Raoul Walsh

Raoul Walsh

  • Highest Rated: 100% The Tall Men (1955)
  • Lowest Rated: 40% Esther and the King (1960)
  • Birthday: Mar 11, 1887
  • Birthplace: Not Available

  • One of Hollywood's most prolific and respected action directors, Raoul Walsh was also one of the longest-lived figures in film, with a career that spanned almost a half-century. After running away from home as a boy and working in a variety of capacities, including as a cowboy in the West, Walsh drifted into stage acting in New York and later into motion pictures as an actor. He became an assistant director to D.W. Griffith and, in 1914, made his first movie. By the mid 1920s, Walsh had a reputation for direct, straightforward, no frills narrative, and his style was particularly suited to action films and outdoor dramas, although his biggest film of that decade was the fantasy epic The Thief of Bagdad, produced by and starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr., which continues to be shown seven decades later. His work in the 1930s, mostly for 20th Century-Fox, embraced comedy and drama in equal measure, but it was with Warner Bros., beginning at the end of the 1930s, that Walsh came into his own, directing such classics as The Roaring Twenties (1939), They Drive By Night (1940), High Sierra (1941), Desperate Journey (1942), and Northern Pursuit (1943), starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Errol Flynn. Despite his reputation as an action director, Walsh's movies were usually much more sophisticated than was typical for the genre -- he revelled in psychological themes, and he loved offbeat characterizations and unusual narrative structures, attributes best reflected in the dark Western drama Pursued (1947), starring Robert Mitchum, and the crime film White Heat (1949), with James Cagney. He also served as unofficial co-director on one of Humphrey Bogart's most interesting later movies, The Enforcer (1951). His later movies showed a slackening of style, and he never did seem as effective working in color as he did in black-and-white. Walsh lost an eye while working on In Old Arizona in 1929, and his deteriorating sight in the other eye led to his retirement in 1964.

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

Movies

Rating

Title

Credit

Box
Office

Year

No Score Yet Kindred Of The Dust Director — 2014
No Score Yet Every Night At Eight Director — 2014
No Score Yet The Monkey Talks Director — 2012
No Score Yet Wild Girl Director — 2012
No Score Yet Salty O'Rourke Director — 2011
No Score Yet The Delta Factor Screenwriter — 1970
50% A Distant Trumpet Director — 1964
40% Esther and the King Screenwriter — 1960
No Score Yet A Private's Affair Director — 1959
No Score Yet The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw Director — 1958
83% The Naked and the Dead Director — 1958
40% Band of Angels Director Producer — 1957
No Score Yet The King and Four Queens Director — 1956
No Score Yet The Revolt of Mamie Stover Director — 1956
100% The Tall Men Director — 1955
No Score Yet Battle Cry Producer Director — 1955
No Score Yet Saskatchewan Director — 1954
No Score Yet Gun Fury Director — 1953
No Score Yet Sea Devils Director — 1953
No Score Yet The Lawless Breed Director — 1953
No Score Yet A Lion Is In The Streets Director — 1953
No Score Yet A Lion Is in the Streets Director — 1953
100% The World in His Arms Director — 1952
No Score Yet Glory Alley Director — 1952
No Score Yet Blackbeard, the Pirate Director — 1952
No Score Yet Distant Drums Director — 1951
100% Captain Horatio Hornblower Producer Director — 1951
No Score Yet Along the Great Divide Director — 1951
88% The Enforcer Director — 1951
No Score Yet It's a Great Feeling Himself — 1949
100% White Heat Director — 1949
No Score Yet Colorado Territory Director — 1949
No Score Yet Fighter Squadron Director — 1948
No Score Yet Silver River Director — 1948
No Score Yet One Sunday Afternoon Director — 1948
No Score Yet Wyoming Kid Director — 1947
No Score Yet Stallion Road Director — 1947
No Score Yet The Man I Love Director — 1947
100% Pursued Director — 1947
89% The Horn Blows at Midnight Director — 1945
No Score Yet Objective, Burma! Director — 1945
No Score Yet Uncertain Glory Director — 1944
No Score Yet Background to Danger Director Actor — 1943
No Score Yet Northern Pursuit Director — 1943
100% Gentleman Jim Director — 1942
67% Desperate Journey Director — 1942
95% High Sierra Director — 1941
100% The Strawberry Blonde Director — 1941
No Score Yet Manpower Director — 1941
82% They Died With Their Boots On Director — 1941
96% They Drive by Night Director — 1940
No Score Yet The Dark Command Director — 1940
100% The Roaring Twenties Director — 1939
No Score Yet College Swing Director — 1938
No Score Yet When Thief Meets Thief Director — 1937
No Score Yet Artists and Models Director — 1937
80% Big Brown Eyes Screenwriter Director — 1936
No Score Yet Klondike Annie Director — 1936
No Score Yet Under Pressure Director — 1935
No Score Yet Sailor's Luck Director — 1933
No Score Yet The Bowery Director — 1933
No Score Yet Me and My Gal Director — 1932
100% The Big Trail Producer Director — 1930
56% In Old Arizona Director — 1928
83% Sadie Thompson Sgt. Tim O'Hara Screenwriter Producer Director — 1928
No Score Yet The Red Dance Director — 1928
No Score Yet Loves of Carmen Director — 1927
No Score Yet What Price Glory Director — 1926
96% The Thief of Bagdad Director — 1924
80% Going Hollywood Director — 1923
100% Regeneration Screenwriter Director — 1915
98% The Birth of a Nation John Wilkes Booth — 1915

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