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Delmer Daves, (born July 24, 1904, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died August 17, 1977, La Jolla, California), American writer and director of motion pictures who worked in a number of genres but was best known for his westerns, which include Broken Arrow (1950), The Last Wagon (1956), and 3:10 to Yuma (1957).
Daves earned a law degree at Stanford University but decided to pursue a career in Hollywood. He was a crew member on several films before turning to acting in 1928. Although typically uncredited, he appeared in more than 10 movies, including The Duke Steps Out (1929) and Good News (1930). During this time he also started working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a screenwriter and collaborated on such notable films as Dames (1934), The Petrified Forest (1936), Love Affair (1939), and You Were Never Lovelier (1942).
Daves was given a chance to direct at Warner Brothers, and in 1943 he made the efficient World War II drama Destination Tokyo, with Cary Grant and John Garfield; as with most of his films, he also was involved with writing the screenplay. The following year he helmed The Very Thought of You, a mild home-front romance, and Hollywood Canteen, a comedy and musical revue featuring an all-star cast that included Bette Davis, Jack Benny, and Joan Crawford. Pride of the Marines (1945) was more serious fare. The biopic chronicles a marine’s difficulties in adjusting to civilian life after he was blinded at the Battle of Guadalcanal. Featuring a strong performance by Garfield in the lead role of Al Schmid, the film was a critical and commercial success.
After moving to Twentieth Century-Fox in 1950, Daves directed his first western and one of his best pictures, Broken Arrow. The superlative drama, which focuses on the growing conflict between Apaches and white settlers, featured notable performances by James Stewart, as a former soldier who falls in love with an Apache (Debra Paget), and Jeff Chandler, as Cochise. The movie’s strong box-office showing helped ignite a series of films with Native American protagonists. Daves, however, continued to explore other genres. Bird of Paradise (1951) and Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953) were both adventure movies, while the sword-and-sandal epic Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) was a popular sequel to The Robe (1953), a hit by director Henry Koster.
In the mid-1950s Daves became a freelance director, which allowed him to concentrate on westerns. Drum Beat (1954) was his return to the genre, with a notable performance by Charles Bronson as the Modoc subchief Captain Jack. Jubal (1956), a western take on Shakespeare’s Othello, used Rod Steiger, Ernest Borgnine, and Glenn Ford to good effect, while The Last Wagon (1956) featured Richard Widmark as a resourceful killer who protects the survivors of a wagon train despite his own agenda. Daves then directed what is perhaps his best film, 3:10 to Yuma (1957). A variation on Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952), it pits a farmer (Van Heflin) in a battle of wits with a captured killer (Ford, who was effectively cast against type). This “psychological” western is generally considered a classic of the genre. Ford returned for Cowboy (1958), portraying the gruff mentor to a tenderfoot (Jack Lemmon).
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Daves then made a series of romantic dramas starring Troy Donahue, the most notable of which was A Summer Place (1959), the biggest hit of Daves’s career. Based on Sloan Wilson’s novel, it was considered somewhat controversial for its look at adultery and premarital sex. Other films from that time included Parrish (1961), Susan Slade (1961), and Rome Adventure (1962).
In 1963 Daves directed Spencer’s Mountain, a precursor to The Waltons TV series. The family drama featured Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara as a rural couple overcoming adversity. After Youngblood Hawke (1964), an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s best seller, Daves made his last picture, The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965), a soap opera in which an Italian pianist (Rossano Brazzi) romances an unhappily married English woman (O’Hara).
- Michael Barson
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Feature Presentation: DARK PASSAGE (1947) directed by Delmer DavesStarring:Humphrey BogartLauren BacallAgnes MooreheadBruce Bennett
- 2 min
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- Let's All Go to the Lobby
Delmer Daves. Writer: An Affair to Remember. Although Delmer Daves obtained a law degree at Stanford University, he never had the opportunity to use it; while still in college, he obtained a job as a prop boy on The Covered Wagon (1923) and after graduation was hired by several film companies as a technical advisor on films with a college background. Soon afterward he entered films as an actor ...
- July 24, 1904
- August 17, 1977
Delmer Lawrence Daves was an American screenwriter, film director and film producer. He worked in many genres, including film noir and warfare, but he is best known for his Western movies, especially Broken Arrow (1950), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Hanging Tree (1959). He was required to work exclusively on studio-based films after heart trouble in 1959, one of which, A ...
Delmer Daves. Writer: An Affair to Remember. Although Delmer Daves obtained a law degree at Stanford University, he never had the opportunity to use it; while still in college, he obtained a job as a prop boy on The Covered Wagon (1923) and after graduation was hired by several film companies as a technical advisor on films with a college background.
