Raoul Walsh

[MissGoddess]

Fine doesn't begin to...oh don't get me started! Walshie's on that very short list of men in Hollywood that I believe I would have fallen lock, stock and both barrels for (all my gushings aside).

Great observations about White Heat that make me want to see it again with fresh eyes! I had no idea about Walsh's mother. I can believe that Walsh and CAgney were very in synch with each other. Two Irishmen, they probably knew without talking about it where to go and how far in that scene. I find it one of those scenes where you feel embarrassed it is such a naked scene, seeing a man---a tough man---brought to such a point. You can't look away yet you want to!

What you say about Walsh "listening" to the scenes is great. I read Orson Welles did that, so I imagine good directors made it a practice to listen as well as look.

This made me laugh about Mayo's character: She'd stab him in the back if she thought he wouldn't get back up and come after her.

[moira finnie]

Oh man! I didn't realize that was Wally in the picture! I even saw the tag line and still didn't get it.

Yeah, it's Mr. Peepers himself, apparently looking for a holiday feast for one.

I wondered about the scene in the prison cafeteria. How much was Cagney, and how much was Walsh? Who had the idea to go so far emotionally? Cagney, of course, is brilliant, unafraid to go completely out of his mind, rolling on the floor and crying with rage and despair. He continues for a long time too, you can hear his animal screams long after they take him away..... but it makes me wonder if Walsh propelled Cagney to go far beyond what was expected with his emotions? or if Cagney had the idea in the first place? Did they work it out together? This to me seems the most likely, and sounds the most like the director to me, though according to the book, Walsh liked to step away or turn his back when the actual scenes were shot, listening more than looking at what the actors were doing.

I have also read several accounts of Walsh leaving actors to their own devices when working on a scene, a luxury that paid off when working with a one-of-a-kind actor like James Cagney--though both Leslie Caron and Yvonne de Carlo wrote that his laissez-faire attitude was not of help to them in their films with the director, (they might have welcomed assistance and guidance). I believe that Cagney had two sources of inspiration for that brilliantly over-the-top moment in White Heat. First, he reportedly recalled his alcoholic father's agonized howls when in the grip of delirium tremens. Second, Jimmy told one interviewer that as a youth he had visited an insane asylum with another young friend to visit the boy's incarcerated relative. The occasion left him with the indelible memory of the sounds and look of madness and grief that he translated into his inimitable art in the 1949 movie.

I believe that part of the impact of the scene derives from the real look of shock and disbelief on the parts of Edmond O'Brien, and the actors and extras--who were not told in advance what Cagney was planning to do.

[JackFavell]

MissG wrote:

Fine doesn't begin to...oh don't get me started! Walshie's on that very short list of men in Hollywood that I believe I would have fallen lock, stock and both barrels for (all my gushings aside).

I feel the same way. Walsh is so attractive to me, the adventurer, flamboyant storyteller, and strongly romantic personality that he was. I would have been swept away!

This made me laugh about Mayo's character: She'd stab him in the back if she thought he wouldn't get back up and come after her.

I can't take credit for the line, Mayo virtually says it in the movie,which I paraphrased - when Steve Cochran is waiting for Cody to show up so he can shoot him.

Moira wrote:

I have also read several accounts of Walsh leaving actors to their own devices when working on a scene, a luxury that paid off when working with a one-of-a-kind actor like James Cagney--though both Leslie Caron and Yvonne de Carlo wrote that his laissez-faire attitude was not of help to them in their films with the director, (they might have welcomed assistance and guidance). I believe that Cagney had two sources of inspiration for that brilliantly over-the-top moment in White Heat. First, he reportedly recalled his alcoholic father's agonized howls when in the grip of delirium tremens. Second, Jimmy told one interviewer that as a youth he had visited an insane asylum with another young friend to visit the boy's incarcerated relative. The occasion left him with the indelible memory of the sounds and look of madness and grief that he translated into his inimitable art in the 1949 movie.

I believe that part of the impact of the scene derives from the real look of shock and disbelief on the parts of Edmond O'Brien, and the actors and extras--who were not told in advance what Cagney was planning to do.

If I'm reading this last sentence correctly, this tells me that though the idea and emotion was Cagney's, Walsh knew about it, and also his DP, so they could film it properly. That means that Cagney and Walsh must have discussed it. I wonder if they blocked out the trajectory in advance? It certainly seems like they would have had to, from the shots used. The fact that they did not tell the actors in the scene seems like a Walsh ploy to me, to get something more intense on film.

