tomsview Janet Margolin and Keir Dullea, play Lisa and David, two young people who are being treated in an institution for teens with mental issues. She talks in rhymes, and he can't stand to be touched, but this is a movie that probes below the surface of all its characters. As Dr. Swinford the compassionate head of the institution played by Howard Da Silva says, "Sickness makes people do things they don't want to do". As he helps David, they touch on many subjects, including the things that trouble most people. Howard Da Silva gives a thoughtful performance as Dr Swinford, a man who also has vulnerabilities, but his reticence also make him less threatening, and David's problems revolve around threat, real or otherwise. As David starts to deal with his issues, he helps Lisa overcome some of hers, although her problems are far deeper than his.This was Frank Perry's first directorial effort and his wife, Eleanor, wrote the screenplay. To bring their emotion-charged story to life they needed actors who could match its intensity. Fortunately, their choice was inspired.This was also Janet Margolin's first movie and it was early in Keir Dullea's career. What formidable talents they were. Janet Margolin was simply one of the most beautiful actresses you would ever hope to see - she is luminous in this movie and her performance is heart wrenching. Keir Dullea also had a look; arrogance and sensitivity all at once - he had real presence with intensity to spare. Both had backgrounds in the theatre; they were just as comfortable on the stage as on the sound stage; intimidating talents for actors who only worked in film.Neither star had the huge career in movies that one would have predicted for them in 1962. Keir Dullea of course had a big one with Kubrick's 2001, and gave powerful performances in a number of other films such as "The Fox", but apparently he enjoyed more success on the stage.Why an actress as beautiful and talented as Janet Margolin wasn't besieged with offers for some of the big roles in the 60's and 70's is a mystery. Although she did a couple of films with Woody Allen, most of her work seems to have been in television. One movie I really liked her in was the moody, seriously underrated Hitchcock homage, "The Last Embrace", made seventeen years after this one. "David and Lisa" was another fresh, brilliant work from a period that was a fertile one for dramatic films. As well as being Frank Perry's first film, it was probably his best. What an eclectic career he had, everything from "The Swimmer" to "Monsignor".However, he and his brilliant young stars created something truly special with this film. To paraphrase a line from "David and Lisa" - it's a pearl of a movie.

Robert J. Maxwell In this genteel picture of mental illness, Kier Dullea is David, sent to a kind of boarding school for disturbed young adults. The dozen or so other students, or patients, are a diverse lot. Some seem pretty much like everyone else. But Lisa, Janet Margolin, is clearly schizophrenic. David may be obsessively neat and won't let anyone touch him, but that's peanuts compared to Lisa's looping around like a hebephrenic and speaking in clumsy, repetitive rhymes. After many tribulations, the two seem to cure one another. At the climax, Dullea extends his hand to the stressed-out Margolin and she speaks warmly to him in plain English.Of course everyone enjoys a happy ending and this film gives it to the viewer. The head shrink, Howard Da Silva, plays practically no part in the remission of their symptoms. He makes a few remarks and is accommodating and that's about it.A couple of observations. The gradual improvement of both David and Lisa is rather nicely handled. Gradually, David loses his supercilious quality, his superiority to everything around him. It's not just in the dialog either, but In the way Dullea handles it. He becomes less cross, more thoughtful. He develops a vision of a future that isn't governed by inhuman mechanical forces. He starts thinking about medical school rather than electronic clocks set to perfect time by radio (which we have today).And Lisa's unhurried change from a sloppy child/woman into something resembling an adult is reasonably well done too -- not so much through the character's behavior but through symbols of internal life like clothing and grooming. When we first see Margolin, she's a slob. She's in a high-waisted dress with a tangled mop of hair, playing hop scotch on the schools floor tiles and raving to herself. By the end, she's in neat, bright clothing and her hair is tidy.In fact, she's stunningly beautiful, with her large wet calf eyes and her flawless features. Her idoneous presence carries with it a reigning melancholy, due, I think, to the configuration of her eyebrows. She can't help looking a little distressed all the time. Her acting talent was modest but she was extremely appealing into middle age, or as far into middle age as fate took her. A shame.I can't tell whether Keir Dullea is handsome or not but he's certainly as clean cut as the role calls for, and he uses his clipped, authoritarian voice to good effect.It's not a very realistic story. This is some expensive boarding school we're talking about. I have no idea how that Hispanic psychopath got in there. The only thing wrong with him is that he's too horny. Somebody with Margolin's disorder is far more likely to wind up in a state hospital where nobody can play the piano because there is no piano, nor are there paintings on the walls or "A Day In Paris" celebrations. Schizophrenia is a terrible illness. The entire family feels struck by lightning, and the patient doesn't wear make up like Margolin. And she doesn't get "cured" by falling in love with another patient, though she may remit spontaneously.We don't know Margolin's back story but we know something of Dullea's. He's stuck in the same familiar trap as James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause" -- weak father, domineering mother. In case you missed it, Neva Patterson is cast as the hoity-toity mother. She's the CRP official in "All The President's Men" who refuses to be interviewed by Woodward and Bernstein, tells them they don't know the meaning of the word "loyalty", and closes the door in their faces. She chills the air of every room she enters.But not to put the film down too much. It tackles a serious subject in a mature way. And although there are many goofs, none of them is serious enough to sap the film of its virtues. All stories of mental illness should end so satisfactorily.

