White Heat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see White Heat (disambiguation).
White Heat
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Produced by Louis F. Edelman
Written by Virginia Kellogg (story)
Ivan Goff and
Ben Roberts
Starring James Cagney
Virginia Mayo
Edmond O'Brien
Margaret Wycherly
Steve Cochran
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography Sidney Hickox
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) September 2, 1949 (U.S. release)
Running time 114 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

White Heat is a 1949 crime film starring James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo, Margaret Wycherly, and Steve Cochran. Directed by Raoul Walsh, it is considered one of the great gangster films and a classic film noir.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is the ruthless, deranged leader of a criminal gang. Although married to Verna (Virginia Mayo), Jarrett is overly attached to his equally crooked and determined mother, 'Ma' Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly), his only real confidante. When he has one of his splitting headaches she consoles him, sits him on her lap and gives him a drink with the toast "Top of the world". It is revealed that Jarrett's father died in an institution.

Jarrett and his gang rob a train, resulting in the deaths of four members of the train crew and one of Jarrett's accomplices, Zuckie (Ford Rainey). With the help of informants, the police soon close in and Jarrett shoots and injures US Treasury investigator Philip Evans (John Archer). Jarrett then confesses to a lesser crime, which was committed by an associate at the same time as the train robbery, thus providing Jarrett with a perfect alibi. He is sentenced to one to three years.

Evans is not fooled however. He plants an undercover agent in Jarrett's own cell, Hank Fallon (Edmond O'Brien) going by the alias Vic Pardo. His main task is to find the "Trader", a fence who launders stolen money for Jarrett.

On the outside, 'Big Ed' Somers (Steve Cochran), Jarrett's ambitious right-hand man, has designs on both Jarrett's gang and his treacherous wife Verna. He pays a convict, Roy Parker (Paul Guilfoyle), to kill him. In the prison workplace, Parker arranges to drop a heavy piece of machinery on Jarrett, but Pardo pushes him out of the way and saves his life.

When Ma visits, she insists she will take care of Big Ed herself, despite Jarrett's attempts to dissuade her. He begins to worry and decides to break out. Before he can, Jarrett is informed that Ma is dead, and goes berserk in the mess hall.

Held in the infirmary in a straitjacket, Jarrett gets a gun from another convict, Tommy Ryley (Robert Osterloh). Jarrett takes hostages and escapes along with Pardo, their cellmates and Parker, who is locked in the trunk of the getaway car. Later, when Parker complains "It's stuffy, I need some air", Jarrett replies "Oh, stuffy, huh? I'll give ya a little air" and "creates" some air holes by emptying his gun into the trunk.

After hearing of Jarrett's escape, Big Ed nervously waits for him to show up. When Verna tries to slip away, she is caught by her husband, but convinces him that Big Ed murdered Ma (though it was really Verna who shot her in the back). Jarrett kills Big Ed.

The gang welcomes the escapees, including Pardo, for whom Jarrett has a genuine liking. Jarrett insists on sharing the proceeds from their robberies with him: "I split even with Ma, didn't I?"

This had been the authorities' plan from the start. When briefing Fallon prior to going undercover, Evans told him that Ma was "The only person [Cody]'s ever cared about or trusted... No one else has ever made a dent, not even his wife" and that he might soon need someone else for that role. "I'll practice up on my lullabies," mutters Fallon.

While the gang prepares its next heist, a stranger shows up at their isolated country hideout, asking to use the phone. Jarrett lets him in. The rest of the gang expect the stranger to be murdered: "Looks like Big Ed's gonna have company." Upon questioning the man, Pardo warns Cody that he is not the fisherman he claims to be. To Pardo's surprise, he is introduced by a trusting Cody to the Trader (Fred Clark).

Jarrett intends to rob the payroll at a chemical plant in Long Beach, California, using a large gas truck as a Trojan Horse to get in. Fallon manages to get a message to Evans, and an ambush is set up. The gang gets into the plant, but the driver, Bo Creel (Ian MacDonald), recognizes Pardo as Fallon.

The police surround the building, even arresting Verna as an accessory, and Evans calls on Jarrett to surrender. On finding out about Pardo's deception however, Jarrett resolves to fight it out. When the police fire tear gas into the building, Fallon manages to escape.

Jarrett's henchmen are shot by the police, or by Jarrett himself when they try to give themselves up. Jarrett then flees to the top of a gigantic gas storage tank. When Fallon shoots Jarrett with a rifle, he starts firing holes into the tank and shouts, "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" just before it goes up in a massive explosion.

[edit] Inspiration

The character of Cody Jarrett was based on New York murderer Francis Crowley,[1] who engaged in a pitched battle with police in the spring of 1931 at the age of 19. Executed on January 21, 1932, his last words were: "Send my love to my mother."

Another inspiration may have been Arthur Barker, a gangster of the 1930s, and a son of Ma Barker.

[edit] Critical reaction

Critical reaction to the film was positive, and today it is considered a classic. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "the acme of the gangster-prison film" and praised its "thermal intensity".[2] Tim Dirks on the website Filmsite.org writes that the film may have also inspired many other successful films:[3]

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

The film is rated 100% fresh by Rotten Tomatoes.[4] It was also part of Time magazine's all-time top 100 list.

[edit] Quotes

  • Cody [cornered at the end of the film]: "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
This was 18th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie quotes.

[edit] 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, White Heat was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[edit] Popular references

  • One of the convicts who passes along Jarrett's request to find out how his mother is, and then returns the information of her death, is played by legendary athlete Jim Thorpe. The scene was parodied in the film Johnny Dangerously.
  • An audio outtake from the movie is on a track of the Madonna album True Blue just before the song "White Heat".
  • In the 1992 film Juice starring Tupac Shakur, his character (Bishop) and his companions can be seen watching White Heat. Bishop imitates the ending "Made it Ma, Top of the World!" quote.
  • In the Night Court episode "Top Judge", just before Judge Harry Stone becomes the victim of the supposedly ultimate practical joke, he shouts "Top of the world, Ma!"
  • In a Jimmy Neutron episode ("Who framed Jimmy / Flippy"), Sheen runs out of the lab yelling at the police. During this rant, he says "Top of the world, Ma!"
  • The outside entrance of the unnamed prison in the film was later utilised as the Fox River Prison from the TV series Prison Break (recognised by the gatehouse-like façade).

[edit] References

  1. ^ All about Francis Crowley, by Mark Gado
  2. ^ Crowther, Bosley (September 3, 1949). James Cagney Back as Gangster in 'White Heat,' Thriller Now at the Strand. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  3. ^ http://www.filmsite.org/whit.html Filmsite.org
  4. ^ White Heat (1949). rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
American films of the 1940s
1940 •1941 •1942 •1943 •1944 •1945 •1946 •1947 •1948 •1949