Budd Boetticher | |
|---|---|
| Born | Oscar Boetticher Jr. (1916-07-29)July 29, 1916 |
| Died | November 29, 2001(2001-11-29) (aged 85) Ramona, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1942–1985 |
| Spouses | |
Oscar Boetticher Jr. (/ˈbɛtɪkər/BET-i-kər; July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001), known asBudd Boetticher,was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starringRandolph Scott.[1][2]
Boetticher was born in Chicago. His mother died in childbirth and his father was killed in an accident shortly afterward. He was adopted by a wealthy couple, Oscar Boetticher Sr. (1867–1953) and Georgia (née Naas) Boetticher (1888–1955), and raised inEvansville, Indiana, along with his younger brother, Henry Edward Boetticher (1924–2004). He attendedCulver Military Academy, where he became friends withHal Roach Jr.[3]
He was a star athlete atOhio State University, until an injury ended his sports career. In 1939 he traveled to Mexico, where he learnedbullfighting under Lorenzo Garza, Fermín Espinosa SaucedoandCarlos Arruza.[2][3]
Boetticher worked as a crew member onOf Mice and Men (1939) andA Chump at Oxford (1940). A chance encounter withRouben Mamoulian landed him a job as technical advisor onBlood and Sand (1941). He stayed on in Hollywood working atHal Roach Studios doing a variety of jobs.[3]
Boetticher received an offer to work atColumbia Pictures as an assistant director onThe More the Merrier (1943). The studio liked his work and he stayed to assist onSubmarine Raider (1942),The Desperadoes (1943),Destroyer (1943),U-Boat Prisoner (1944), andCover Girl (1944), promoted to first assistant director. Some of these were Columbia's most prestigious films and Boetticher was offered the chance to join the studio's directing program.[3]
Boetticher's first credited film as director was aBoston Blackie filmOne Mysterious Night (1944). It was followed by other "B" movies:The Missing Juror (1944),Youth on Trial (1945),A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (1945), andEscape in the Fog (1945).[3]
"They were terrible pictures", he remarked in 1979. "We had eight or ten days to make a picture. We had all these people who later became stars, or didn't, likeGeorge Macready andNina Foch, and you never had anybody any good. I don't mean that they weren't good but they weren't then, and neither were we."[3]
Boetticher was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S.Naval Photographic Science Laboratory. He made documentaries and service films includingThe Fleet That Came to Stay (1945) andWell Done.[3]
Boetticher left Columbia. He directed some films forEagle Lion,Assigned to Danger (1948) andBehind Locked Doors (1949).
AtMonogram Pictures he directedRoddy McDowall inBlack Midnight (1949) andKiller Shark (1950). In between he madeThe Wolf Hunters (1949).
He began directing for television withMagnavox Theatre – a production ofThe Three Musketeers that was released theatrically in some markets asThe Blade of the Musketeers.[3]
Boetticher got his first big break when he was asked to directBullfighter and the Lady forJohn Wayne's production company,Batjac, based loosely on Boetticher's own adventures studying to be a matador in Mexico. It was the first film he signed as Budd Boetticher, rather than his given name, and it earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Story. But the film was edited drastically without his consent, and his career again seemed on hold.[4] (The film has since been restored by theUCLA Film Archive and the restored print is sometimes referred to by its working title,Torero.)[3]
Boetticher signed a contract to direct forUniversal-International where he specialised in Westerns.
"I became a western director because they thought I looked like one and they thought I rode better than anyone else," said Boetticher later. "And I didn't know anything about the west."[3]
His films there includedThe Cimarron Kid (1952) withAudie Murphy;Bronco Buster (1952);Red Ball Express (1952), aWorld War II film;Horizons West (1952) withRobert Ryan;City Beneath the Sea (1953), a treasure hunting film;Seminole (1953), a Western withRock Hudson;The Man from the Alamo (1953) withGlenn Ford;Wings of the Hawk (1953) withVan Heflin; andEast of Sumatra (1953) with Chandler and Quinn.
He started directingThe Americano, an independent film with Ford, but quit.[3] He returned to television withThe Public Defender.
In 1955, he helmed another bullfighting drama,The Magnificent Matador, at 20th Century-Fox, which began his frequent collaboration with cinematographerLucien Ballard. They followed it with a film noir,The Killer Is Loose (1956).[3]
He also directed episodes ofThe Count of Monte Cristo.
Boetticher finally achieved his major breakthrough when he teamed up with actorRandolph Scott andscreenwriterBurt Kennedy to makeSeven Men from Now (1956). It was the first of the seven films (last in 1960) that came to be known as the Ranown Cycle.[5]
He was reunited with Scott and Kennedy onThe Tall T (1957); they were joined by producerHarry Joe Brown, who would produce the six remaining films.
Boetticher directed the first three episodes of the TV seriesMaverick. He went back to working with Scott:Decision at Sundown (1957);Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) (not written by Kennedy); andRide Lonesome (1959).
Westbound (1959) was made with Scott but without Kennedy or Brown.Comanche Station (1960) was made with Scott and Kennedy.
Boetticher returned to television, directing episodes ofHong Kong,Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre,Death Valley Days, andThe Rifleman. He did a feature,The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960). He directed the first three episodes ofMaverick starringJames Garner then had a fundamental disagreement with writer/producerRoy Huggins involving the lead character's dialogue and never directed the series again.
Boetticher spent most of the 1960s south of the border pursuing his obsession, the documentary of his friend, thebullfighterCarlos Arruza, turning down profitableHollywood offers and suffering humiliation and despair to stay with the project, including sickness, bankruptcy and confinement in both jail and asylum (all of which is detailed in hisautobiographyWhen in Disgrace).Arruza was finally completed in 1968 and released in Mexico in 1971 and the US in 1972.[6][2]
Boetticher returned to Hollywood with the rarely seenA Time for Dying, a collaboration withAudie Murphy shot in 1969 and not released widely until 1982. He provided the story forDon Siegel'sTwo Mules for Sister Sara (1970).[7]
In later years, he was known for thedocumentaryMy Kingdom For... (1985) and his appearance as a judge inRobert Towne'sTequila Sunrise (1988), and he was still actively attempting to get his screenplay "A Horse for Mr. Barnum" made, before his death in 2001. He and his wife Mary spent much of their later years traveling to film festivals around the world, especially in Europe. His last public appearance, less than three months before his death, was at Cinecon, a classic film festival held in Hollywood, California.[citation needed]
