Director’s Statement

Raoul Walsh has long been one of Hollywood’s true icons, a tough-guy action director who left an indelible mark on Hollywood classic cinema. A master technician on the set he was also the original raconteur off the set, racking up a series of male adventures with his actors and off-screen buddies Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. Walsh was assistant to D. W. Griffith, then became Fox Studio’s golden boy in the 1920s and 1930s, then moved to Warner Bros. and found his true genius, directing such classic gangster and adventure films as “White Heat,” “They Died With Their Boots On” and “Objective, Burma!,” considered one of the best war films ever produced. Yet Walsh’s private life, so veiled by his self-described adventures and “embellishments,” has never truly been known until now. This documentary is a must for Walsh fans, classic film fans, and the general audience who wants to know more about American film history. Walsh’s life is the story of Hollywood itself, a fascinating and adventurous tall tale, yet also a touching and deeply moving love story, in the best American tradition.

— Marilyn Ann Moss