1953 - SEMINOLE, The US Army vs Indians except in the swamps.

It's the United States Army vs the Seminole Indians fighting it out in the Florida swamps.  The director is cult filmmaker Budd Boetticher although you would find it pretty hard to believe he has a describable style based on this by the book studio production. 

Rock Hudson in one of his many Universal Studios films is the Army officer who wants to live in peace with the Seminoles.  Richard Carlson is his superior who is one of those crazy martinet officers like Henry Fonda in Fort Apache who just wants to kill all the Indians.  Anthony Quinn is the leader of the Seminoles, Barbara Hale is the love interest stuck in a silly love triangle between Quinn and Hudson.  You get the picture.  Did I mention that Lee Marvin turns up in a small part with black hair no less?

The film is a fairly sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans which was somewhat rare for a western in this time period.  The action scenes are not that bad but for the most part this is pretty standard stuff.  At least it's short.

87 minutes.

1953 - WINGS OF THE HAWK, not bad Budd Boetticher western

Probably not a western that the director Budd Boetticher will be remembered for.  Nevertheless this is a pretty decent western.  The action is well staged by the director and while the cast may not have been "A" quality talent but they all acquainted themselves very well.

Universal knocked out a lot of these cheap back lot westerns.  Wings of the Hawk is one of the better ones that I have seen.  Probably not a personal project for Boetticher, but he did a very good job with it.

80 minutes.

1957 - DECISION AT SUNDOWN, Randolph Scott rides yet again

The second film in the Boetticher/Scott western series.  Randolph Scott is a cowboy on a mission of vengeance to kill the man who drove his wife to suicide etc.

The best of the Budd Boetticher westerns were shot on location, Decision at Sundown is strictly a filmed on the back lot thing with Scott trapped in a livery stable for a good piece of film.   For a western this looks pretty claustrophobic.

The cast is mostly a collection of "B" movie or character actors.  They look about as creaky as the plot.  The dialog is from the school of western cliches.

Disappointing.

77 minutes.

1948 - BEHIND LOCKED DOORS, getting it done in 62 minutes

A private investigator goes under cover at a mental hospital looking for a criminal.  This is an early Budd Boetticher film, which is not a western and was shot quickly on a small number of almost empty looking sets. 

Film scholars are always looking for signs of an auteur in the early films of directors, they would probably have to look pretty hard to find something in this film.  The story while not uninteresting does kind of suffer from the cheap production, and the cast is capable but doesn't light the film on fire. 

Richard Carlson is the private investigator, Carlson was a reliable B actor, who never really hit the big time, but was in some entertaining films like, King Solomon's Mines, The Creature From The Black Lagoon and the Elvis Presley/Mary Tyler Moore classic, Change of Habit.  The film also has one time MGM starlet/dancer Lucille Bremer whose career also never took off after a couple of decent opportunities.  Add to this mix, Tor Johnson, who appeared in a lot of Ed Wood films, as a crazy ex fighter, who beats the crap out of Carlson, in probably the film's best scene.

Technically a film noir, with lots of shadows and scenes filmed at night, this film is no masterpiece, but at 62 minutes who's complaining.

62 minutes

1951 - Budd Boetticher's BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY Extended Director's cut?

John Wayne produced Budd Boetticher's story about a young American played by Robert Stack who is taught "the ways of the bullfighter" by Gilbert Roland playing the old bullfighter pro. Stack falls in love with a Mexican senorita but violates her code of honor and has to redeem himself. You can pretty much write this story. This film has lots of entertaining macho bullshit about what it means to be a man, learning the code of the bullfighter and junk like that.

Boetticher delivered a 2 hour film which John Wayne thought was to long. Duke called in his old drinking buddy John Ford, who proceeded to help cut about 40 minutes out of it. The cuts were made with Boetticher's approval in order to increase the commercial viability of the film. The film has been restored to it's original length. It looks like most of the stuff that got cut out were the scenes involving the testing of the young bulls to see if they would be suitable for fighting. Interesting stuff but a little repetitive after a while.

The acting is pretty good, Robert Stack is Mr. Intense throughout the film and actually performs some of his own bullfighting stunts. In repeated scenes he gets knocked over a lot by some young but mean bulls. A lot of the film appears to have been photographed on location in Mexico and there is a genuine atmosphere of sleaziness throughout the film.

The movie reminds me of Hemingway's bullfighting book Death in the Afternoon.

 124 minutes.

Budd Boetticher's Randy Scott Westerns

This series is out on DVD, with introductions by Clint Eastwood, motormouth Quentin Tarentino, and Taylor Hackford, who had personally known Boetticher before his death. It also contains a documentary on Boetticher who was apparently somewhat of a hell raiser particularly with women.  

 

Comanche Station-The final western in the series is Boetticher and Scott's version of John Ford's, The Searchers. This was a good film made as a "B" western in about 2 weeks with lots of location filming. This has excellent photography in some good scenic locations without all of the pretentious compositions that Ford stuck into The Searchers.  Randolph Scott actually looks like a cowboy, and doesn't overdo it with the strong silent type routine.

   

Decision at Sundown-Probably the most conventional of the series, this film appeared to be filmed mainly on a studio western set. Scott is good in this one, but the story is disappointing and the lack of location filming makes the film look kind of cheap. Doesn't appear that Boetticher and Scott had much interest in this one.
 
   






The Tall T coming soon

Seven Men From Now - Scott is on a mission of revenge in this one.  The film has all of the best virtues of this series.  A tight script for Burt Kennedy, good Lone Pine California locations and it doesn't push it running only 78 minutes.  A good cast supporting Scott, Lee Marvin, Stuart Whitman, Gail Russell and John Beradino.

 
Buchanan Rides Alone-Good looking film with exceptional photography, a somewhat complicated story about a western border town under the control of one family. Boetticher stages an exciting shootout at the end of the film. The film reminds me of "Yojimbo" with all of the double dealing involved. Well made really good film.

 

   



Ride Lonesome-Scott is the avenger in this one. This one is pretty grim and serious for the most part. Not a lot of action for a western, but the story and the actors move the film along to a strong climax. Definitely another high point for the series.