Attempting to write a magazine piece on a happily married Hollywood couple is somewhat like playing Russian Roulette with only one chamber of the gun empty. Nothing – not even love – is sure in the movie capital.

     For once, with Barbara Bain and Martin Landau, it simply isn’t that way.

     Although both Barbara and Martin were initially opposed to being interviewed regarding their solid marriage and their advice to young couples ("won’t it sound sentimental and sticky?"), arrangements were finally made to meet at a small Beverly Hills restaurant. The interview was to take place in shifts – Barbara first for an hour, then Martin for another.

     Barbara arrived at the precise moment she was due, looking and smelling like a delicious spring moment. Her crisp summer cotton was splashed with vivid floral colors and everything about her was immaculate and perfectly groomed. As "Cinnamon" in Mission: Impossible she is certainly one of TV’s most attractive leading ladies, but the small screen doesn’t seem to do justice to her beauty. She’s one of those rare creatures whose coloring is breathtaking – a golden, flawless complexion; thick shiny hair with blonde highlights and the wildest green-gold eyes, somehow flecked with olive.

     She began with a description of her first meeting with Martin, which she described as "instant hate," and proves that young lovers should never go by first impressions!

     "I was modeling in New York and out of sheer boredom with my work, I decided to join Curt Conway’s acting class. It was held in a dirty loft on 54^th Street and one night I arrived to see a new face. The actor was doing a scene and as I watched him I thought ... "this man is insensitive, rude, crude and arrogant ..." all qualities that I detest in a man. I later discovered his first impression of me was no less unflattering. He saw what he believed to be a dumb, blonde model – a type he detests – and neither of us had any desire to get to know the other.

     "Then, about a week later we met again at a party. Somehow we drifted into conversation, and as we talked, this fantastic thing started to happen. We discovered we were none of the things we had believed one another to be, but rather had interests and opinions almost identical. We became so engrossed in conversation it was four in the morning before we could tear ourselves away. Martin walked me home, a few blocks down Park Avenue, and we found ourselves giggling like school children."

     Martin and Barbara saw one another exclusively after that, until a year later when they were married.

     I asked Barbara if she had any reservations about marrying an actor ... especially one without a steady employment.

     She laughed. "No, I was happy to find a man I could marry, it didn’t occur to me to question what he did for a living. You see, my big problem with men had always been losing interest. There had been one long high school romance and one long college romance (Barbara obtained her BA degree in sociology from the University of Illinois with intentions of becoming a teacher) and in each case I became so bored, so tired of them, I had concluded I just wasn’t the type to marry. I didn’t think it would be possible to find a man interesting enough to spend the rest of my life with.

     With Martin it was the opposite. The more I knew him, the more exciting and fascinating I found him. Today, ten years later, I still feel the same. As a human being, as a man, as an actor ... in every way ... he never ceases to amaze me. We still talk for hours ... on almost any subject. The other day our daughter mentioned something at the dinner table and Martin and I picked up on it and talked on and on, exploring the matter, until finally Susan said ... 'all I said was one word and you too make such a big thing about it ...' Martin and I broke up because it’s true ... we’re both incessant talkers."

     Working together in Mission: Impossible represents the realization of a dream Martin and Barbara had when they were dating. "We made a pact before we married ... oh, not in the blood or anything ... but we agreed the reason we were marrying was because we wanted to be together, so it would be pretty silly to let our careers keep us apart. Thus far, we’ve managed to keep the pact."

     Martin and Barbara’s "togetherness" isn’t the corny variety. After ten years of living under the same roof, they truly like one another.

     In the same way that Barbara credits Martin’s personality for the fact that boredom has never set in, he claims it’s her attitude. "Because she is actively interested in my interests, we are able to communicate in a very special way. In addition to sharing living quarters, we share ideas, music, books, friends and now, even work." He and Barbara advise young couples to choose a mate with whom they can share interests.

     Martin is a man of enormous energy and movement.

     This quality is also apparent when he’s not performing. He can be firy and enthusiastic one minute, brooding and intense the next and lusty and exuberant a second later. It’s little wonder Barbara has never been bored. Being married to him must be rather like having four or five different husbands, each like a new surprise hidden in the same handsome package.

     Martin admits that as a youth he had a "violent" temper. "I’ve learned a lot about that," he says, "and I imagine most of the control comes with maturity. I had no tolerance whatsoever for anything that did not coincide with my own thoughts. Instead of listening to the other fellow’s point of view, I wanted to belt him in the mouth. Now I enjoy a good healthy argument."

     Do he and Barbara have them? "Indeed we do!" Smile.

     Barbara had described their fights as marvelous exercises, both in lungpower and physical exertion. She feels that people who love each other should fight openly, to clear the air.

     "We follow one another from room to room talking as fast, and yelling as loud as possible," she said. "Over the years, as our income has increased, so has the size of our homes, so we now have more rooms than ever to charge through arguing! But ours are not destructive fights. They’re more the kind that clear the air and leave you feeling refreshed.

     "The things we yell about are pretty typical, I guess. He’ll go into a rage about what I’ve done to his shirts and I’ll yell back that the laundry does his shirts, not me, and he’ll say the least I could do would be find a decent laundry and I’ll tell him to find his own, and on and on it goes. Then, the storm is over and forgotten. We never pout or re-open old wounds and I can’t remember a night when we ever went to sleep still mad with one another." This is a very definite piece of advice she gives young wives – settle your differences when they come up. Never go to sleep mad."

     For the future, Martin is looking forward to the day when he can write, direct and star in his own films. On the personal side, he would like to give his daughters, Susan, 7 and Juliet, 2 ½, a little brother to play with.

     "I definitely want a son, but of course we have to wait until the series is over. Right now it would be an impossible mission!"

            But happiness in marriage has been very possible for them both, and their advice to young wives is to choose a mate wisely – and never forget you can’t make marriage work by going to sleep mad!