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Each Man in His Time
The Life Story of a Director
385 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 27, 2023
THE DIRECTOR WITH THE EYE-PATCH.
This is a delightful memoir written by the legendary Raoul Walsh of his life and adventures in the film industry. **
An excellent eye-witness account of early Hollywood and the infancy of filmmaking.
He was there from the beginning: from the pre-talkie days as a prolific director (helming Fairbanks in 'The Thief of Bagdad'), as actor (he played John Wilkes Booth in "The Birth of a Nation"), and as a writer and producer through to his long and illustrious career as one of the most praised and respected directors post silent era, continuing on until the mid-sixties.
Some of his notable sound films include 'The Roaring Twenties'/ 'High Sierra'/ 'They Died with Their Boots On'/ 'Objective Burma'/ 'White Heat'/ 'The Naked and the Dead' to mention just a few of his earthy contributions to the silver screen during a more than a half century movie career.
This is a colorful read and a superb and intelligent insight into filmmaking and the somewhat crazy early days of the industry.
Worth buying just for Walsh's take on his hands-on adventures with Pancho Villa and also playing him in "The Life of General Villa" (1912) and the loss of an eye whilst on location playing the Cisco Kid in "In Old Arizona" (1929) * which curtailed his acting career.
Never a dull moment in this crazy roller coaster of a film autobiography by a larger-than-life participant. With 32 pages of photographs.
* Walsh commenced filming 'In Old Arizona' as both director and actor but due to the accident (caused by a jackrabbit smashing through the windshield of his car), was replaced by actor Warner Baxter (who would win the Best Actor Oscar for his performance) and director Irving Cummings who completed the film. Apparently, Walsh can still be seen in the long shots.
** There may be more than a touch of blarney in Walsh's version of his life and career in the movies. Leonard Maltin: "Raoul Walsh was a storyteller who never let the truth get in the way of a good tale. Walsh's 1974 autobiography must be regarded as highly entertaining fiction with an occasional nod at the truth."
This is a delightful memoir written by the legendary Raoul Walsh of his life and adventures in the film industry. **
An excellent eye-witness account of early Hollywood and the infancy of filmmaking.
He was there from the beginning: from the pre-talkie days as a prolific director (helming Fairbanks in 'The Thief of Bagdad'), as actor (he played John Wilkes Booth in "The Birth of a Nation"), and as a writer and producer through to his long and illustrious career as one of the most praised and respected directors post silent era, continuing on until the mid-sixties.
Some of his notable sound films include 'The Roaring Twenties'/ 'High Sierra'/ 'They Died with Their Boots On'/ 'Objective Burma'/ 'White Heat'/ 'The Naked and the Dead' to mention just a few of his earthy contributions to the silver screen during a more than a half century movie career.
This is a colorful read and a superb and intelligent insight into filmmaking and the somewhat crazy early days of the industry.
Worth buying just for Walsh's take on his hands-on adventures with Pancho Villa and also playing him in "The Life of General Villa" (1912) and the loss of an eye whilst on location playing the Cisco Kid in "In Old Arizona" (1929) * which curtailed his acting career.
Never a dull moment in this crazy roller coaster of a film autobiography by a larger-than-life participant. With 32 pages of photographs.
* Walsh commenced filming 'In Old Arizona' as both director and actor but due to the accident (caused by a jackrabbit smashing through the windshield of his car), was replaced by actor Warner Baxter (who would win the Best Actor Oscar for his performance) and director Irving Cummings who completed the film. Apparently, Walsh can still be seen in the long shots.
** There may be more than a touch of blarney in Walsh's version of his life and career in the movies. Leonard Maltin: "Raoul Walsh was a storyteller who never let the truth get in the way of a good tale. Walsh's 1974 autobiography must be regarded as highly entertaining fiction with an occasional nod at the truth."
May 22, 2022
These three stars are in affection for Raoul Walsh, and especially for such early efforts as GENTLEMAN JIM and (big time) THE BOWERY, in which Walsh established himself as a kind of Brueghel of the cinema, creating pullulating waves of life that teemed and spilled over the borders of the frame.
They are not so much for this memoir, which—well, it’s about as believable as Jean Negulesco’s, which I read recently, with about a tenth, or less, of the color. And Walsh did big barnstorming action movies! Negulesco did heavily art directed poor-man’s-Vincente-Minnelli mellers and cushy comedies. Yet who’s the salty raconteur between the two?
I guess it’s not surprising that Walsh was more interested in showing off his flossy movie colony lifestyle and bragging about his friendship with William Randolph Hearst than giving us some really good tall tales—of the kind one might find in his cinema. He doesn’t even get to the arrival of sound till well past the book’s halfway mark, and not much in the challenge of making his sound features seems to excite him. The juiciest bits come before Walsh even gets hired in paleolithic motion pictures—these are the moments one imagines when seeing Raoul’s eyepatched portraits. Possibly the biggest shocker of the memoir is the discovery that Walsh was not some bedraggled rural-prole prairie dog, but grew up on Park Avenue in the universe of Edith Wharton!
