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Poll

What's your favorite film by Raoul Walsh?

The Regeneration
0 (0%)
The Thief of Bagdad
1 (4%)
What Price Glory
0 (0%)
Sadie Thompson
0 (0%)
The Big Trail
0 (0%)
Me and My Gal
0 (0%)
The Bowery
0 (0%)
Going Hollywood
0 (0%)
Big Brown Eyes
1 (4%)
Artists & Models (not the Dean/Jerry film)
0 (0%)
College Swing
0 (0%)
The Roaring Twenties
1 (4%)
Dark Command
0 (0%)
They Drive by Night
1 (4%)
High Sierra
1 (4%)
The Strawberry Blonde
1 (4%)
Manpower
0 (0%)
They Died with Their Boots On
1 (4%)
Desperate Journey
0 (0%)
Gentleman Jim
0 (0%)
Background to Danger
0 (0%)
Northern Pursuit
0 (0%)
Uncertain Glory
0 (0%)
Objective, Burma!
0 (0%)
The Horn Blows at Midnight
0 (0%)
The Man I Love
0 (0%)
Pursued
0 (0%)
Cheyenne
0 (0%)
Silver River
0 (0%)
Colorado Territory
0 (0%)
White Heat
11 (44%)
The Enforcer
0 (0%)
Captain Horatio Hornblower
0 (0%)
Along the Great Divide
0 (0%)
Distant Drums
1 (4%)
The World in His Arms
0 (0%)
The Lawless Breed
0 (0%)
A Lion Is in the Streets
0 (0%)
Gun Fury
0 (0%)
Battle Cry
0 (0%)
The Tall Men
0 (0%)
The King and Four Queens
0 (0%)
Band of Angels
0 (0%)
The Naked and the Dead
0 (0%)
The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw
0 (0%)
A Distant Trumpet
0 (0%)
other (specify)
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
6 (24%)
don't like any
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 24

Author Topic: Walsh, Raoul  (Read 6968 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #30 on: December 26, 2011, 06:13:14 PM »
Walsh remade that a few years later as a proper western with Joel McRea and Dorothy Malone called Colorado Territory.  It's interesting, but not as good.  Malone has many qualities, but she's no Lupino.

And Stuart Heisler also remade it as the decent but unnecessary I Died a Thousand Times with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters.  Winters is no Lupino... then again, Lupino is no Winters.

sdedalus

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #31 on: December 26, 2011, 06:15:46 PM »
There can be only one Shelly Winters.
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sdedalus

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #32 on: February 29, 2012, 02:03:41 AM »
Updated:

1. The Strawberry Blonde
2. High Sierra
3. Objective: Burma!
4. What Price Glory?
5. They Drive By Night
6. Regeneration
7. White Heat
8. The Thief of Baghdad
9. Colorado Territory
10. The Roaring Twenties
11. They Died with Their Boots On
12. Cheyenne
13. Along the Great Divide
14. Dark Command
15. Blackbeard, the Pirate
16. Going Hollywood
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Antares

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #33 on: January 18, 2013, 06:04:00 PM »
White Heat
The Roaring Twenties
High Sierra
Captain Horatio Hornblower
The Thief of Bagdad


They Drive by Night
Gentleman Jim
Action in the North Atlantic
Objective, Burma!
Northern Pursuit


Battle Cry
They Died with Their Boots On
Masterpiece (100-91) | Classic (90-80) | Entertaining (79-69) | Mediocre (68-58) | Cinemuck (57-21) | Crap (20-0)

1SO

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #34 on: September 08, 2013, 01:49:40 PM »
Big Brown Eyes
a few days ago I watched Manpower where Walsh was ripping off Howard Hawks, especially Only Angels Have Wings. In this one, he steals the fast patter and relationships of His Girl Friday. It's impossible to watch this and not think of Hawks' definitive screwball rom-com with a touch of murder. Again, it's like watching DePalma doing Hitchcock.

