Budd Boetticher Remembered

On a recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, critic Peter Travers wrote that now is the time to rediscover the work of Budd Boetticher, the B-movie director who made a number of films with actor Randolph Scott (while helping out in the making of the careers of Anthony Quinn, Lee Marvin and James Coburn, among others), helping define the genre in Hollywood, alongside greats such as John Ford.

I couldn't agree more.

With the upcoming DVD release of Seven Men From Now On, his first of many collaborations with Scott, modern audiences will get a chance to get to know the work of one of the most legendary Westerns director of the 50s and 60s - a movie maker who, in the words of Clint Eastwood (who participates , alongside Quentin Tarantino, in the documentary), is right up there with John Ford in the realm of the great ones.

In the documentary, we follow Boetticher as he heads down to Mexico in the 30s to become a bullfighter, a profession that led him to become technical advisor in 1941's Blood And Sand (featuring Rita Hayworth). He choreographed one of the most memorable scenes of the film, the seductive dance with Anthony Quinn and Hayworth.

He didn't return to Mexico after that, and he went on to become assistant director and then director of numerous low-budget B-movies, in which he creatively used his lack of money availability by fogging the set, which made up for not having to create visuals, something that he could not do in that kind of setting.

His first real break came in 1951, when he got the chance to direct The Bullfighter And The Lady, a movie about a young American matador (the story was loosely based on the director's young life) under the production of John Wayne (who loved the script but declined to star in, feeling the part wasn't right for him). The lead went to a young Robert Stack (The Untouchables), and the movie went into history as one of the best bullfighting movie ever made.

After a string of movies for Universal, he finally began his collaboration with Randolph Scott in yet another movie under the Duke's production, the already mentioned Seven Men From Now On. In that and his subsequent pictures, he creates the figure of the reluctant hero and the ambiguous villain who somehow crosses over to the wrong side of life.

After six movies with Scott, he returned to Mexico to make a documentary on the life of Carlos Arruza, a famous matador who was a close friend of his. But his plans went tragically awry, as his wife left him, he wound up in jail and, to make matters worse, the subject of his film was killed in a car accident that also claimed many of his film crew.

The documentary finally saw its release in 1972, but by then Boetticher's career was over. Having directed Audie Murphy's final film, A Time For Dying (1971), he basically retired from film making after the release of Arruza. He made cameo appearances in other directors' films up to his passing in 2001.

A Man Can Do That sheds a lot of light into the director's career through the eyes of fans and friends. Quentin Tarantino appears to be the most excited with his manic comments, which find a suitable counterpart in Eastwood, who looks into the films with his characteristic sense of humor and analytical eye as a director.

Following the documentary, Turner Classic Movies will screen Seven Men For Now On, which will be followed by a salute to Randolph Scott. The program includes Western Union (1941) and Trail Street (1947).