I completely agree about the impact being greater when Walsh closes in on the other inmates shocked faces. One of the great things about the scene is that reaction, first in close up, then on the huge, dead still prison hall, shot from above - thousands of inmates in rows, and you could have heard a pin drop, then the slow hubbub afterwards as the men try to absorb what's happened and get back to some sort of normalcy. Any other director would have used Cody's meltdown as a catalyst for a prison riot, but that is not where Walsh was going with the movie at all. Jarrett's descent into madness is used to underscore character - the opposing forces in Jarrett's nature. On the one hand, he is a human being who wishes to find love and deep loyalty in the people he surrounds himself with. On the other hand, he is an animal with no thought for others. This is also pointed up in the scene when Jarrett kills the inmate who betrayed him, shooting holes in the trunk hood....while nonchalantly eating a chicken leg. The betrayal hurts Cody, but the killing is brutal, because it is done as easily as wiping one's hands off on a napkin.

[moira finnie]

I agree about Cody's neediness and thoughtlessness, but also see Cagney's performance as wildly, darkly comic, as evidenced by the chicken leg chomping moment when he delivers the coup de grâce to his trunk-bound buddy. Much of his playing in the role is really scarier than he has been previously on screen and veers toward anarchic humor, as he parodies his own screen persona and almost all gangster cliches. Cagney had hoped to abandon his tough guy image for good after the earlier 1939 project, The Roaring Twenties--which remains hugely moving with some mildly humorous touches (I've always liked the moment when Cagney is trying to arrange a date with a reluctant Priscilla Lane backstage. When she keeps coming up with excuses for not seeing him at her home, he finally asks, "Could I drive by and honk?")

Violent, sarcastic, almost demonically pixieish at times in White Heat, I believe that Cagney and Walsh conspired to make it the gangster movie to end all gangster movies. While they were pushing the envelope on violence in their day, and far gorier movies have followed since the demise of the Production Code, none are as compelling as this film because of the human need at the core of the story, and the twisted way that it is expressed, simultaneously entertaining the viewer and making us secretly root for the bad guys. This last emotion is especially keen after seeing the cops behave in such a creepy fashion. From Edmond O'Brien willingly chucking a vacation to go into prison as a plant (this is healthy behavior?) to the dead-voiced police force's weird, invasive technology such as triangularization at their fingertips, not to mention head man John Archer smoking like a chimney and looking like an elitist with his bakelite cigarette holder--these aspects of their characters makes them oddly unsympathetic representatives of sane, normal social impulses. Recognizing these layers of emotion in our reactions to this story also tends to make a viewer squirm with our reluctance to turn away from what is, ultimately, completely destructive behavior. Top o' the world, Ma, indeed.

[JackFavell]

Oh, Moira, I've missed your writing! That was just brilliant.

I agree with your tremendously entertaining idea of White Heat as Black Comedy. Think of that scene where Cody describes The Trojan Horse, told a la Ma Jarrett... it's hilarious!

When you say they conspired to make "the gangster movie to end all gangster movies", it rings so true - Cody Jarrett won't be coming back after nuclear destruction. They are having some fun with us, and also making sure no one is ever going to ask, "Are you going to make another gangster film?" Can you imagine the audiences of the time? They must have looked at the end of this film like Edmond O'Brien looks after Cody's breakdown in the caf. So this was Walsh's and Cagney's way of sinking the gangster movie forever - they tie rocks to it and put her at the bottom of the lake, never to be raised from the deep. I can see them laughing about it in my mind's eye.

And those cops? oh, they are so bland and dead... creepier by far than Cody ever was. It's like the beginning of G Men, with the disclaimer about how terrible gangsters are and how we should be vigilant in keeping our streets safe, but what we are really waiting for are the shoot outs and the tough talk. Can you explain to me why the cops helped Cody get out of prison in the first place? Why on earth is the "fence" the police are looking for so important that they let a cold blooded murderer out of prison to find him? Frankly, I feel they deserved what they got. Edmund O'Brien really takes the cake - his character is a real dirtbag in a lot of ways, gaining Cody's trust only to betray him. Somewhat like Joe Calleia in Touch of Evil, but Joe has more dignity. One thing Cody's got going for him, he's honest and he's straightforward. He doesn't betray anyone, and he doesn't lie to anyone. He is what he is.

[Gary J.]

Originally, Cagney wasn't too keen on making WHITE HEAT and I believed turned it down as being a B movie pot-boiler - which is exactly what the film is. But once the powers-to-be convinced Cagney that he needed this role, Jimmy said, "Fine, but we make this guy an over-the-top, psychotic head case." Luckily he had a director in Walsh who was perfectly in sync with this concept and together they created a classic B movie pot-boiler. But it all started with Cagney's conception.

