White Heat Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

GeorgeChabot
Conyers, GA

One of the best of the gangster genre starring James Cagney

DVD collector, fan of clever plots, admirer of great storytelling, Action film aficionado, Lover of quirky, unique films, Film noir guru, movie connoisseur

Pros

James Cagney, Margaret Wycherly, Raoul Walsh

Cons

Not more like this

JUN

2008

White Heat —

James Cagney was one of Warner Bros top stars virtually defining the gangster genre with a string of thrillers starting with The Public Enemy in 1930. The cocky star made dozens of low budget crime stories then branched out to other work in many genres. He returned after almost 20 years, however, to cap off the gangster genre with one of the best of the bunch - White Heat.

The gangster genre had evolved over the years and now the characters were more rounded and even sinister. Cody Jarrett (Cagney) boss of his mob had psychopathic tendencies and was a little too attached to his mother, as well.

His mother (Margaret Wycherly) is a standby in these old movies playing in hundreds of them. In White Heat she is just as evil as Cody and you can see her staring at him admiringly with eyes glowing as he outlines his latest scheme. This is the performance of the unsung Wycherly's career.

Cody's gang pull down big scores like the train robbery at the beginning of the film. The net a cool $320,000 from the US Mail, a tidy sum in 1949. One of the gangsters gets a steam burn from the engine and the way Cody deals with him gives you a good indication that not much human kindness was ever instilled in him by his dear mother, who accompanies Cody wherever he goes.

The federal police get on their trail finding corpses and other clues and employing modern technology (ha ha) like radio direction finders. When you see the crude means they use you will be amazed. Accomplished character actor Edmond O'Brien leads the police as the inside man in Cody's gang.

The robbery of the chemical plant payroll is the climax and if you watch this, you will see one of the most famous scenes in all of film history, where Cody says "Made it Ma - top of the world!"

The Warner Bros DVD is black and white and in full screen theatrical format. There are numerous special features including a worthwhile full length commentary by film scholar Drew Casper and one of the high points of any movie, a Bugs Bunny cartoon.