They are not so much for this memoir, which—well, it’s about as believable as Jean Negulesco’s, which I read recently, with about a tenth, or less, of the color. And Walsh did big barnstorming action movies! Negulesco did heavily art directed poor-man’s-Vincente-Minnelli mellers and cushy comedies. Yet who’s the salty raconteur between the two?
I guess it’s not surprising that Walsh was more interested in showing off his flossy movie colony lifestyle and bragging about his friendship with William Randolph Hearst than giving us some really good tall tales—of the kind one might find in his cinema. He doesn’t even get to the arrival of sound till well past the book’s halfway mark, and not much in the challenge of making his sound features seems to excite him. The juiciest bits come before Walsh even gets hired in paleolithic motion pictures—these are the moments one imagines when seeing Raoul’s eyepatched portraits. Possibly the biggest shocker of the memoir is the discovery that Walsh was not some bedraggled rural-prole prairie dog, but grew up on Park Avenue in the universe of Edith Wharton!
February 11, 2022
When I thought about films I've loved, I discovered many of them had one thing in common - They were directed by Raoul Walsh. ''The Stawberry Blonde,'' ''Gentleman Jim,'' ''The Roaring Twenties,'' ''They Died With Their Boots On,'' ''Objective Burma,'' ''Colorado Territory,'' ''White Heat,''''The Tall Men.'' The rough and tumble authenticity and tough, ribald humor of his movies richly reflect his early adventures as a roustabout and cowboy in the southwest of the early 20th century, and Walsh's headlong, humor-filled chronicle of an exuberant life is riveting.
For decades, movie goers have been charmed and enriched by the authenticity of his films and the easy going, supreme confidence of his heroes; these same enduring qualities guarantee a future for the films for decades to come. For my money, ''Colorado Territory,''1948, a haunting tale of destiny, along with ''The Tall Men,'' made in 1955, are two of Walsh's finest films and stand among the best westerns ever made. See them again!
A thoroughly satisfying read - highly recommended!
For decades, movie goers have been charmed and enriched by the authenticity of his films and the easy going, supreme confidence of his heroes; these same enduring qualities guarantee a future for the films for decades to come. For my money, ''Colorado Territory,''1948, a haunting tale of destiny, along with ''The Tall Men,'' made in 1955, are two of Walsh's finest films and stand among the best westerns ever made. See them again!
A thoroughly satisfying read - highly recommended!
October 30, 2021
Still reading this hoot of a book. Very entertaining memoir of a rough-and-rowdy tough guy director who happily says what he thinks. I particularly picked this up for his stories about filming 1914 battles led by Pancho Villa; in the movie, he then plays Villa in flashback scenes engineered by the studio. Talk about dangers on sets; these guys went out into the revolution with handcranked cameras, bullets flying over their heads. Walsh is completely laconic and cynical in the way he tells these tales, which makes it all pretty funny. These stories were considered exaggerated or apocryphal since the film has long been lost; recently, though, fragments were found that show Walsh was telling the truth. (You can find these clips on You Tube with Spanish narration.) Looking forward to reading the rest of this hard-to-find book, which is oddly out of print. (Odd considering that Walsh is still a popular director among old movie nerds like me, and the book has so much info about the operations of early Hollywood.)
December 10, 2008
This is a somewhat maddening book. Walsh talks about working with Tom Mix (he never did), and meeting Pancho Villa (the closest he came to the Mexican revolution was appearing in movies about it) . . . still, it's a lot of fun, and gives insight into Walsh's character.
November 20, 2008
Not just a story about Hollywood told by one of its most famous directors: the life of Walsh is filled with extraordinary adventures (including riding with Pancho Villa through the Mexican Revolution) that turn his memoirs into a wild ride. His anecdotes about the movies he made and the actors he directed are wonderful - especially the ones about the silent era.
January 21, 2013
hell of a life, recounted in tales that start to feel a bit tall, rather impersonally told (except for a few "I was the first this", "i first discovered that")
April 3, 2017
Al leer autobiografías de artistas uno tiene que aceptar el juego y no juzgarlas por lo cercanas que son a la realidad, sino más bien por cómo están escritas, por el entretenimiento que ofrecen y por la imagen que te dan del autor y su contexto.
En el caso de Raoul Walsh, a su favor está que da a conocer por dentro los inicios del Hollywood clásico de forma muy amena, en su contra que habla menos de sus obras de los 40 en adelante.
Aun así entretenidísima y en ocasiones hasta certera.
En el caso de Raoul Walsh, a su favor está que da a conocer por dentro los inicios del Hollywood clásico de forma muy amena, en su contra que habla menos de sus obras de los 40 en adelante.
Aun así entretenidísima y en ocasiones hasta certera.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews