The Ladykillers (1955)

Rarely in their careers did the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) have a misfire. From their first film the low budget, neo noir BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) to their Academy Award winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, the Coen Brothers films were unique, mesmerizing, and well crafted. The Coens weren't afraid to remake a classic film either. They set their eyes on Henry Hathaway's western TRUE GRIT (1969) starring John Wayne in his Oscar winning performance as Sheriff Rooster Cogburn. The Coen's TRUE GRIT (2010) with Jeff Bridges as the eye patch wearing Cogburn and co-starring Matt Damon and Hailee Stanfield added some scenes from the novel by Charles Portis that weren't in the original film but stayed fairly faithful to the original movie. The Coen's TRUE GRIT was praised as a modern classic of a previous classic, a far cry from the brothers first attempt at their remake of the British crime caper comedy THE LADYKILLERS (2004), based on Alexander Mackendrick's original THE LADYKILLERS (1955). 

Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS was one of the last and best British comedies that emerged from Ealing Studio that also included Charles Crichton's THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951). Many of the best Ealing Studio comedies starred Alec Guinness who appears in THE LADYKILLERS.  I have not seen the Coen Brothers version of THE LADYKILLERS (which stars Tom Hanks in the the Guinness role) and will probably watch it during my review of the original THE LADYKILLERS. Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS reputation proceeds itself.  Besides Guinness, THE LADYKILLERS also boasts two of my favorite British comedy actors Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Both were just starting out in films in the 1950s but would later reunite for the PINK PANTHER films for director Blake Edwards in the 60s and 70s.

I would surmise that the Coen Brothers were probably fans of the original THE LADYKILLERS and its underappreciated director with the strange last name Mackendrick. Alexander Mackendrick was born in the United States but moved to his native Scotland shortly after. Most of Mackendrick's success was at Ealing Studios where he made five films including THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951) with Alec Guinness and his best known Ealing film THE LADYKILLERS. The Coens may have been drawn to remaking THE LADYKILLERS as Mackendrick's comedies had a darker edge to them than the typical British comedies of the era which tended to be more lighthearted. The Coens were no strangers to their own black comedies like THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) and BURN AFTER READING (2008). The success of THE LADYKILLERS would capture the attention of Hollywood who would bring Mackendrick back to the United States for his next film SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.  Mackendrick would discover that success would be a double-edged sword. 

With an original screenplay by William Rose (IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD) and directed by Alexander Mackendrick, THE LADYKILLERS begins by introducing us to Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), a sweet, slightly dotty widow. Mrs. Wilberforce visits the local police to tell the Superintendent (Jack Warner) her neighbor was mistaken about alien beings she thought landed in her garden. The police officers politely dismiss her. Mrs. Wilberforce who lives in a crooked house at the end of a cul-de-sac on top of a train tunnel next to Kings Cross Railroad station has two rooms for rent. She's followed home by a tall, thin menacing figure who turns out to be Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness).  Marcus is looking for two rooms to rent so he and his fellow musicians string quartet can rehearse. 

Only Marcus and his friends aren't really musicians. They're criminals planning an armored wagon robbery delivering $60,000 pounds to the Kings Cross railroad station.  Marcus's oddball crew includes the jittery and disgraced Major Claude Courtney (Cecil Parker), the menacing Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom), the empty headed muscle One-Round (Danny Green), and the overconfident Cockney Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers). As Marcus and the gang plot their robbery, Mrs. Wilberforce unintentionally becomes a nuisance, disturbing their planning with offers of tea or to needing help to catch her mischievous parrot General Gordon.  But Professor Marcus has a use for Mrs. Wilberforce. She will unwittingly help them bring the stolen money back to her house so the men can divide the loot.