Sindre Kaspersen American screenwriter, producer and director Frank Perry's feature film debut which was written by his first wife, American writer Eleanor Perry (1914-1981), is an adaptation of psychiatrist and author Theodore Isaac Rubin's novel "Lisa and David" and an American production which was shot on locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in USA and produced by American film producer Paul M. Heller. It tells the story about David Clemens, a young man with Obsessive-compulsive disorder who after having been brought to a residential treatment centre by his mother and somewhat reluctantly left there in the hands of a doctor, meets a young woman named Lisa Brandt who only expresses herself through rhymes. David takes an interest in Lisa and begins to communicate with her on her conditions. David and Lisa finds a connection, but many obstacles arises when he learns that she has dissociative identity disorder and she learns that he can't stand to be touched by other people.Finely and acutely directed by American filmmaker Frank Perry (1930-1995), this finely tuned independent film from the early 1960s which is narrated from various viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws an incisive and humane portrayal of an institutionalized young man's conflicting relationship with his parents and his growing relationship with a shy and charming young woman. While notable for its naturalistic milieu depictions, fine art direction by Paul M. Heller, black-and-white cinematography by American cinematographer Leonard Hirschfield (1928-2008) and use of sound, this character-driven and dialog-driven story which examines themes like coming-of-age, interpersonal communication, mental illness, family relations, friendship and trust, depicts two in-depth studies of character and contains a fine score by American composer and producer Mark Lawrence (1921-1991).This romantic, at times humorous and empathic character piece about the internal struggles of a young man and woman who are striving to learn how to trust one another, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure and the prominent acting performances by American actor Keir Dullea in his second feature film role, American actress Janet Margolin (1943-1993) in her debut feature film role and American actor Howard Da Silva (1909-1986). An authentic, illuminating and gripping psychological drama which gained Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963.

zensixties David and Lisa, the film they used to show on the late late show in the '70s, at least on New York TV, remains a moving timeless classic and features outstanding performances by Keir Dullea as David, Janet Margolin as Lisa, and Howard Da Silva as Dr. Alan Swinford. Based on a real life case study from 1958 by Psychologist Theodore Isaac Rubin this black and white film follows David as he enters a school for "emotionally/mentally disturbed" teens. Here the shrink uses a humanistic approach, really the opposite of what mainstream psychiatry has become. For Alan the solution is to open up one's feelings as opposed to numbing one with psychotropic drugs as is the norm today. Anyway we find that David is very intelligent though he has some severe phobias: touch, death, etc. He meets Lisa, someone with multiple personality disorder (not schizophrenia). The film turns into a love story between the two as they in effect end up curing each other. Through it all the sixties feel shines through as well as the acting, directing, writing (Eleanor Perry), and cinematography talents. Da Silva does a great job with that distinctive voice of his, and a great comeback role from the blacklisting period (due to the bastard Robert Taylor). But again a rare excellence is attained by Dullea who went on to 2001 fame, and Janet Margolin. Shot in Philadelphia the final moving scene was done at the Art Museum there. Think I'll stop by there next time I'm there to see if it's the same all these years later. So if you're into great '60s cinema check this (one of my faves) out...but by any means necessary avoid the worthless Oprah version.