THE TALL T

Budd Boetticher

Oscar (Budd) Boetticher was born in Chicago in 1916. After playing professional American football and moving to Mexico to dedicate himself to bullfighting, he got his start in Hollywood in 1941 as the supervisor of Blood and Sand by Rouben Mamoulian. He worked in total anonymity as assistant director and director until 1951, when Bullfighter and the Lady got him a contract with Universal Studios, where he later made Batjac with John Wayne. Seven Men from Now (1956), the first of his seven westerns starring Randolph Scott, was a commercial success and he received critical acclaim in France. His series of westerns includes Decision at Sundown (1957), The Tall T (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Westbound (1958), Ride Lonesome (1959) and Comanche Station (1960). All these films deal with a solitary cowboy's revenge. Some of Boetticher's regular co-workers are actress Karen Steele - his wife -, screenwriter Burt Kennedy and cameraman Lucien Ballard. After the successful gangster movie Jack Diamond Gangster (1960), Boetticher returned to Mexico to make a documentary about the bullfighter Carlos Arruza, who after going broke and getting divorced, ended up first in jail and then in an insane asylum. Arruza, in the meantime, died in a car accident and the film was never distributed. In 1967 Boetticher made A Time for Dying, financed by the war hero Audie Murphy, but he wasn't able to achieve his previous success. In 1970 he wrote the screenplay for Two Mules for Sister Sara, by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine. His last appearance was as an actor in the film Tequila Connection (1988) by Robert Towne.

FILMOGRAFIA

Submarine Raider (non accreditato, 1942), U-Boat Prisoner (non accreditato, 1944), One Mysterious Night (1944), The Missing Juror (1944), The Girl in the Case (non accreditato, 1944), Youth on Trial (1945), A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (1945), Escape in the Fog (1945), The Fleet That Came to Stay (1946), Behind Locked Doors (1948), Assigned to Danger (1948), Black Midnight (1949), The Wolf Hunters (1949), Killer Shark (1950), Bullfighter and the Lady (L'amante del torero, 1951), The Sword of D'Artagnan (La lama di d'Artagnan, 1951), The Cimarron Kid (L'ultimo fuorilegge, 1951), Red Ball Express (L'autocolonna rossa, 1952), Horizons West (Dan il terribile, 1952), Bronco Buster (1952), City Beneath the Sea (La città sommersa, 1953), Seminole (1953), East of Sumatra (Ad est di Sumatra, 1953), Wings of the Hawk (Le ali del falco, 1953), The Man from the Alamo (Il traditore di Fort Alamo, 1953), The Public Defender (serie tv, 1954), The Magnificent Matador (Il grande matador, 1955), The Count of Monte Cristo (serie tv, 1955), The Killer Is Loose (L'assassino è perduto, 1956), Seven Men from Now (I sette assassini, 1956), Zane Grey Theater (serie tv, 1956), Alias Mike Hercules (serie tv, 1956), The Tall T (I tre banditi, 1957), Maverick (serie tv, 1957), Decision at Sundown (Decisione al tramonto, 1957), The Rifleman (serie tv, 1958), 77 Sunset Strip (serie tv, 1958), Westbound (L'oro della California, 1958), Buchanan Rides Alone (Il cavaliere solitario, 1958), Ride Lonesome (L'albero della vendetta, 1959), Comanche Station (La valle dei mohicani, 1960), Hong Kong (serie tv, 1960), The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (Jack Diamond gangster, 1960), A Time for Dying (Tempo di morire, 1971), Arruza (1972), My Kingdom For… (1985).