[RedRiver]

MISS GODDESS,

see it again with fresh eyes!

I think you're seeing the director with fresh eyes, Missy!

MOIRA,

he had visited an insane asylum

I knew he looked familiar!

MOIRA,

Cagney and Walsh conspired to make it the gangster movie to end all gangster movies

They succeeded. Even the lauded GODFATHER saga doesn't compare. This is cops and robbers with all the stops removed. Characters that are almost classical in their determination, and their obsession. Excitement that builds so rhythmically to a climax you want to scream. But you don't have to. Cody screams for all of us! HIGH SIERRA is a fine member of the genre. ASPPHALT JUNGLE another. But WHITE HEAT stands alone in its category; just as Cody Jarrett, as isolated as any character in mainstream movies, perches atop that famous gas tank.

This is a movie that gets it all right!

[RedRiver]

"When I stand up, I'm as right as rain
When I sit down there's a stabbing pain."

[moira finnie]

Cody screams for all of us!

Oh, ain't it the truth...

[JackFavell]

This is cops and robbers with all the stops removed. Characters that are almost classical in their determination, and their obsession. Excitement that builds so rhythmically to a climax you want to scream. But you don't have to. Cody screams for all of us! HIGH SIERRA is a fine member of the genre. ASPPHALT JUNGLE another. But WHITE HEAT stands alone in its category; just as Cody Jarrett, as isolated as any character in mainstream movies, perches atop that famous gas tank.

Red, I did read this when you posted it, but now going back and reading it again, I find you have really captured the movie perfectly. The movie does stand alone, I bet a million dollars it was popular, but that no one at the studio wanted to go anywhere near it, ever again. It's so anarchic, so weirdly existential or maybe it's comically nihilistic, that it never recovers a sense of rightness, or goodness triumphing over evil. I can't imagine the studio really wanting to own up to this one. I think when it came out, there was a sense of outrage, and the fear driven studio just couldn't handle that. (Muffled laughter from Walsh and Cagney heard in the background).

And no one has really ever matched it, or thought about matching it! Think of it! A movie that Hollywood DOESN'T want to remake!

*Oops. Psycho did actually top White Heat for mind blowing anarchic uncomfortable-ness. Do you suppose Hitch saw White Heat?

********************************************

I wanted to mention the 'classical in their determination and their obsession' line you wrote. There is definitely something classical about Walsh's heroes. Your words bring Walsh's themes close to me, help me make my thoughts about him come clear. There is something universal and exceedingly human in Walsh's heroes. They seem to be on a quest (as life is a quest).... but it isn't necessarily an outward quest, even if that's the shape the drama takes. It's an inward quest, expressed through an outward one....a deeply individual quest, for self but for something else intangible. Something MORE. No, wait....something BEYOND.

Walsh's characters are not greedy, nor are they foolish exactly. One could consider these great Walsh characters as knights of the round table, or Greek sailors and journeymen, a part of the Odyssey, on an epic voyage. They are not foolish as I said before, but something about the trip itself compels them to act in a way that is at once foolish, but also brave and noble. They must try.... and fail, gloriously fail to achieve a kind of balance and reality. Walsh loved those gracious stories of achievement, the adventures of travel, the Don Quixotes, who tried to tilt at giants. The magic. He felt himself to be more than a man, as we all do on occasion, when we reach beyond our grasp.... if we try, we might touch the sun, but we are always doomed to fall at some point. And I find Walsh comforting in his depiction of failure as a huge human endeavor to reach something unattainable. I love that point of elegance and grace and hope, and loss... just before the fall.

[JackFavell]

The Fordian hero knows why he is doing something even if he doesn’t know how. The Hawksian hero knows how to do what he is doing even if he doesn’t know why. The Walshian hero is less interested in the why or the how than the what. He is always plunging into the unknown, and he is never too sure what he will find there. There is a pathos and vunerability in Walsh’s characters lacking in the more self-contained Ford and Hawks counterparts. Where Ford shifts from the immediacy of the slightly depressed heroic angle to the horizon line of history, and Hawks remains at eye level, Walsh often moves to the slightly elevated angle of the lost child in the big world…

- Andrew Sarris

[Robert Regan]

Jack, I really like your latest post about Walsh's heroes. In fact, I have enjoyed this thread a lot. For a different slant on Walsh, you might like this piece I wrote some years ago about one of his lesser-known films.


