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Their casting methods were equally unpretentious. Janet Margolin (Lisa) was an 18-year-old whose credits were in television and on Broadway until the Perrys picked her from a group of about 1,000 candidates. As David, Keir Dullea (pronounced Duh-lay) was seeing himself in a starring role for the first time. Howard Da Silva, who plays the chief psychiatrist effectively enough to destroy the beard-and-couch cliché, was making his first picture since being blacklisted a dozen years ago for defying the House Un-American Activities Committee. Most of the supporting cast were amateurs seined from Philadelphia dramatic groups, or girl friends of members of the crew stuck into the film just to maintain employee relations.
Sudden Pals. It seemed a chicken-wire operation if ever there was one. But the result is stunning. Movies about mental illness have often shown considerable clinical insight, but this one is a love story with a clinical background, and the love itself heals two young minds where mere insight could never have helped. The Perrys took David and Lisa to the 1962 Venice Film Festival and won a prize for the best film by a new director. At the San Francisco International Film Festival, Dullea and Margolin were named best actor and actress.
Wiser than most, the Perrys say they will never do a psychological film again. Meanwhile, they are looking for a new story to tell. They are up to their elbows in sudden pals, people with scripts, agents with visions of new El Dorados. One agent said he could make Frank Perry a director at any major studio, starting off with modest $4,000,000 films. The Perrys explained that they want to remain small businessmen, in effect, and would like to make their next picture for about $400,000. "What are you?" said the agent over his shoulder. "A couple of beatniks?"