Arguably the greatest action director of Hollywood’s big-studio era, Raoul Walsh (1887-1980) didn’t hit his stride until just after his 50th birthday, or around 1938 or ’39. Walsh’s glory period happened in the 1940s and ’50s.
Here, in my opinion and in this order, are his 18 finest films:
White Heat (’49), High Sierra (’41), They Died with Their Boots On (’41), Objective, Burma! (’45), Gentleman Jim (’42), Pursued (’47), The Thief of Bagdad (’24), The Big Trail (’30), Dark Command (’40), They Drive by Night (’40), The Roaring Twenties (’39), Captain Horatio Hornblower (’51), Along the Great Divide (’51), Battle Cry (55), The Tall Men (’55), Band of Angels (’57) and What Price Glory? (’26).