Creating a perfect diversion, the armored wagon robbery goes off without a hitch. The money is transferred from smaller cases into a large trunk. Driving a fake taxi, Robinson drops the trunk off at the train station where it's placed in the parcels section. Mrs. Wilberforce arrives by taxi at the train station and picks up the trunk for Professor Marcus. She departs the train station to the gang's relief only to return moments later.  Mrs. Wilberforce forgot her umbrella. The gang follows Mrs. Wilberforce's taxi as it works its way to her home. Mrs. Wilberforce sees the Barrow Boy (Frankie Howerd) abusing a horse for eating apples off his cart. Mrs. Wilberforce forces the Taxi Driver (Kenneth Connor) to stop and comes to the horse's rescue to the horror of Marcus and his conspirators. Mrs. Wilberforce, the Barrow Boy, the Taxi Driver, and the large trunk end up at the police station. After the scuffle is cleared up, two police officers bring Mrs. Wilberforce and the large trunk to her home. Marcus and his thieves show up for their final rehearsal. The money is divided up and each criminal places his share in their musical instrument case. The men bid adieu to Mrs. Wilberforce. Marcus and his men have pulled off the perfect crime until One-Round catches his cello case in Mrs. Wilberforce's door. One-Round tugs at the case, ripping it open, his share of the loot spilling out onto the sidewalk in full view of Mrs. Wilberforce.

Marcus and the gang return to the house to try to explain why One-Round's cello case contains loads of cash and no cello.  But before they can explain, four gray-haired ladies show up for Mrs. Wilberforce's tea party. One of Mrs. Wilberforce's friends Lettice (Edie Martin) has the latest newspaper with headlines about the armored wagon robbery which catches Mrs. Wilberforce's attention. She insists the men stay for tea with her friends.  After the tea party ends, Marcus admits to her they did steal the money but that there's no sense in returning it. Insurance has already covered the loss for all parties. Marcus tells her she'll be arrested with them if she goes to the police. With all the excitement, Mrs. Wilberforce falls asleep. Marcus and the gang decide they must kill Mrs. Wilberforce. But who will do it? Louis cuts up matchsticks. The Major draws the shortest lot.  He invites Mrs. Wilberforce upstairs to strangle her but chickens out and tries to flee with his share of the money out the second floor window. THE LADYKILLERS concludes with Marcus, Claude, One-Round, Louis, and Harry turning on each other in dark fashion leaving Mrs. Wilberforce to confess to the police she has the stolen money. But will the authorities believe her and where are the criminals who stole it?

What makes THE LADYKILLERS a comedy classic is the combination of smart plotting and writing, excellent directing, and perfect casting. Mackendrick and Rose set up the ending of the film in the first scene when the local police politely dismiss Mrs. Wilberforce's explanation of her neighbor believing aliens were in her garden. We don't realize it yet (and Marcus and his gang will never know it) but the authorities will never believe anything that Mrs. Wilberforce will tell them going forward including that she has the stolen sixty thousand pounds in her home. The introduction of each criminal is done simply with each character walking up and framed in the doorway as Marcus introduces them to us and Mrs. Wilberforce. Each criminal is distinct. Marcus with his protruding front teeth (resembling actor Alistair Sim but more on that later). The hulking One-Round. Major Claude and his thick moustache. Harry with his pompadour hair.  And the fedora wearing Louis. Even Mrs. Wilberforce stands out with her rosy cheeks, expressive blue eyes, and pink dresses. 

Color plays a big part in THE LADYKILLERS. In fact, THE LADYKILLERS is the only comedy in the Ealing Studios canon made in color. It might be a black comedy but the film is full of deep, saturated colors. The two rooms that Professor Marcus rents from Mrs. Wilberforce are a garish green and bright red. The green room symbolizes the thieves greed and vice as they plot their robbery of the armored wagon. The red room foreshadows the deaths that will occur as the gang contemplates murdering Mrs. Wilberforce before turning on one another. Mrs. Wilberforce's pink outfit represents purity amongst all these shady criminals dressed in mostly black and gray suits.

Production design plays an important role in THE LADYKILLERS. Mrs. Wilberforce's house is the perfect (if unsound) structure for Professor Wilburn and his cohorts. The pictures don't hang straight. The staircase to the second floor leans one way. The house is crooked like the men who have moved in temporarily. Film historians point out that Mrs. Wilberforce's home represents the end of the British Empire with its Victorian decor. Pictures of 19th century debutantes, bucolic forests, and Mrs. Wilberforce's deceased sea captain husband adorn the first floor and along the staircase. Her home is the last bastion of the once great, powerful British Empire. 

