Movies - White Heat

Home > Listing Index > Movies > White Heat

	Movies - White Heat

White Heat is 1949 film starring James Cagney which depicts the story of a mentally disturbed gangster with a mother complex who makes a daring escape from prison. Once out he immediately begins plans on a big-time robbery, not realizing that his newest henchman (noir veteran Edmond O'Brien) is an undercover agent and his right hand man is trying to have him killed.

The three most memorable scenes, according to many, include:

The gangster's mother soothing Jarrett during bouts of migraine headaches while he sits in her lap.
The scene where Cody Jarrett (Cagney) goes beserk in the prison mess when he finds out about his mother's death.
The films finale as Cody Jarrett dies in a blaze of glory at the "top of the world".

Directed by Raoul Walsh, White Heat is considered one of the great gangster films and a classic film noir.

Critical reaction

Critical reaction to the film was positive, and today it's considered a classic. writes that the film may have also inspired many other successful films:

"This classic film anticipated the heist films of the early 50s (John Huston
's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956)), accentuated the semi-documentary style of films of the period (Naked City (1948)), and contained film-noirish elements, including the shady black and white cinematography, the femme fatale character, and the twisted psyche of the criminal gangster."

Quote

"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" Cody Jarrett (Cagney) on top of a burning fuel tank that is about to explode. The quote was picked as Number 18 of AFI's 100 YEARS...100 MOVIE QUOTES.

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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for White Heat ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article White Heat; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay