UCLA Film & Television Archive and
the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program present
Ride Lonesome: The Films Of Budd Boetticher
The Billy Wilder Theater
July 13, 2012 – August 12, 2012
10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 206-8013
Click here for films, times and other details. More about ’em here.
Thanks to Henry Cabot Beck for the info.
Can’t believe they waited until I left Westwood to run this series.
Being there in spirit just isn’t the same.
One of my blog readers who works at UCLA just let me know about this series! Sure hope to be there this summer. Plan to give it some additional publicity on my blog as soon as time permits!
I’m guessing Blake Lucas will read this — see you there, maybe? LOL. Toby, wish you could be there!!! And Caftan Woman and everyone else who may read this. What a party we Western fans would have!!
This series will be followed by a series of Jean Arthur films. 🙂
Best wishes,
Laura
I’d like to see the non-Westerns as well. You know, the Brit kids went ape for Legs Diamond in their day–it has a huge following for those who saw it initially. And the Wendell Corey psycho picture is really terrific.
In the early Sixties the British Film Institute ran a season of films by
“one shot directors” i.e. directors who had only made one film or only
one film of any importance. LEGS DIAMOND was included in this season
and Richard Whitehall (as I recall) in Films & Filming (the Bible;written
and read by “Brit Kids”) pointed out that the Institute were gleefully
unaware of Boettichers fine Westerns.
Then Chris Wicking (a true Brit Kid if ever there was one!) got on Budds
case and the rest is history.
I wish I could make it out to LA for this.
Just to go off-subject for a while:
Last night I watched Italy blow us Brits out of Euro 2012.
The whole thing ended in a white-kunckle shootout.
Tonight I am going to watch a different sort of shoot-out,a Spaghetti
Western.
Those cats at Artus Films in France have just released THE RUTHLESS
FOUR (Giorgio Capitani 1968) Its a lovely crisp,sharp Tecnniscope
transfer.It plays in English without subtitles. Oddly enough my copy
reverts to Italian at odd brief intervals. The film stars Van Heflin and
Gilbert Roland.
Visually the film is quiet striking at times.The film has nods towards
Boetticher and Sturges,especially in the main set-piece an extended
shoot-out at a burnt-out mission.As these Italian jobs go the violence
quota is quite low.
This got me thinking about how many Hollywood directors had a
crack at these Euro hybrids. Quiet an impressive list including:
John Sturges,George Sherman,Lesley Selander,Hugo Fregonese,
Edward Dmytryk,Burt Kennedy,Roy Rowland,Nathahn Juran,Henry
Levin,Paul Landres.The results varied;even a director with Dmytryks
impressive track record could not save SHALAKO from total disaster.
Arguably Raoul Walshs THE SHERIFF OF FRRACTURED JAW
was the first Euro Western. (OK,I know someone is going to get on my
case and tell me RAMSBOTTOM RIDES AGAIN was the frirst Euro
Western!)
Also other Hollywood notables like Rudolph Mate,Andre De Toth and
Jacques Tourneur chalked up quite a few Euro Historical Action Epics
between them.
This makes me wonder why Budd Boetticher was never enticed over to
Europe.Hollywood had given up on him by the late Sixties and his
style would have suited the Spaghetties pretty well.
Even sadder that his beloved A HORSE FOR MR BARNUM never
got off the ground.This would have been set and filmed in Spain and
people like Robert Mitchum and James Coburn were said to be on board.
Sure would have loved to have seen that one.
As an add-on to the above I know a lot of people on this blog really admire
George Shermans LAST OF THE FAST GUNS.I do not think any other
Fifties Western pre-figured the Spaghetti Western more than this one.