In the first ever full-length biography of Raoul Walsh, author Marilyn Ann Moss recounts Walsh's life and achievements in a career that spanned more than half a century and produced upwards of two hundred films, many of them cinema classics. Walsh originally entered the movie business as an actor, playing the role of John Wilkes Booth in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). In the same year, under Griffith's tutelage, Walsh began to direct on his own. Soon he left Griffith's company for Fox Pictures, where he stayed for more than twenty years. It was later, at Warner Bros., that he began his golden period of filmmaking.
Walsh was known for his romantic flair and playful persona. Involved in a freak auto accident in 1928, Walsh lost his right eye and began wearing an eye patch, which earned him the suitably dashing moniker "the one-eyed bandit." During his long and illustrious career, he directed such heavyweights as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, and Marlene Dietrich, and in 1930 he discovered future star John Wayne.
"Moss's book is an important step forward in Walsh scholarship — her superb research uncovers reams of production history." — Film Comment
"Moss... has done an admirable job of examining Walsh's life and accomplishments, sorting out the myths and reestablishing his place in the American pantheon." — The Washington Post
"This book bursts with facts, color, and charm, and along the way provides the reader with a clear sense of how the director's character infused his art." — Choice
"This is a book made out of affection, respect and lengthy research - and surely we have waited long enough for a proper account of the life and work of Raoul Walsh in English." — Sight and Sound
"Moss brings Walsh to life expertly, mining his many contradictions as she separates mythic chaff from factual wheat to give use the fullest portrait of Walsh we are ever likely to get." — Directors Guild of America Quarterly
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue: A Wild Ride 1
1 Becoming Raoul Walsh 6
2 Griffith and Beyond: The Apprenticeship Years 25
3 Leaning Forward at Fox 46
4 The Dagger, the Sword, and the Gun 74
5 Pre‐Code Walsh: The Big Camera 98
6 Salt of the Earth 131
7 Beshert: The Early Warner Bros. Years 160
8 Out of the Night: At Home at Warner Bros 180
9 One Thousand and One Nights with Errol Flynn 210
10 In Love and War 236
11 Oedipus Wrecked: The Late 1940s at Warner Bros 263
12 By Land and by Sea 295
13 Reverie 327
14 His Kind of Women 351
15 The Adventure Is Larger Than the Man 370
Epilogue: Walsh's American Scene 400
Filmography 405
Notes 447
Selected Bibliography 465
Index 471
Anonymous
Posted March 21, 2012
500 plus pages of describing every movie and every scene of Walsh movies made this a tedious read. Having seen many of Mr Walsh's movies I didn't need to read a blow by blow description.
This reader was left hanging as to what happened between Walsh and his sons. It would have been nice to know more about his relationship with brother George and his children. The author worked very hard on this book and deserves credit for her research I just wished I wasn't left with so many questions.
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