Popular Spanish Film Under Franco is the first book of its kind to analyze cinematic comedy during the initial two decades of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Focusing on the intersection between popular culture and political populism, it breaks new theoretical ground in re-evaluating the policies of the regime and the tactics employed by those who sought to undermine it. Its cultural studies approach - combining Gramsci, de Certeau and Bakhtin - interrogates the ambiguous nature of subversion and challenges common assumptions concerning post-war Spanish film.

STEVEN MARSH teaches Film and Spanish Cultural Studies at the University of South Carolina, USA. Previously he lived in Madrid for 16 years. He is joint editor of Gender and Spanish Cinema (2004), an author on the international collaborative project An Oral History of Cinema-going in 1940s and 1950s Spain, and is currently writing a book on the cultural politics of everyday life in the city of Madrid since 1975. He is co-editor of the journal Studies in Hispanic Cinemas.