ReFocus: The Films of Delmer Daves

ReFocus: The American Directors Series Series Editors: Robert Singer and Gary D. Rhodes This series produces new critical volumes from an interdisciplinary perspective, bringing influential, yet neglected, American directors to the attention of a new audience of scholars and students in both Film Studies and American Studies. From Destination Tokyo (1943) to The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965), Delmer Daves was responsible for a unique body of work, but few filmmakers have been as critically overlooked in existing scholarly literature. Often regarded as an embodiment of the self-effacing craftsmanship of classical and post-war Hollywood, films such as Broken Arrow (1950) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957) reveal a filmmaker concerned with style as much as sociocultural significance. As the first comprehensive study of Daves’s career, this collection of essays seeks to deepen our understanding of his work, and also to problematise existing conceptions of him as a competent, conventional and even naïve studio man. Matthew Carter is Senior Lecturer in Film, Television, and Cultural Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. Andrew Patrick Nelson is Assistant Professor of Film History and Critical Studies at Montana State University. Cover image: James Stewart and Delmer Daves on set of Broken Arrow (1950) © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Photofest Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com