‘White Heat’
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Starring James Cagney, Virginia, Edmond O’Brien
USA, 114 min – 1949.
“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Raoul Walsh’s White Heat stars James Cagney as yet another gangster (Cagney being known for other films such as The Public Enemy and Angels with Dirty Faces), Cody Jarrett. Cody runs a gang of criminals that have recently killed four people during a train robbery. When the police come close to catching his gang, Cody admits to a lesser crime and is sentenced to one to three years in prison. He worries that gang member Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is trying to take over and decides to break out of prison.
Unlike the other gangsters Cagney has played, his character Cody draws strength from and finds comfort in the care of his mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly). Whenever Cody has a searing migraine or needs someone he can trust, she is there. Cody is even more attached to his own mother than his wife, Verna (Virginia Mayo). But White Heat does not delve deep into the psychology behind Cody’s mother complex. Instead, the film accepts Cody’s reliance on his mother and uses this as a plot device to get undercover police officer, Hank Fallon (Edmond O’Brien) to gain Cody’s trust.
White Heat is also not a straight gangster or crime film. It has elements of multiple other genres from thriller to film noir to action. Besides Cody’s character motivations, Ma Jarrett’s love for her son, and Hank’s willingness to try and understand the psychopathic Cody, the rest of the film relies primarily on plot and action. It is a film that scratches the surface of the issues that it presents. However, watching Cagney portray Cody is so entertaining (shooting his attempted killer, Parker, through the car trunk comes to mind) that the lack of depth does not ultimately hurt the film