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 Die Karawane (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, and
after appearing in several pictures he began collaborating on
screenplays and original stories. He wrote scripts for many of
Hollywood's best films of the 1930s and 1940s, including Der versteinerte Wald (1936),
Ruhelose Liebe (1939) and Du warst nie berückender (1942). Turning director with the classic Bestimmung Tokio (1943), Daves
often wrote and produced his own pictures. Of the many films he made,
the westerns he did were especially close to his heart--as a youth he
had spent much time living on reservations with Hopi and Navajo
Indians.
