Budd Boetticher

Oscar Boetticher Jr. ( ; July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001), known as Budd Boetticher, was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott. (The film has since been restored by the UCLA Film Archive and the restored print is sometimes referred to by its working title, Torero.)

His films there included The Cimarron Kid (1952) with Audie Murphy; Bronco Buster (1952); Red Ball Express (1952), a World War II film; Horizons West (1952) with Robert Ryan; City Beneath the Sea (1953), a treasure-hunting film; Seminole (1953), a Western with Rock Hudson; The Man from the Alamo (1953) with Glenn Ford; Wings of the Hawk (1953) with Van Heflin; and East of Sumatra (1953) with Chandler and Quinn.

He started directing The Americano, an independent film with Ford, but quit.

He was reunited with Scott and Kennedy on The Tall T (1957); they were joined by producer Harry Joe Brown, who would produce the six remaining films.

Boetticher directed the first three episodes of the TV series Maverick. He went back to working with Scott: Decision at Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) (not written by Kennedy), and Ride Lonesome (1959).

Westbound (1959) was made with Scott but without Kennedy or Brown. Comanche Station (1960) was made with Scott and Kennedy.

1960s Boetticher returned to television, directing episodes of Hong Kong, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, Death Valley Days, and The Rifleman. He did a feature, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960). He directed the first three episodes of Maverick starring James Garner then had a fundamental disagreement with writer/producer Roy 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, the bullfighter Carlos Arruza, turning down profitable Hollywood 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 his autobiography When in Disgrace). Arruza was finally completed in 1968 and released in Mexico in 1971 and the US in 1972.

Return to Hollywood Boetticher returned to Hollywood with the rarely seen A Time for Dying, a collaboration with Audie Murphy shot in 1969 and not released widely until 1982. He provided the story for Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970).

In his later years, he was known for the documentary My Kingdom For... (1985) and his appearance as a judge in Robert Towne's Tequila Sunrise (1988), and he was still actively attempting to get his screenplay, A Horse for Mr. Barnum, made before his death in 2001. His wife Mary and he 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.

Filmography

Of Mice and Men (1939) – horse wrangler A Chump at Oxford (1940)- crew Blood and Sand (1941) – technical adviser Military Training (1941) (short) – assistant director Submarine Raider (1942) – uncredited director The More the Merrier (1943) – assistant director The Desperadoes (1943) – assistant director Destroyer (1943) – assistant director Cover Girl (1944) – assistant director The Girl in the Case (1944) – assistant director U-Boat Prisoner (1944) aka Dangerous Mists – uncredited One Mysterious Night (1944) aka Behind Closed Doors – director The Missing Juror (1944) – director Youth on Trial (1945) – director A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (1945) – director Escape in the Fog (1945) – director The Fleet that Came to Stay (1945) (documentary) – director Assigned to Danger (1948) – director Behind Locked Doors (1948) – director Black Midnight (1949) – director The Wolf Hunters (1949) – director Killer Shark (1950) – director The Maganvox Theater (1950) (TV series) – episode "The Three Musketeers" – director Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) – director, producer, story The Cimarron Kid (1952) – director Bronco Buster (1952) – director Red Ball Express (1952) – director Horizons West (1952) – director Seminole (1953) – director City Beneath the Sea (1953) – director The Man from the Alamo (1953) – director Wings of the Hawk (1953) – director East of Sumatra (1953) – director The Public Defender (1954) (TV series) – director The Magnificent Matador (1955) aka The Brave and the Beautiful – director, story Seven Men from Now (1956) – director The Killer Is Loose (1956) – director General Electric Summer Originals (1956) (TV series) – episode "Alias Mike Hecules" – director The Count of Monte Cristo (1956) (TV series) – episode "The Affair of the Three Napoleons" – director The Tall T (1957) – director Maverick (1957) – various episodes – director Decision at Sundown (1957) – director Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) – director Ride Lonesome (1959) – director, producer Westbound (1959) – director Comanche Station (1960) – director, producer Hong Kong (1960) (TV series)- episode "Colonel Cat" – director The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) – director Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater (1960–61) (TV series) – director of various episodes Death Valley Days (TV series) – episode "South of Horror Flats" – director The Rifleman (1961) (TV series) – episode "Stopover" – director A Time for Dying (1969) – director, writer Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) – story only Arruza (1971) (documentary) – director, producer My Kingdom For... (1985) (documentary) – director, producer Tequila Sunrise (1988) – actor only