Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright in "Pursued," a 1947 film directed by Raoul Walsh.

Consider a sampling of titles from “Action! Action! Action! A Raoul Walsh Retrospective,” which began Friday at the Harvard Film Archive and runs through March 10 (consider the title of the series, too, and all those exclamation marks): “They Drive by Night” (1940), “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924), “Objective, Burma!” (1944 — speaking of exclamation marks), “What Price Glory?” (1927), “They Died With Their Boots On” (1942). Even if you knew nothing about those movies, the titles would whet expectations for dash, clash, and bash, and those expectations would be rousingly met.