OK, Lets talk about Raoul Walsh!

Raoul Walsh Stamp
Originally uploaded by livingfilm.

I am excited to start talking about another one of my favorite directors the Rowdy and Brilliant Raoul Walsh!

So Raoul Walsh is one of the most colorful and prolific directors in Hollywood history, and it is really a shame that his name is so foreign to most modern filmgoers. He directed his first film in 1912 and directed his last in 1964. In the 52 years between Walsh would direct some of the most memorable films in Hollywood history, and give several legendary Stars their greatest roles.

Born in 1887 and raised in New York, Raoul Walsh's life would be as exciting as one of his films. Growing up Walsh would meet several legends of the late 1890's such as Buffalo Bill, 'The Great' Caruso, Mark Twain, 'Gentleman' Jim Corbett and Edwin Booth brother of the notorious John Wilkes Booth -actually both Raoul Walsh and Myself have portrayed Lincoln's assassin, though his performance is perhaps a little more legendary than my own. Walsh would return to this era in several of his greatest films including The Bowery, The Strawberry Blonde and Gentleman Jim the wonderful biography of boxer Jim Corbett -whom of course Walsh had met as a boy.

As a young man Walsh would travel the country as a cowboy, and later would follow Pancho Villa through Mexico, documenting the Mexican Revolution.
In Hollywood Walsh would become protege of the brilliant and often controversial David Wark Griffith, and in who's Birth of a Nation Walsh would play John Wilkes Booth. Griffith is often credited as the man who invented the 'grammar' of filmmaking, and in a way Walsh would take that 'grammar' and run with it. One of Walsh's first major films is Regeneration. Filmed on location in The Bowery, Regeneration with the exception of D.W. Griffith's short The Musketeers of Pig Alley, would be the very first Gangster film, a genre that Walsh would later revisit and perfect with films such as The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra and the incredible White Heat.

Having established himself during the silent period as both a gifted director and leading man, with such films as The Thief of Bagdad starring Douglas Fairbanks and Sadie Thompson starring Gloria Swanson, Walsh was excited to venture into the sound period with the first talking Western In Old Arizona in 1929. This was very ambitious at the time and there was a high degree of skepticism around Hollywood that it was even possible, but Walsh was cocksure and preceded to direct and star in this landmark film. Then disaster struck. During the shooting Walsh was in a freak car accident when a jack rabbit jumped though the windshield of his car, the glass stabbing him in the right eye causing him to loose it, he would wear an eyepatch the rest of his life. A jack rabbit would later be the cause of a car accident in Walsh's 1941 film High Sierra. Walsh's In Old Arizona replacement Warner Baxter would win the academy award for the part.

In 1930 Walsh would again return to making a Western, it was called The Big Trail and starred an unknown prop boy of John Ford's by the name of Marion Morrison soon to be re-christened John Wayne. This time in a revolutionary Widescreen process that would quickly disappear for twenty years due to the fact that theaters that had just converted to sound could not afford to upgrade any new technology. The process was also blamed for the lackluster debut of the new star who without any close-ups seemed to blend into the beautiful scenery. Wayne would spend the rest of the decade in B-Western purgatory till Ford cast him as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach in 1939.

Walsh would again, rise to the top of the heap with a body of work that is so full of life, and his love for life, that many of his best films still feel fresh, exciting and often beautiful. He was a tough director that could also create a tender love scene. He was a constant innovator that retained a classic beauty. For anyone anxious to discover classic filmmaking Raoul Walsh's films must be seen.

I really haven't even touched on the films themselves, so I have turned the title of this post into a link to a story about him and his films. Also, Walsh's rare memoirs are a fantastic read, copys of the book can fetch hundreds of dollars, but considering how few people know who he is it is possible to find it for much less.