Sunday, June 13, 2021

Book review - "Raoul Walsh" by Marilyn Ann Moss (2011)

 Surprising in a way it took so long for someone to do a decent bio on Walsh, but then he's been overshadowed by figures such as Ford and Hawks. This is a good book - it's hefty but then Walsh had a hefty career (I mean, he learned from DW Griffith and was in Birth of a Nation).

On a personal level he wasn't that fascinating - lost the eye, an actor, a tall tale teller, some dud marriages, a tendency to sue for the love of causing mischief, was into horses, politically conservative, earned a lot of money but never seemed to have enough.

His great period was at Warner Bros of course - all those great movies with Errol Flynn and Bogart. A shame he never worked with Flynn again after Silver City. Last movie was with Troy Donahue - actually Walsh worked a lot with teen idols.

Entertaining read.

 

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