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Amazon.co.uk Review
This superb 1949 crime drama takes elements of plot, character and theme familiar from 30s melodramas and orchestrates them as an existential tragedy noir. James Cagney, in a towering performance, is Cody Jarrett, a transparently psychotic robber with a molten temper, feral cunning, and mercurial charm that are finely calibrated extensions of the doomed gangsters he played a decade before, this time coiled not around a Depression-era impetus of greed or class rivalry, but an Oedipal bond. Cody's beloved, calculating "Ma" (Margaret Wycherly) is the compass for his every move, her iron will and long shadow acknowledged not only by Cody but by his gang, his bored, restless wife (Virginia Mayo, radiating sensuality and guile), and the undercover cop (Edmond O'Brien) planted in Jarrett's path.
Director Raoul Walsh propels the story from a rolling start, a tautly paced train robbery that goes awry, culminating in the leader's capture. An ambitious henchman (Steve Cochran) plots a behind-bars hit foiled by O'Brien, who's infiltrated the prison to befriend Jarrett, a goal handily accomplished with the rescue. Jarrett's paranoia, murderous anger, and longing for his mother are interwoven with intermittent, incapacitating headaches that underline and amplify his core of inner rage; Cagney makes these seizures harrowing, revealing purely animal pain and terror at once frightening and pathetic.
Jarrett's escape, the gang's reunion with fellow escapee O'Brien aboard, trusted by Jarrett but not his partners, and the big score that unravels in a climactic gun battle in an oil refinery are conducted with a gritty economy, and Walsh and his cast evoke a criminal life devoid of glamour, noteworthy for the undercurrents of distrust that keep tempers flaring. The final showdown, and Jarrett's crazed, taunting battle cry in the face of death ("Top of the world, Ma!"), achieve a sense of tragic inevitability that deservedly make this a defining moment in Cagney's screen career. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complex gangster film,
By
This review is from: White Heat [1949] (DVD)
This,without doubt,is an outstanding film, for it draws together several complex issues. Right from the start, when we are introduced to Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) Verna (Virginia Mayo) & "Big Ed" (Steve Cochran) we learn several things. Cody is subject to fits & has a mother fixation; also, "Big Ed" is his rival for gang leadership & for Cody`s wife, Verna. The U.S. law enters the story in the person of Officer Hank Fallon (Edmund O`Brien) masquerading as gang member Vic Pardoe, whose object is to obtain enough information to ensure the capture of Jarrett.There is one sequence in which the viewer is made aware of the link between Cody & his mother. In the prison cell Jarret remarks that Ma always sees to it that he gets his full share of any robbery, & immediately the scene dissolves from Cody`s image directly onto Ma, thus emphasising their emotional bond, especially when she declares: "Get one thing clear...anything we get, Cody`s in for his full share" There is one visual point to note: all the gang members are dressed in light suits, with the exception of "Big Ed" who always seems "odd man out" these are things which are subconciously registered by the viewer.When Ma takes a vote on Cody`s share, she queries "Big Ed`s" willingness to agree, in fact it is so out of character that it arouses her suspicions & leads to Ed`s subsequent downfall. Perhaps the most outstanding scene in the movie takes place in the prison canteen when Cody receives news of his mother`s death. He goes hysterical, & is carried out shrieking. It is a great tribute to Cagney that in a scene that might have become unintentionally funny, Cagney plays the part so perfectly, that when this film is shown commercially, the reaction of the audience is the same as the convicts on the screen: stunned silence. We also find, to our surprise, that we are made to feel some compassion for Jarrett. When he confides to Vic that: "My old lady never had anything...always trying to put me on top `Top of the world!` she used to say" And later, when Pardoe`s true identity is revealed Cody describes how he..."treated him like a kid brother, & I was going to split fifty-fifty with a copper!, adding, "maybe they`re waiting to pin a medal on him!" and somehow, even granting that Jarrett is a madman, fully deserving to be brought to justice, one`s sympathies - for a moment - side with him, for nobody likes a Judas! An outstanding picture. John Harman
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
James Cagney goes out with a bang!!!,
By morganmooney@hotmail.com (Rep. Of Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: White Heat [VHS] (VHS Tape)
To put it simply James Cagney is Cody Jarrett, a mama obsessed psychopath.Cagney is at his brilliant best as the leader of a gang of crooks who first rob a train and then when the heat from the Feds starts to burn sets himself up to go down for a crime commited on the same day as the train robbery.This is just a trumped up charge to act as an alibi so he can't be charged for the train job.The story revolves around a Fed agent being placed in with Cody to befriend him and to join his gang and be in on the setting up of the gangs next heist.James Cagney made this film to starve of money problems for his own production company, he also felt typecast as a villian and crook, but if anybody can show me a better gangster than Cagney i'll eat my hat.Cagney was brilliant at improvisation just adding little things to each scene to make his character more real and frightening.One of the best of these improvisation is when after a seizure(Cody is an epileptic even though the caracters never say so) Cagney is comforted by his mother and he sits on her lap!!Another is the seizure scene in prison when Cagney finds out his mother has died he rolls over tables, punches the lights out of about three guards , he based that scene on when he was younger visiting a relation in an insane asylum. One thousand words are not enough to do this film justice I haven't even mentioned the attempts on Codys life, the betrayal of his gang, the plan the Feds have to catch Cody, the dramatic realisation when Cody finds its a set-up, and that final scene which is one of the most classic scences in movie history.This is one of the top five gangster movies of all time and that includes The Usual Suspects and Resivour Dogs.Simply put if you have a few spare pound buy it!!!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
cagney's explosive return to warner's.,
By
This review is from: White Heat [VHS] (VHS Tape)
a true classic gangster film and one of james cagney's best, it doesn't get any better than "white heat."cagney plays the psychotic robber cody jarrett with relish and a burning intensity which truly shows his acting skills at their best. his famous line at the end: "made it ma, top of the world!" has gone down as one of the most famous quotes in film history and rightly so. this is quite a brutal film for the times; one of jarrett's men gets disfigured, people are killed without mercy and jarrett is rather rough in his treatment of his cheating wife. one highlight in my opinion, is the scene in the prison where jarrett hears the news of his mother's death. cagney's immediate reaction plus his ranting and raving makes for gripping and quite unnerving viewing. even though james cagney had been away from warner brothers for a number of years, he proves with this one film that he is more than capable of being a top box office draw at his old studio.
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