White Heat
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"White Heat" redirects here. For singer Dusty Springfield's 1982 album, see White Heat (album).
| White Heat | |
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| Directed by | Raoul Walsh |
| Produced by | Louis F. Edelman |
| Written by | Virginia Kellogg (story) Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts |
| Starring | James Cagney Virginia Mayo Edmond O'Brien Margaret Wycherly Steve Cochran |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Sid Hickox |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | September 2, 1949 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 114 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
White Heat is a 1949 crime film starring James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo, Margaret Wycherly, and Steve Cochran. Directed by Raoul Walsh, it is considered one of the great gangster films and a classic film noir.
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[edit] Plot
Cody Jarrett (Cagney) is a ruthless, deranged criminal responsible for two murder-filled robberies. He is overly attached to his equally crooked and determined mother, 'Ma' Jarrett (Wycherly). When he has one of his splitting headaches, she gives him a drink, with the toast "Top of the world." With the police closing in on him, he confesses to a lesser crime and gets a short sentence of one to three years.
'Big Ed' Somers (Cochran), Cody's ambitious right-hand man, has designs on both Cody's gang and his treacherous wife Verna (Mayo), so he hires a con, Roy Parker (Paul Guilfoyle), to kill him. In the prison workplace, Parker arranges to drop a heavy piece of machinery on Jarrett, but cellmate Vic Pardo (O'Brien) pushes him out of the way and saves his life. When Ma visits, she insists she'll take care of Big Ed herself, despite Jarrett's attempts to dissuade her. He begins to worry and decides to break out. The day of the escape, he learns that she's dead (shot in the back by Verna when she confronted Big Ed, though Cody never finds out) and goes berserk in the mess hall.
When Cody escapes, he takes Vic and Roy along, forcing Roy into the trunk of the getaway car. Later, when Roy complains "It's stuffy, I need some air.", Cody replies "Oh, stuffy, huh? I'll give ya a little air." and "creates" some airholes by emptying his gun into the trunk.
Once out, Cody invites Vic to join his gang both out of gratitude and a genuine liking for his fellow escapee. After dispatching Big Ed, he plans another robbery. The gang targets a company payroll, but is trapped in a chemical plant by police tipped off by Vic, who is actually an undercover treasury agent. Cody climbs the stairs to the top of a gigantic storage tank. When he is hit by a police sniper, he starts shooting holes in the tank, shouting "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" just before it goes up in a spectacular explosion.
[edit] Inspiration
The character of Cody Jarrett was based on New York murderer Francis Crowley, who engaged in a pitched battle with police in the spring of 1931 at the age of 19. Executed on January 21, 1932, his last words were: "Send my love to my mother."
[edit] Critical reaction
Critical reaction to the film was positive, and today it's considered a classic. Tim Dirk on the website Greatfilms.org writes that the film may have also inspired many other successful films:
- "This classic film anticipated the heist films of the early 50s (for example John Huston's 1950 The Asphalt Jungle and Stanley Kubrick's 1956 The Killing), accentuated the semi-documentary style of films of the period (the 1948 The Naked City), and contained film-noirish elements, including the shady black and white cinematography, the femme fatale character, and the twisted psyche of the criminal gangster."
It was also part of Time's all-time 100 list.
[edit] Trivia
- One of the convicts who passes along Jarrett's request to find out how his mother is, and then returns the information of her death, is played by legendary athlete Jim Thorpe. The scene was parodied in the film Johnny Dangerously.
- Weird Al Yankovic's music video to "Don't Download This Song" includes a reference to the famous "top of the world" finale from this film.
- An audio outtake from the movie is on a track of the Madonna CD True Blue just before the song "White Heat".
- The movie playing at the drive-in is Task Force (1949).
[edit] Quotes
- "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" was picked as number 18 of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.
- Verna: "Cody, my radio won't work."
Cody: "Whuddya want for it, unemployment insurance?"
- Cody (taunting Ed, his second-in-command): "Big Ed ... great big Ed. Y'know why they call 'im that? 'Cause his ideas are big. One day he's gonna get a really big one ... about me. And it'll be his last."
[edit] Awards
The movie was nominated for a Best Writing, Motion Picture Story at the Oscars and was nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards.
In 2003, the National Film Preservation Board deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
