L'enfer est à lui

Warner Brothers decided to kill off their cycle of gangster films with WHITE HEAT. A pity perhaps but what a film to end their success on . Cagney will always be remembered for playing gangsters and Cody Jarret is his most memorable performance , but Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts script is nearly as memorable as Cagney due to its high level of intelligence . I especially liked the way the gang tried to test Fallon by leaving the photograph of his wife on the table in the prison cell , little touches like that make WHITE HEAT a classic . If it was made nowadays we`d get bad language , graphic sex, bloodbaths and post modernist references to pop culture . Well you can keep all that Quentin Tarantino rubbish , this is how a good film should be made . Top of the world

White Heat" shows the influence of film noir that was so popular in the 40's an 50's. Here, Cagney's gangster persona has come full circle back to the viciousness of Tom Powers in "Public Enemy". The big difference is that in this film Cagney's mother is no cream puff. She is, in fact, probably a bigger criminal in thought if not in deed than Cagney's Cody Jarrett.

This late entry into Cagney's gangster filmology shows technology and thus the law gaining on the criminal, with electronic gadgets and undercover lawmen with college degrees in psychology replacing the determined hard-boiled detectives and beat cops of the past. It very much looks forward to the Dragnet series that is to emerge in the 50's.

Virginia Mayo plays Verna, the fur coat loving unfaithful wife to Cagney's psychopathic criminal character Cody Jarrett. She has the hots for a member of Cody's gang, Big Ed (Steve Cochran). Even with his dark menacing presence, Cochran acts like a scared rabbit at the idea of dealing with Cody's wrath - Cagney has that much screen presence here. Edmund O'Brien is great as the undercover cop who has to stay on his toes to keep Cody believing he is on his side and win his confidence. Anything less than a convincing performance would be deadly. O'Brien always impressed me as someone who, like Cagney, could play either a guy with a white or black hat, depending on what the role called for.

Best scene without giving away the ending. Cody chewing on a chicken leg asking a guy in the trunk of the car how he's doing. When he complains it is stuffy Cody pumps the trunk full of lead. He now has the air he needs, not that he is in any condition to breathe anymore.

The old saying, "They don't make 'em like they used to" fits this film to a T. Every other crazed-killer-goes-on-a-rampage movie ever made pales next to it. This is the best performance of Cagney's career (although, astoundingly enough, he didn't think much of the picture or his work in it, dismissing it as "just another gangster flicker"). Only Cagney could take a character like Cody Jarrett, a snarling, murderous monster with a mother fixation--someone you KNOW is going to get his at the end--and still almost make you wish he gets away. The film is one taut nerve from beginning to end. There's not a wasted moment in it; it starts out at full blast with the daring robbery of a mail train barreling through a mountain pass and doesn't let up. Performances are universally top-notch, from the stars on down to the extras. Far and away the finest film of director Raoul Walsh's long and distinguished career, this movie can take its place as not only the best gangster film ever made, but as one of the best films ever made, period.

If you're into Old Hollywood, and haven't gotten around to seeing "White Heat", remedy that right away! Nobody does 'gangster' like Cagney, and the screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts is one of their very best---a classic Warner Brothers crime melodrama, with a mother complex thrown in for its protagonist. When pictures like this are done well, they hold up in spite of the change in standards over time. "White Heat" is tough, even though its violence isn't explicitly shown and there isn't a cuss word in the whole thing. (Can you imagine? Today, even TV talk-show hosts drop f-bombs like gum wrappers. That's progress......) The "White Heat" DVD is available, including 2 commentaries by film historians Leonard Maltin and Drew Casper, in the fun "Warner Brothers Night at the Movies" package. It's the way it used to be when people went to a movie in the Golden Era---with coming attractions, 1949 newsreel, vintage Bugs Bunny cartoon, a comedy short, and the feature picture---with Cagney in his most explosive role. A must see for film buffs.

They sure don't make them like this any more!

Blessed with a touch of genius...

Alfred Hitchcock once said that you need three things in order to make a good movie : good script, good script and good script! This is a perfect example of that statement. It is as simple as that! This movie is made in 1949 and today,almost 55 years later, it still holds up and is up there with the best gangster dramas of all time. Many would disagree but frankly who cares? None of the modern gangster flicks would be the same without existence of this movie, thats for sure. The script is just great,the score is excellent and dialog is amazing!!! (try comparing it with the standards of today) Every third sentence coming out of Cody Jarretts mouth is endlessly quotable, this movie is Scarface of its time. Cagneys character in this movie is larger than life, one of the greatest gangster characters of all time... James Cagney - perhaps his greatest performance ever! I see that some fools criticize his performance,saying that it isn't great at all. My question to you is : How many movies from '40s have you seen? How wooden was the acting in those days? The answer - extremely. There were few great actors in those days, whose genius could hold up against the acting giants of today and one of them is surely James Cagney!

One of top 10-15 gangster movies of all time!