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White Heat Overview:

White Heat (1949) was a Crime - Film Noir Film directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Louis F. Edelman.

SYNOPSIS

"Made it, Ma. Top of the world!" The last explosion of the Warner Bros. gangster movies, a decade after their '30s heyday, was one of the best, with Cagney unleashing a merciless portrayal of the warped personality that becomes a ruthless killer. Based on the mother-son gang led by "Ma" Barker, the story opens with Cagney's gang holding up a train and then hiding out in a freezing cabin with an injured member and his wife (Mayo) and mother (Wycherly). Dissension in the gang and an attraction between Mayo and a rebellious gangster (Cochran) lead to a police tail in Southern California, a stint in prison for Cagney, and a blazing final showdown. The climactic shoot-out in the oil refinery has become a movie icon and it remains one of Cagney's and director Walsh's greatest moments.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

White Heat was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2003.

Academy Awards 1949 --- Ceremony Number 22 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best WritingVirginia KelloggNominated
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White Heat BlogHub Articles:

White Heat (1949)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 5, 2017 From 4 Star Films

White Heat burns like hot coals even today. It’s a gangster picture from master Warner Bros. craftsman Raoul Walsh that’s volatile and intriguing, highlighted by the always fiery James Cagney as a crazed man-child with a mom complex. Cagney had stayed away from gangster pictures that ma... Read full article

White Heat (1949)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 5, 2017 From 4 Star Films

White Heat burns like hot coals even today. It’s a gangster picture from master Warner Bros. craftsman Raoul Walsh that’s volatile and intriguing, highlighted by the always fiery James Cagney as a crazed man-child with a mom complex. Cagney had stayed away from gangster pictures that ma... Read full article

White Heat (1949) – Film-Noir

By 4 Star Film Fan on Jun 18, 2013 From 4 Star Films

Starring James Cagney, Edmund O’Brien, and Virginia Mayo, once again Cagney does the gangster role. However, his Cody Jarret is older and more psychotic than ever as he leads his band of thugs. Although he has a beautiful wife, the main woman in Jarret’s life is his mom who watches over ... Read full article

White Heat (1949) – Film-Noir

By 4 Star Film Fan on Jun 18, 2013 From 4 Star Films

Starring James Cagney, Edmund O’Brien, and Virginia Mayo, once again Cagney does the gangster role. However, his Cody Jarret is older and more psychotic than ever as he leads his band of thugs. Although he has a beautiful wife, the main woman in Jarret’s life is his mom who watches over ... Read full article

White Heat (1949).

By Dawn Sample on Aug 14, 2012 From Noir and Chick Flicks

White Heat(1949). Film Noir. Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly and Steve Cochran. Directed by Raoul Walsh from the Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts screenplay based on a story by Virginia Kellogg. While Cody Jarrett and his ruthless gang robs a train, Cody kills the e... Read full article

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White Heat Quotes:

Roy Parker: You wouldn't kill me in cold blood, would ya?
Cody Jarrett: No, I'll let ya warm up a little.
Cody Jarrett: Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
Cody Jarrett: A copper, a copper, how do you like that boys? A copper and his name is Fallon. And we went for it, I went for it. Treated him like a kid brother. And I was gonna split fifty-fifty with a copper!
Cody Jarrett: You know something, Verna, if I turn my back long enough for Big Ed to put a hole in it, there'd be a hole in it.
Ma Jarrett: I told you, Cody hasn't been in California for months.
Philip Evans: I suppose he shot me all the way from another state.
Ma Jarrett: What makes you think *he* shot you? Lots of people have guns.
Philip Evans: I was as close to him as I am to you.
Ma Jarrett: Anybody else see him?
Philip Evans: Just you. And his wife.
Ma Jarrett: Of course, being an old woman, I wouldn't know much about the law, but I hear you got to have *witnesses* to make anything stand up in court.
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White Heat Facts
All the locations and bearings radioed back and forth during the triangulation tracking of the gasoline truck, as it moves southwest across the Los Angeles basin, are accurate. They can all be found on a modern map of Los Angeles. Even the view of the Los Angeles City Hall shows up at the appropriate time.
The train robbery was filmed using the former Southern Pacific tunnel in Chatsworth, CA. The Line is now owned by Union Pacific and was the location of a tragic 2008 head-on collision that killed 25 people.
If the surprise expressed by James Cagney's fellow inmates during "the telephone game" scene in the prison dining room appears real, it's because it is. Director Raoul Walsh didn't tell the rest of the cast what was about to happen, so Cagney's outburst caught them by surprise. In fact, Walsh himself didn't know what Cagney had planned; the scene as written wasn't working, and Cagney had an idea. He told Walsh to put the two biggest extras playing cons in the mess-hall next to him on the bench (he used their shoulders to boost himself onto the table) and to keep the cameras rolling no matter what.
The unusually close relationship between Cody Jarrett and his domineering mother was inspired by real life bank robbers Kate Barker (aka "Ma Barker") and her sons.
Held the record for largest number of camera set ups in one scene; for the scene in prison mess hall where Cody Jarrett finds out his mother is dead.
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