white heat
Seen today, White Heat stands as one of the classic crime films of the 1940s, containing perhaps Cagney’s best bad-guy portrayal. [1]
White Heat is vigorous and uncompromising. [2]
View company contact information for White Heat on IMDbPro. [3]
And so it’s sort of ironic to consider the possibility that James Cagney’s last truly iconic performance in the post-gangster era pastiche White Heat (directed by Raoul Walsh, not exactly the type of director whose reputation was built on a fastidious fixation on the Actors Studio ethic) predates the stripped-down implosiveness of Brando’s display of pectoral scratches and flubbed inflection by two full years. [4]
White Heat (1949) is one of the top classic crime-heist dramas of the post-war period, and one of the last of Warner Bros’ gritty crime films in its era. [5]
The train robbery which opens the film appears to have been closely based on the robbery of Southern Pacific’s “Gold Special” by the D’Autremont brothers in 1923. [6]
Inadvertently leaving clues behind after a railroad heist, Jarrett becomes the target of the feds, who send an undercover agent (played by Edmond O’Brien) to infiltrate the Jarrett gang. [1]
Including posters, Academy Awards history, film genres, film terms, film history by decade, trivia, and lots of lists of ‘best’ films, stars, scenes, quotes, resources, etc. [5]
Cagney (whose years were finally and discernibly catching up with him, and seemingly all gathering within his much more melonlike head) plays the unhinged Cody Jarrett, a mid-level criminal mastermind who’s a big enough threat to have a fat FBI record, but small and fallible enough to still depend on the psychological (and suggestively sexual) support of his devoted mother. [4]
Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is the ruthless, deranged leader of a criminal gang. [6]
James Cagney made his name on screen as a criminal, and he gave his last truly great outlaw performance in White Heat, which may well be the most intelligent and striking work of his career. [...] While Cagney always knew how to lend his characters a charismatic menace, his Cody Jarrett in White Heat is both menacing and uncomfortably bizarre. [1]
White Heat is a 1949 crime film starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Edmond O’Brien and featuring Margaret Wycherly, and Steve Cochran. [6]
James Cagney solidified his tough guy persona in this brutal gangster opus about a vicious man who still loves his Ma. [...] Cagney supercharges the entire film with frenetic energy. [2]
Sources:
[1] white heat 1949: Movie and film review from Answers.com
[2] White Heat Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
[3] White Heat (1949)
[4] White Heat | DVD Review | Slant Magazine
[5] White Heat (1949)
[6] White Heat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia