Though born in Chicago, Budd Boetticher was adopted and raised in Evansville, making him somewhat inarguably its most notable filmmaking resident. Ted Haycraft is back and joined by writer Robert Nott, author of The Films of Budd Boetticher, to discuss the director’s movies with Randolph Scott, and more:
Boetticher’s influence on filmmakers Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino (who named a Kill Bill character after Budd), and Martin Scorsese (who highlighted The Tall T in his Personal Journey Through American Movies);
his high school (spoiler alert: he went to the same one as someone on this podcast);
if Boetticher was the first Western filmmaker to use terse dialogue or morally ambiguous antagonists;
and what his films presents to younger viewers now.
Also:
His bullfighting exploits, performed and filmed, before and after the Ranown Cycle;
if the minimalism or violence of his Westerns is the bridging link between John Ford and Sergio Leone;
what Boetticher’s career would have been like if his success had extended into the ’60s or ’70s;
and the mythologizing he did in the final 20 years of his life on the film festival circuit.
Haycraft is film critic for Evansville’s WFIE-14 and co-hosts Cinema Chat on its Midday show. He can also be found on Cinema Chat’s Facebook page.
Robert Nott has been a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican for more than fifteen years. Among his other books are The Films of Randolph Scott, He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield, Last of the Cowboy Heroes: The Westerns of Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Audie Murphy, and the short story collection The Squatters & Others.
His book The Films of Budd Boetticher is available from McFarland & Company. A DVD boxset of the same name, containing the films The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, and Comanche Station is available from Sony.