Walter Hill Returns

The award-winning Hollywood icon saddles back up for Dead fora Dollar, a new Western

- Henry C. Parke

Having not directed a Western since 2006’s Broken Trail, Walter Hill is happy to be back in the saddle again. “Oh, it’s very good. I like making Westerns. I think I’ve made more of them than anybody else that’s still working except for Eastwood. You’re out in beautiful country, and I like working with the actors and the crew. This shoot was done very quickly, in 25 days, outside of Santa Fe. We shot digital. Other than that, I wouldn’t say things have changed much. Lloyd Ahern, the cameraman on Dead for a Dollar—he and I first worked together in 1966 on Gunsmoke. I was a production assistant, and Lloyd was a camera assistant.”

Many who’ve seen Dead have commented on the dedication at the end, “In Memory of Budd Boetticher,” a fine action director best remembered for his 1960s collaborations with Randolph Scott. “Budd and I were certainly friends, but that really wasn’t the reason. I went out and I shot this movie.” He was watching a cut. “When it ended, I looked over to the film editor, Phil Norden, and I said, you know, Budd Boetticher would’ve liked this movie. It’s kind of like his. It’s a bunch of people out in the middle of nowhere. It’s obviously made quickly. It’s about codes, values, ethics, what is proper behavior. It’s a Western in the purest form, which I think Budd was really a master at. And, I thought, Budd doesn’t get enough credit. And I ought to say this: of the seven (Randolph Scotts) that he did, the four best ones were all written by Burt Kennedy. Kennedy was a wonderful screenwriter, and later on, a good director.”