The Museum of the Moving Image presents a retrospective of director Raoul Walsh's films from July 9 through August 21. Walsh (1887-1980) made more than 100 films during his legendary career including such classics as "The Thief of Bagdad," "White Heat" and "The Roaring Twenties." The series will feature screenings of twenty-three films, including "Regeneration" (1915), the first feature-length gangster film, filmed on the Lower East Side; "The Big Trail" (1930), the widescreen western that gave John Wayne his first starring role; and series opener "The Man I Love" (1946), the dark romantic drama that inspired Martin Scorsese’s "New York, New York."
Schedule:
"The Man I Love"
Sat., July 9, 2:00 p.m.
1946, 96 mins.
Ida Lupino is a nightclub singer being wooed by a mobster in this melodrama that inspired Martin Scorsese’s "New York, New York."
"The Bowery"
Sat., July 9, 4:00 p.m.
1933, 90 mins.
A bawdy, spirited tale of two saloon owners in the Gay '90s, loosely based on Walsh’s memories of growing up in New York.
"The Big Trail"
Sun., July 10, 2:00 p.m.
1930, 120 mins.
The first epic western of the talkie era, "The Big Trail" is a wagon-train saga starring a 22-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role.
"Me and My Gal"
Sun., July 10, 4:30 p.m.
1932, 78 mins.
A New York cop trades wisecracks with a sassy waitress in this evocative slice of working-class urban life.
"The Thief of Bagdad"
Sat., July 16, 1:30 p.m.
1924, 140 mins.
Live music by Donald Sosin. Walsh moved into Hollywood’s top ranks with this extravagant Arabian Nights fantasy, featuring an energetic Douglas Fairbanks bounding through William Cameron Menzies’s spectacular Art Deco sets.
"Sadie Thompson"
Sat., July 16, 4:30 p.m.
1928, 97 mins.
Live music by Donald Sosin. A high point of American silent cinema, this provocative drama about a fugitive prostitute who finds romance and redemption on a South Seas island features Gloria Swanson at her best (and Walsh playing her lover.)
"Going Hollywood"
Sun., July 17, 4:30 p.m.
1933, 80 mins.
Made as a vehicle for Marion Davies, this enjoyable show-biz saga stars Bing Crosby as an ambitious crooner who falls in love with a French teacher but leaves her behind to make his mark in Hollywood.
"The Roaring Twenties"
Sat., July 23, and Sun., July 24, 2:00 p.m.
1939, 104 mins.
Made in a quasi-documentary style, Walsh’s gangster classic about a pair of World War I buddies who become underworld kingpins takes a nostalgic look back at both the roaring twenties and the heyday of the Warner Bros. crime movie.
"They Drive by Night"
Sat., July 23, 4:30 p.m.
1940, 97 mins.
George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are hard-boiled truckers committed to a life as “wildcatters,” with Ida Lupino excelling in her decidedly unsympathetic portrayal of a married woman hooked on George Raft.
"The Strawberry Blonde"
Sun., July 24, 4:30 p.m.
1941, 99 mins.
A lyrical and picaresque evocation of turn-of-the-century New York, this is one of Walsh’s most charming films. James Cagney plays a dentist faced with memories of his infatuation with Rita Hayworth's “strawberry blonde” gold-digger.
"High Sierra"
Sat., July 30, and Sun., July 31, 2:00 p.m.
1941, 96 mins.
Walsh and screenwriter John Huston helped Humphrey Bogart find his tough-guy persona as a gunman-turned-Good-Samaritan. Ida Lupino gives a milestone performance as the moll who “stands by her man” and plays the wiser to Bogie’s bad-boy façade.
"They Died with Their Boots On"
Sat., July 30, 4:00 p.m.
1941, 140 mins.
Errol Flynn gives a rousing yet multilayered performance in this sprawling, lively chronicle that goes from General Custer’s West Point days to his last stand at Little Big Horn.
"Desperate Journey"
Sun., July 31, 4:00 p.m.
1942, 107 mins.
Shot down by Nazis over occupied Poland, five pilots band together to make it back to London.
"Gentleman Jim"
Sat., August 6, 2:00 p.m.
1942, 104 mins.
Co-written by novelist Horace McCoy ("They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?"), this loosely structured biopic about 19th century “bare-knuckle” boxing champion James J. Corbett features Errol Flynn--in his favorite performance--as the arrogant but charismatic pugilist.
"Uncertain Glory"
Sat., August 6, 4:30 p.m.
1944, 102 mins.
A fascinating wartime propaganda drama about a cowardly French criminal who, facing execution, seeks to redeem himself by helping to rescue a group of hostages.
"Objective, Burma!"
Sun., August 7, 2:00 p.m.
1945, 142 mins.
A group of paratroopers is sent on a treacherous jungle mission in this quintessential Walsh adventure, which turns a physical journey into an existential one.
"Regeneration"
Sun., August 7, 4:45 p.m.
1915, 61 mins.
Live music by Donald Sosin. Walsh’s vibrant melodrama about a charismatic gang leader and a society woman running a Bowery mission, filmed mainly on Lower East Side locations, was the first feature-length crime movie. Thought lost for more than fifty years, the film was discovered and preserved in the 1970s.
"Manpower"
Sat., August 13, 2:00 p.m.
1941, 104 mins.
A remake of Howard Hawks’s 1932 film "Tiger Shark," this love triangle between two power-company linemen and a nightclub hostess is a blue-collar melodrama directed with gusto.
"Pursued"
Sat. and Sun., August 13 and 14, 4:30 p.m.
1947, 101 mins.
This exemplary “western noir,” with expressive landscape photography by James Wong Howe, stars Robert Mitchum as a rancher who falls in love with his adopted sister.
"Colorado Territory"
Sun., August 14, 2:00 p.m.
1949, 94 mins.
Walsh remade his gangster film "High Sierra" as a western, with Virginia Mayo as a hardboiled yet softhearted dance-hall singer who helps redeem Joel McCrea’s escaped outlaw.
"Captain Horatio Hornblower"
Sat., August 20, 2:00 p.m.
1951, 117 mins.
This swashbuckling high-seas drama, set in the early 1800s, finds its hero caught up in the shifting political tensions between Spain and England, and in his own growing relationship with Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo).
"White Heat"
Sat. and Sun., August 20 and 21, 4:15 p.m.
1949, 114 mins.
James Cagney returned to gangster movies in style with his most outrageous performance, as the psychotic, mother-obsessed thug who yells “Top of the world, Ma!” in the film’s apocalyptic yet exhilarating ending.
"The Lawless Breed"
Sun., August 21, 2:00 p.m.
1952, 83 mins.
In the performance that helped him land the starring role in Giant, Rock Hudson plays a misunderstood outlaw who seeks redemption through marriage and fatherhood.
