The Ranown Westerns: Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher

“This is The Ranown Westerns. Five films directed by Budd Boetticher, starring Randolph Scott. Now I’m told by my husband, Ken Bowser, who is quite a film historian, that these are some of the best westerns ever made. And he asked me to bring them home for him, so I am.”

“The Ranown Westerns. Yeah. When I was growing up in Manchester, I went to the movies all the time. I never saw a film that wasn’t in English. All I saw was Hollywood and British movies. And of course we saw loads and loads of westerns. I’m going to take this. Bit of nostalgia. Yeah, yeah. And they’re probably pretty good films. They must be if they’re in the Criterion Collection.”

“This is a great box set. I love these movies. These are Budd Boetticher, who made a series of B-westerns. He teamed up with actor-producer Randolph Scott. He did five under this label, the Ranown Westerns. These five movies are The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, and the last one they made together, Comanche Station. They're lean and mean. Legendary partnership.”

“And The Ranown Westerns, directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. My wife and I watched these, we watched them one at a time, one a week for about five weeks till we knocked them all out. It’s just… The feeling I get when I put these on, it’s just – you wrap yourself up in a blanket on the couch and you watch these things and you just feel really good and very warm and comforted and safe.”

“I could take that because Budd Boetticher, because in France I'm always fighting against schools. If you like that, you can't like this. Yes, I can like that, I can like that, and I do like this. And I like, me I'm the kind of spectator, I love Chantal Akerman and Jean-Marie Straub and I love comedies, French popular comedy. I don't take one from the other. But if you like cinema, you like everything. So all those Westerns of Budd Boetticher with Randolph Scott, all masterpieces.”