Budd Boetticher on DVD! (1 Viewer)

[Derek Estes]

Is anyone else out there interested in seeing Budd Boetticher's films released on DVD? Particularly his westerns. I have been watching them on 15 year old Goodtimes VHS copies, and they look pretty sad. I think Columbia holds the rights to most of them(I know they own most of The Ranown Cycle the exception being Seven Men from Now, owned by Warner Bros and recently restored by UCLA film & television archive). And though Columbia has (so far) tended to be pretty slow with releasing their classic catalog, it seems like they are getting prepared to start offering more Classic films to DVD, and I would like to offer these films up for a suggestion. Most of them are very short, 73 min is a common length for these films, and though Columbia hasn't really released any of their films in the form of a boxed set (that I can think of off the top of my head at least) I think these films might really work if released that way. Boetticher's films are getting harder to find, and even though he has a loyal cult following, he is sadly under represented on DVD ( Behind Locked Doors -Kino, being the exception).
The films I am referring to are...

The Ranown Cycle
Seven Men from Now -Warner Bros -recently restored
The Tall T -Columbia
Decision at Sundown -Columbia
Buchanan Rides Again -Columbia
Ride Lonesome -Columbia
Comanche Station -Columbia

and..
The Lady and the Bullfighter -Republic
Westbound -Warner Bros.
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond -Warner Bros.
Arruza -AVCO Embassy Pictures

Please add to this list, if you have any other suggestions.
Thank You, Derek

 

[Derek Estes]

Actually, This also makes me think Warners should release a set of Western Classics, the set could include..

The Left-Handed Gun -Arthur Penn
The Naked Spur -Anthony Mann
Seven Men from Now -Budd Boetticher
Rio Bravo 2 Disc SE -Howard Hawks
How the West was Won 2 Disc SE -John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall
The Law and Jake Wade -John Sturges
I Shot Jesse James -Samuel Fuller
Bad Day at Black Rock -John Sturges

...just a thought.

 

[Derek Estes]

This is a Mini Biography from IMDb

Brilliant, distinguished American director, particularly of Westerns, whose simple, bleak style disguises a complex artistic temperament. The son of a wealthy hardware retailer, Boetticher attended Culver Military Academy and Ohio State University, where he excelled in football and boxing.

Following his schooling, Boetticher, something of an adventurer, went to Mexico transformed himself into a formidable professional matador. His school chum, Hal Roach Jr., used his film connections to get Boetticher minor jobs in the film industry, most importantly the job of technical adviser on the bullfighting romance Blood and Sand (1941). By studying the work of the film's director, Rouben Mamoulian, and from editor Barbara McLean, he gained a thorough grounding in filmmaking.

After an apprenticeship as a studio messenger and assistant director, he was given a chance to direct, first retakes of scenes from other directors' films, then his own low-budget projects. For producer John Wayne, Boetticher filmed his first prominent work, a fictionalization of his own experiences in Mexico, Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), although the work was re-edited without Boetticher's approval by his mentor, John Ford. (The director's cut was restored several decades later.)

Following a number of sprightly but inconsequential programmers in the early 1950s, Boetticher formed a partnership with actor Randolph Scott, which, with the participation of producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy, led to a string of the most memorable Western films of 1950s, including Seven Men from Now (1956) and The Tall T (1957). He directed a sharp gangster film, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), then, with his wife, actress Debra Paget, left for Mexico to film a monumental documentary on famed matador Carlos Arruza.

The travail of the next seven years, which Boetticher detailed in his autobiography When In Disgrace, included near-fatal illness, divorce, incarceration in jails, hospitals, and an insane asylum, and the accidental deaths of Carlos Arruza and most of the film crew.

The film, Arruza (1972), was both an exquisite documentary and a testament to Boetticher's immutable drive. Though he returned to Hollywood to form a partnership with Audie Murphy, they completed only one film together before Murphy's death in 1971.

Since then, Boetticher had completed another documentary and had announced several feature films in preparation. He died at age 85.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

The Boetticher films, particularly the RANOWN Cycle, top
my personal wish list. I'd buy all of them.

I think Barrie Maxwell has reported 'Seven Men From Now'
will be released this year or next now that the
BatJac films are controlled by a new owner.

One final note for the mods: I think this thread should
be moved away from Software - TV to Software - Films.

 

[Derek Estes]

I agree, it was my mistake. Sorry!

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Two additional comments:

First, there is a Boetticher-directed Western available
in R2, an apparently quasi-public domain title, 'The
Man From The Alamo' starring Glenn Ford and Julia
Adams.

Second, Corinth Video released one of Boetticher's
final Westerns on VHS, a film titled, 'A Time For
Dying', starring Audie Murphy.