergs. She can be reached by email at:
    kimberly@cinebeats.com. This site is a review site and claims no ownership over the images used to promote the films reviewed here. All original blog content is copyright © by Kimberly Lindbergs and can not be directly copied or distributed in full without her permission.

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