Quotes from White Heat (1949)

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.

- Margaret Wycherly (as Ma Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)

Roy Parker: You wouldn't kill me in cold blood, would ya?
Cody Jarrett: No, I'll let ya warm up a little.

- James Cagney (as Cody Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)

Verna Jarrett: I'd look good in a mink coat, honey.
Cody Jarrett: You'd look good in a shower curtain.

- James Cagney (as Cody Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)

Verna Jarrett: It's always "somebody tipped them." Never "the cops are smart."

- Virginia Mayo (as Verna Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)

Hank Fallon: I've been promised a vacation. You remember?
Philip Evans: Sorry, Hank, that's out.
Hank Fallon: Phil, look at me. College degree, lovable personality, and I spend most of my time in prison. An undercover specialist. Eight sentences in five years. Dannemora, Sing Sing, Leavenworth. I joined the department to put criminals behind bars, and here I am stir crazy.

- Edmond O'Brien (as Hank Fallon / Vic Pardo) in White Heat (1949)

Hank Fallon: What's holding him up?

- Edmond O'Brien (as Hank Fallon / Vic Pardo) in White Heat (1949)

Hank Fallon: You put it on a pole, wind a spool of silk thread around it, and you hold the pole over the water. Then you sit under a nice shady tree and relax. After a while, a hungry fish comes along, takes a nip at your hook, and you've got dinner. For the next two weeks, I'm not gonna think about anything except the eternal struggle between man and the fish...

- Edmond O'Brien (as Hank Fallon / Vic Pardo) in White Heat (1949)

Cody Jarrett: [Fallon is hiding the tracking device under the phony fuel truck] What are you doin'? We're on our way.
Hank Fallon: You gotta have a chain bouncin' the ground - get rid of electricity.
Cody Jarrett: That's only when you got gasoline or chemicals sloppin' around inside.
Hank Fallon: You wanna have some traffic cop think you got a load of somethin' else?
Cody Jarrett: That's usin' your head, kid. All right, snap it up.
[Jarrett walks off]

- James Cagney (as Cody Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)

Cody Jarrett: [while eating a chicken leg, Jarrett speaks to Parker in the trunk of the sedan] How ya doin', Parker?
Roy Parker: It's stuffy in here, I need some air.
Cody Jarrett: Oh, stuffy, huh? I'll give ya a litte air.
[pulls a gun from his pants and shoots four times into the trunk]

- James Cagney (as Cody Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)

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!

- James Cagney (as Cody Jarrett) in White Heat (1949)