It's not fair to compare this film to the classic, even if it invites the comparison. Some great barbs and retorts, but also quite a few missed opportunities. Also, as good as Joan Bennett it she's no Rosalind Russell. Nor is she Joan Blondell or even Una Merkel, who would've been a knockout in the role. So this is a good film, that misses greatness by a disappointing amount of yardage.
* * *


THIS JUST IN: His Girl Friday was made 4 years later. So that would mean Hawks improved upon Walsh. I'm so confused.

roujin

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #35 on: March 02, 2014, 02:56:29 PM »
Me and My Gal (Raoul Walsh, 1932)

If this film was nothing but Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett trading barbs, it would be a masterpiece. And, yet, they exist and there's a plot and there are characters and dialogue and a million other pleasures (characters address the camera directly, the play with VO, etc.) that both distract, enhance and make the whole thing feel like a bit of play. I could watch movies like this forever.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #36 on: March 02, 2014, 10:27:46 PM »
The Thief of Bagdad

I have seen a few others, but do not remember them enough to rank them.

1SO

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Walsh, Raoul
« Reply #37 on: January 06, 2015, 01:26:32 PM »
1. White Heat
2. The Roaring Twenties
3. They Drive By Night
4. The Strawberry Blonde
5. Manpower
6. Gentleman Jim

7. A Lion is in the Streets
8. Captain Horatio Hornblower
9. Objective, Burma!
10. Big Brown Eyes
11. The Tall Men
12. What Price Glory
13. The World in His Arms
14. Colorado Territory
15. High Sierra
16. Silver River
17. Pursued
18. Cheyenne
19. Me and My Gal

20. The Horn Blows at Midnight
21. The Bowery
22. Salty O'Rourke
23. Dark Command
24. Desperate Journey
25. Baby Face Harrington
26. St. Louis Blues
27. Artists & Models
28. Distant Drums
29. The Thief of Bagdad
(1924)
30. Along the Great Divide
31. Sadie Thompson
32. The Man I Love
33. The Lawless Breed
34. The King and Four Queens
35. Uncertain Glory
36. The Big Trail
37. Regeneration
38. Battle Cry
39. College Swing
40. Northern Pursuit
41. They Died with Their Boots On
42. Band of Angels
43. Going Hollywood
44. Background to Danger
« Last Edit: December 28, 2020, 01:32:25 PM by 1SO »

1SO

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #38 on: January 06, 2015, 01:49:45 PM »
Manpower
* * * - Very Good


Raoul Walsh steals the entire Howard Hawks playbook for this tale of men working the life and death job of repairing downed power lines. When not putting their lives in harm's way - often showing off how little they fear death, which reveals how much they ACTUALLY fear it - they're playing pranks, chasing women and causing all sorts of trouble. It's like watching DePalma do his least inspired Hitchcock pastiche. You see all the mechanisms because the director is working without the invisible touch of the master.

This story has been made many times over by Warner Bros. Three times with Edward G. Robinson and at least twice by Raoul Walsh. The film is also similar in many ways to They Drive by Night (directed by Walsh and released the year before.) Despite this, Walsh gives the film Hawks' spontaneous energy that makes it play like the original version. There’s never the sense of fatalism, even when it should be obvious who's not going to make it to the end credits. I just wish a couple of the big scenes (mostly in the beginning) weren't so poorly directed. It's in those moments of excitement that Walsh becomes thuddingly obvious, drawing out the danger when it would've been more effective to surprise the audience with how quickly electricity can take a life.

I think I'm going to have to buy this one, flaws and all. Marlene Dietrich as gutter trash who can't live too far from the sewer. (It's shocking to see her dressed as a housewife.) George Raft as the clear-headed best friend. His best performance, including unlikely chemistry with Dietrich. Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Ward Bond, Barton MacLane, Eve Arden all swing at every pitch and while there are some strikes, this is a bunch who can generally make anything work. From a critical standpoint, I admit Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings is a better film, but this is the one I'll watch more often.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2016, 08:20:36 PM by 1SO »

oldkid

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Re: Director's Best: Raoul Walsh
« Reply #39 on: April 26, 2015, 03:55:36 PM »
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky