White Heat
USA, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Screenwriters: Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts, based on a story by Virginia Kellogg
Soundtrack composer: Max Steiner
Editing: Owen Marks
Production: Louis F. Edelman
Main actors:
James Cagney (Arthur “Cody” Jarrett)
Virginia Mayo (Verna Jarrett)
Edmond O’Brien (Hank Fallon / Vic Pardo)
Margaret Wycherly (Ma Jarrett)
Steve Cochran (“Big Ed” Somers)
John Archer (Philip Evans)
Wally Cassell (“Cotton” Valletti)
Fred Clark (Daniel “The Trader” Winston)
Ian MacDonald (“Bo” Creel)
Paul Guilfoyle (Roy Parker)
G. Pat Collins (“Reader” Curtin)
Fred Coby (“Happy” Taylor)
Plot
Cody Jarrett is a particularly brutal gangster. He and his gang, which includes Big Ed, perpetrate a train robbery, killing the train drivers and then fleeing. One of Cody’s accomplices suffers an accident during the robbery, and his face is disfigured. The police are soon on their trail.
Cody’s mother is not only aware of their escapades but is part of the gang, as a sort of matriarchal advisor. The old lady always wanted her son to “make it to the top of the world”. Cody is married to the voluptuous Verna, and her relationship with her mother-in-law is one of mutual antipathy. Verna, moreover, has set her sights on Big Ed, Cody’s ambitious lieutenant.
When the bandits are forced to flee the house in which they are holed up, Cody does not hesitate to “discard” his wounded sidekick, the one who had disfigured his face during the train robbery, as he could be a nuisance.
Meanwhile, the police are looking for ways to prove Cody’s involvement in the violent crimes that plague the city, and to keep a close eye on the movements of his organization. Thus, an undercover agent is infiltrated into the gang, gaining Cody’s trust by “saving his life”…
Comment
Great film noir classic starring an overwhelming James Cagney, who shines in his role as a psychopathic gangster.
According to what some agents say during the story, Cody faked in his childhood some supposed headaches to get from his mother what he wanted; and then he ended up suffering sudden and sharp attacks of headaches also in reality; in tense situations. For one of the particular elements of the film is the great emotional dependence that Cody has towards his mother, from whom he seems to have inherited both a predisposition for crime and a complete lack of scruples. The mental symbiosis between the two is key throughout the plot, and Cody is willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill his mother’s dream of coming to the “top of the world” (and, as we shall see, not only in the metaphorical sense…).
Betrayal, which many of the characters display, is another of the most representative ingredients of this feature film. To begin with, that of Big Ed, who aspires to unseat Cody as the boss of the gang, but also that of Cody himself towards his men when they have ceased to be useful to him. Not to mention Verna (played by Virginia Mayo), a real snake who, in love only with herself, enjoys putting her husband and her lover in competition with each other.
It seems that Joe Pesci would have been inspired by James Cagney’s character to give life to the gangsters he plays in “Goodfellas” and “Casino”; for the similarities between Cody Jarrett and Pesci’s characters in those films are more than remarkable, especially in terms of the volatile temperament.
Director Raoul Walsh had already collaborated with Cagney in other films with similar themes, such as “The Roaring Twenties” (1939).
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