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White Heat [VHS] [1949]
 
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White Heat [VHS] [1949]

VHS ~ James Cagney
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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15 used from £1.35 7 collectible from £4.89
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Product details

  • Actors: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly, Steve Cochran
  • Directors: Raoul Walsh
  • Writers: Ben Roberts, Ivan Goff, Virginia Kellogg
  • Producers: Louis F. Edelman
  • Format: Black & White, PAL
  • Language English
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Warner Home Video
  • VHS Release Date: 6 Mar 2000
  • Run Time: 109 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004CKAI
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,396 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

    Popular in this category:

    #10 in  Video > Classic Films > Actors > Cagney, James

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Product Description

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



Synopsis

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. Shortly after the plan takes place, events take a crazy turn...

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars James Cagney goes out with a bang!!!, 17 Nov 2000
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!!!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must see and a must have for any collection, 3 Aug 2005
This review is from: White Heat [DVD] [1949] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
If you have never seen this film then I highly recommend it. A powerfull performance from James Cagney and a truely climatic ending. Other must see Jimmy Cagney films are of course Public Enemy and Angels With Dirty Faces.
Those who are already familiar with films, they are an obvious must have of any collection.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Cagney Classic!, 6 Mar 2005
This review is from: White Heat [DVD] [1949] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
If you love Mr Cagney then this needs no introduction. Talk is also cheap so go ahead and buy this. You will love it!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars This film is on top of the world!
I just loved this film!
Cody was definitely on top of the world!
Gripping performance by Cagney, especially when he found out about his Ma's death. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2007 by robertwhitley

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie !!!
One of Hollywood's best actors ever in his best performance. Great story and great acting. One of my favs from Hollywood of all time. Read more
Published on 7 Jul 2007 by Paul Stenbrenden

5.0 out of 5 stars cagney's explosive return to warner's.
a true classic gangster film and one of james cagney's best, it doesn't get any better than "white heat. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2006 by Mr. A. E. Ward Davies

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Cagney
One of the best James Cagney movies ever- ranks alongside 'Angels with Dirty Faces'and 'The Roaring Twenties' - the scriptwriting is clever with great one liners from Cagney... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2005 by Veritas

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