The Budd Boetticher-Randolph Scott-usually Burt Kennedy (henceforth BSK) Westerns follow similar trail blazes - a single mysterious mission interrupted by circumstances and a bandit (or group of bandits) that pursues Scott's character. The tale of revenge and redemption that unfolds in Seven Men from Now is interesting enough, but the inevitable gunfight between Scott and the villainous Bill Masters (Lee Marvin) who hounds him creates additional suspense. The plotting template that Seven Men From Now established for this set of B-movies is incredibly successful at grabbing and holding our attention.
Equally integral to the success of the BSK films is the use of more complex characters. The screenplay slowly reveals that Scott's protagonists are men broken broken by a defining moment. In the case of Ben Stride, it is his pride that led to his wife being killed. His flawed nature is not limited to his past, though. Over the course of the film, he has what (in 1950s film terms at least) amounts to an affair with another man's wife (Annie Greer, played by Gail Russell) before sending that man (John Greer, played by Walter Reed) off to be killed. This is ostensibly because the man has been corrupted, but it also seems to result from Stride's desire to be with the man's wife. While we see Stride's flaws inform his decisions (trying to replace the wife he failed with another woman who he can save), Boetticher and Kennedy wisely decide against including too much overwrought angst - the kind that padded out the A-feature Westerns to 2+ hours - in the dialogue. When Annie attempts to inquire about Stride's past, he quickly cuts her off. Scott's characters in the BSK westerns were the strong, silent types - but their silence seems to be motivated by shame and regret in addition to the cowboy code.
Some of the small moments include: Stride's encounter/argument with the cavalry that warn him about Native Americans, Masters's storytelling, and the group's Native American encounter in which they trade a horse for their lives.
Another great element of The Tall T is how it doesn't explicitly explain the flaws of Scott's character as much as the rest of the BSK films do, making his closeness to the bandits' leader and sudden darkness even more startling.
While I included Kennedy (as he wrote some of the best in this group of Boetticher-Scott Westerns) as part of "BSK," he didn't write every Boetticher-Scott collaboration.
Crew & Cast
Directed by Budd Boetticher (The Tall T, Ride Lonesome, The Man From the Alamo)
Written by Burt Kennedy (The Train Robbers, Support Your Local Sheriff!, Hannie Caulder and episodes of TV Series "Lawman" and "Combat")
Cast
Randolph Scott - Ben Stride
Lee Marvin - Bill Masters
Gail Russel - Annie Greer
Walter Reed - John Greer
John Larch - Payte Bodeen