62-66 Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott at Columbia, 1957-1960

[MichaelB]

Final specs of Indicator’s Boetticher box.

[What A Disgrace]

I think I'm getting the vapors.

[matrixschmatrix]

Wow, impressive. Has the length of the Frayling discussion been posted anywhere? That might be the single most enticing new feature (though I'm glad that it looks like this makes the Sony DVD set entirely redundant- I hate having to hang on to those for one interview or something.)

[MichaelB]

Wow, impressive. Has the length of the Frayling discussion been posted anywhere?

If it has, it's from a psychic or a mischief-maker, since it's being filmed in April. But Frayling doesn't normally stint on detail, and he can have as much time as he likes.

The Kim Newman piece runs a whisker under half an hour.

[Ashirg]

Too bad TCM doc from 2005 that's on Sony set can't be included to make that DVD release obsolete...

[Orlac]

Sorry if I missed it, but isn't one or more of the films exclusive to the set?

[Ribs]

Indicator does not guarantee that every single title they release will get repressed in an unlimited edition. Presumably, as time goes on and we begin to get to titles that took 2-3 years to sell out, they'll begin not to be reissuing them: it remains to be seen how popular this set is, especially as pH hasn't really dipped their toes in the Western genre before now. But if the set sold like gangbusters I don't think any specific indication has been given they wouldn't just put out all five titles on their own.

[Apperson]

Although they're contractually obligated to keep two of the titles exclusive to this set, though I can't remember which.

[sabbath]

Sorry if I missed it, but isn't one or more of the films exclusive to the set?

Although they're contractually obligated to keep two of the titles exclusive to this set, though I can't remember which.

The Tall T and Comanche Station, they are the box set exclusive.

[hearthesilence]

Saw The Tall T at Quad Cinema. The first 15 or 20 minutes are so loose, I wondered if the next hour would be plotless, but pretty quickly what seemed casual reveals itself to be very meticulous and purposeful. Randolph Scott is a Western icon, but he doesn’t come across as much. He loses foolish bets in embarrassing fashion and he’s clumsy enough to knock his head into the occasional entrance, but taking him down notch after notch tightens the suspense for the remainder of the picture. He’s up against men who are more cautious and clever than him, and until the final minutes, he does very little except wait, obey and observe. The pacing is remarkable considering that it’s less than 80 minutes and it never moves that fast - it feels very concentrated.

The print looked great, very robust colors. Not crisp or sharp, it was a very thick and creamy look, understandable for a film that was shot open matte and essentially cropped into widescreen during projection. (Sort of like blowing up the midsection of an Academy ratio film.) This was obvious when they had to adjust the framing at the start but it was interesting how tight the framing had to be. After the Columbia logo, with the lady’s feet and I think legs chopped off, the edge of the frame was pretty close to the large letters of the opening credits. The final T in the title is actually slightly clipped but otherwise there’s a little breathing room around every other letter. Will see how these Blu-Ray discs compare.

[swo17]

I must confess I opened the thread expecting to see Five Tall Links: Budd Beavercher & Randolph Svet at Colpunbia, 19bivty-sveten - Sveteen-bivxty

[DarkImbecile]

I don’t think this has been posted here before, but Richard Brody mentioned on Twitter that Paul Schrader had written on Boetticher back in 1970, and sure enough it’s in the archives on his site.

[hearthesilence]

Quad Cinema actually screened it because Schrader selected it for a program running in conjunction with the upcoming premiere of his latest film.

[colinr0380]

I don’t think this has been posted here before, but Richard Brody mentioned on Twitter that Paul Schrader had written on Boetticher back in 1970, and sure enough it’s in the archives on his site.

That's great, and there is also a 2000 piece on Seven Men From Now (the first of the cycle, made for Warner Bros.)

[MichaelB]

Randolph Scott is a Western icon, but he doesn’t come across as much. He loses foolish bets in embarrassing fashion and he’s clumsy enough to knock his head into the occasional entrance,

...which was a genuine on-set accident, but both Scott and Richard Boone were savvy enough to react in character and Boetticher liked it so much that he kept it in.

[hearthesilence]

...which was a genuine on-set accident, but both Scott and Richard Boone were savvy enough to react in character and Boetticher liked it so much that he kept it in.

Nice! Boone was especially good - looking over his Wikipedia page, he seems to be much better known as a television actor, which may be why he looked so unfamiliar.

Another thing that stood out was how the man with the highest social standing is made out to be a complete s*** - that alone is common in Westerns, but it made a later scene stand out when Boone (having been well-established as a pretty terrible criminal) suddenly relates to Scott's character, asking about his private life and talking about his own working or middle class ambitions in ways that would be relatable to most people. It's startling, and I'm guessing a common trait in Elmore Leonard's stories, given my limited familiarity with them.

[MichaelB]

Aside from the opening scenes, the film generally sticks very closely to Elmore Leonard’s story, from which much of the dialogue was lifted more or less verbatim. It clearly wasn’t broken so didn’t need fixing.

[colinr0380]

Randolph Scott is a Western icon, but he doesn’t come across as much. He loses foolish bets in embarrassing fashion and he’s clumsy enough to knock his head into the occasional entrance,

...which was a genuine on-set accident, but both Scott and Richard Boone were savvy enough to react in character and Boetticher liked it so much that he kept it in.

That's actually a moment that gets highlighted in the Martin Scorsese Journey Through American Movies section about the film!

[domino harvey]

Boone had a great career in film, hearthesilence, one like Jack Palemce built on being cast for his ability to menace with minimum effort. You should check out Hombre, which gives him one of the all time great scenes of intimidation

[hearthesilence]

Ah, I actually have seen Hombre but it was a long time ago and I have a faint memory of it (though I do remember it sharing other narrative similarities with The Tall T, again probably not surprisingly since Leonard wrote both stories). Will have to re-visit it again though.

[Cold Bishop]

I also love Boone's menacing turn in Huston's bleak Kremlin Letter where he plays his spy boss with a neighborly folksiness that unwavers even as his machinations become more ruthless and uncompromising. Considering the sort of redneck shitkickers the CIA filled their ranks with early on, it's a very effective performance.

[knives]

He also has a nice role in Kazan's The Arrangment. Plus he got to lead in a a bizarre little film called I Bury the Living by the future head of Full Moon.

[joshua]

He also has a nice role in Kazan's The Arrangment. Plus he got to lead in a a bizarre little film called I Bury the Living by the father of the head of Full Moon.

fixed

[Jonathan S]

While I've enjoyed many of Boone's film performances, my belated discovery of him as Paladin in Have Gun - Will Travel catapulted my admiration of his subtle acting to a whole new level. The series has occasional dud episodes (the overtly comic ones don't usually work for me), but most of them have the type of rich characterisations and moral ambiguity I associate with my favourite big-screen westerns.

[Michael Kerpan]

While I've enjoyed many of Boone's film performances, my belated discovery of him as Paladin in Have Gun - Will Travel catapulted my admiration of his subtle acting to a whole new level. The series has occasional dud episodes (the overtly comic ones don't usually work for me), but most of them have the type of rich characterisations and moral ambiguity I associate with my favourite big-screen westerns.

I probably haven't seen HGWT for almost 50 years. I remember liking it quite a bit -- way back then. Is this now out on (high-quality) home video? (If not, how did you run across it?)