Before the Museum of Modern Art’s 1975 retrospective of his work, Raoul Walsh’s world seemed to many to be almost exclusively masculine. His best-known films were the rugged action vehicles he made at Warner Brothers in the forties with James Cagney (The Roaring Twenties, White Heat), Humphrey Bogart (They Drive by Night, High Sierra), and Errol Flynn (Gentleman Jim, Objective Burma). The MOMA series made clear that Walsh had just as often concerned himself with the lives of women. // Especially pertinent to The Yellow Ticket are a number of films made in the course of the director’s fifty year career that deal with the semi-mythic figure that has fascinated artists throughout history, the “bad girl.” Theda Bara in Carmen (1915), Dolores Del Rio in The Loves of Carmen (1927), Gloria Swanson in Sadie Thompson (1928), Janet Gaynor in The Man Who Came Back (1931), Mae West in Klondike Annie (1936), Marlene Dietrich in Manpower (1941), and Jane Russell in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956) all played women who were not by their contemporary standards “nice.”

The situation is more complex in The Yellow Ticket, since it is clearly established that the heroine played by Elissa Landi is a virgin, even though she carries the notorious passport issued by the tsarist police to Russian prostitutes. Her reasons for obtaining the ticket (it was the only means by which a Jewish woman could travel within Russia) and how she finally rids herself of its burden betray the script’s theatrical origin, but these are not Walsh’s primary concerns.

Unlike the 1918 version of The Yellow Ticket (with Fannie Ward, Warner Oland, and Milton Sills), Walsh’s film devotes more than half of its running time and nearly all of its imaginative mise en scene to the ticket itself and the stigma it represents. By the strength and detail of these scenes (the bordello, the women’s prison, the railway coach, et al.), Walsh gives the ticket a significance that transcends its melodramatic plot function. The heroine’s possession of the yellow ticket is taken by men of all classes (excepting the hero who is, after all, English) as a passport to her body, an official notice to all that she is “no better than she ought to be.” Raoul Walsh’s The Yellow Ticket is not so much about tsarist oppression of Jews as it is about masculine oppression of women. // 1976.


And thanks for Quoting Andrew Sarris' insightful comparison of Walsh, Hawks, and Ford. He was one of the first American critics to give Walsh the attention he had long deserved. This amused some movie reviewers immensely.

[JackFavell]

My god, I have to find a copy of The Yellow Ticket immediately! You've got me dumbfounded by your description, why have I not heard more about this movie? You write exceedingly well about it. I can almost see Walsh's take on this story.

Thank you for responding to my last post. I get nervous sometimes that I am on the wrong track or that I am trying to be too high falutin' for my own good.

I really love Walsh, I mean, LOVE, and have been slowly going through his lesser known films and the ones I hadn't seen yet. Most interesting to me are these early films. After seeing Sadie Thompson and What Price Glory, I knew I needed to find more of his early works. Sadie, despite all the uproar around it, and the frustratingly lost footage, is a magnificent film. Now I like the Joan Crawford version very much, though Crawford herself did not, and critics panned it. But seeing the Swanson version was eye opening as to what the story could become. It transcends the basic plot machinations and lays out Walsh's themes for the rest of his movie career. The Yellow Ticket sounds just as good, and like an absolute winner to me. Plus I am guessing it will be a personal favorite, because I love these kinds of pictures about women, not necessarily 'women's pictures'. I think Walsh's women, are fascinatingly real, there is no type casting, in fact, he plays with the idea of the good girl or the bad girl in many of his movies. In The Strawberry Blonde, there is all sorts of interplay about 'nurses' and whether a girl will be a good date, what makes them good or bad. And in the end, neither Amy, nor Virginia turns out to be either. They are just people, who want to love and be loved and do what they need to do to get by.

[Rita Hayworth]

It would be fascinating to compare Walsh with Ford, Hawks, Wellman, Hathaway, and Curtiz, perhaps the most logical grouping. To consider Curtiz for a moment: Films like THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, CASABLANCA, MILDRED PIERCE, and perhaps THE BREAKING POINT lift Curtiz above Walsh, to my way of thinking, and I prefer FOUR'S A CROWD to THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE.

I prefer FOUR'S A CROWD ... than THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE ... THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE is my least favorite Rita Hayworth movie and that movie wasted the talents of both RITA HAYWORTH and OLIVIA De HAVILLAND. ... The first 30 Minutes of that movie is nothing but a waste of time and its prominently featured GEORGE REEVES (Adventures of Superman Star) and JIMMY CAGNEY. I could not figure out what this all about ... until RITA and OLIVIA came to play. I do not own that DVD of that movie.

FOUR's A CROWD is far better ... by a country mile!