Even with the great Alec Guinness and the first major film role for Peter Sellers, sweet little old Katie Johnson shines in THE LADYKILLERS.  Johnson's Mrs. Wilberforce is literally a force of nature in the film, blissfully unaware of her superpowers besides honesty. As Professor Marcus laments, "It was a great plan, except for the Human Element. So many plans fail to take into account the Human Element. Mrs. Wilberforce will always be with us. A whole army couldn't take her out." Like many great robbery films from John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1951) to Michael Mann's HEAT (1995), the Human Element ruined those robberies as well. But those films didn't have a sweet, innocent old lady blow up their intricate scheme. We are warned at the very start of THE LADYKILLERS that Mrs. Wilberforce will be a thorn in the criminals side when she causes a baby in a pram to cry for no reason. THE LADYKILLERS would be Katie Johnson's crowning achievement.  The 76 year old actress would win a BAFTA (British Academy Award) for her performance as Mrs. Wilberforce, appear in one more film HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE (1957), and pass away that same year at the age of 78, two years after THE LADYKILLERS release.

When Alec Guinness was offered the role of the ringleader Professor Marcus for THE LADYKILLERS, he told director Mackendrick that fellow English actor Alistair Sim (STAGE FRIGHT, A CHRISTMAS CAROL) was born to play the role. Mackendrick informed Guinness that Sim had been offered the part but was unavailable.  The chameleon Guinness (perhaps as a homage) would transform himself into resembling Sim complete with buck teeth and wispy, blondish hair.  It is another of Guinness's finest comedic performances. Professor Marcus is the brains behind the robbery plot. He and his co-conspirators pull of his master plan only to watch it unravel at the hands of the kindly, unassuming Mrs. Wilberforce. Looking over Guinness's filmography, he was the top comedic actor in the 1950s until Ealing Studios quit making comedies at the end of the decade. Guinness would easily slide into drama, becoming David Lean's good luck charm from THE BRIDGE OVER RIVER KWAI (1957) to DR. ZHIVAGO (1965). Mostly working in British television in the 1970s, George Lucas would introduce Alec Guinness to a new generation of fans as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in STAR WARS (1977). 

Although Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers would become famous for their roles as the suffering turned psychotic Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus and bumbling Inspector Jacques Cousteau respectively in THE PINK PANTHER films, Lom and Sellers were just starting out in film when they appeared in THE LADYKILLERS. Lom started out playing exotic supporting characters in films like Henry Hathaway's THE BLACK ROSE (1950). Lom was performing as the King of Siam in the London stage production of The King and I and his head was mostly shaven during the filming of THE LADYKILLERS. Lom wears a fedora for most of the film to hide that fact. Lom's Louis is the most cold-hearted, ruthless member of the five. Yet, even Louis and all his menace can't overcome the indomitably kind Mrs. Wilberforce.

For Sellers, THE LADYKILLERS was his first meaningful film having worked primarily on the BBC Radio Show The Goon Show. Sellers shows glimpses of his future expertise in comic pratfalls and mishaps in THE LADYKILLERS especially when he volunteers to catch Mrs. Wilberforce's parrot. His skill at accents make him perfect as the Cockney speaking hood Harry Robinson. Alec Guinness was Sellers idol and working with Guinness on THE LADYKILLERS would rub off on Sellers. Guinness had played eight roles in Robert Hamer's KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949). Sellers would soon play multiple roles himself in both Jack Arnold's THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (1957) and more famously in Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). 

When I first heard Cecil Parker speak in THE LADYKILLERS, I knew exactly where I had heard Parker before. Parker played the philandering, isolationist loving Mr. Todhunter in Alfred Hitchcock's train thriller THE LADY VANISHES (1938).  He was an unlikable character who got his just desserts at the film's end, waving a white handkerchief  and still getting shot and I couldn't forget him. In THE LADYKILLERS, dressed in a yellow suit and with his white moustache, Parker's Major Claude looks like the prototype for Colonel Mustard from the Clue board game. The Major is some kind of disgraced military officer, fallen on hard times. If it wasn't for Mrs. Wilberforce, the nervous Major would probably have been the Human Element to ruin the perfect crime. Instead, he's the first one to turn on the group and the Major pays the price.

The filmmakers don't give Danny Green's towering, lumbering character One-Round any back story in THE LADYKILLERS but his name tells it all. He must have been a boxer who either knocked his opponent out in the first round or he took a dive versus his heavyweight opponent in the first round per a gambler or mobster's orders. As imposing as Green's One-Round is, he's a kitten around Mrs. Wilberforce. Other credits for Green include Nathan Juran's THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) and William Castle's remake of  THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963).

CRAZYFILMGUY made a last second effort and viewed the Coen Brothers remake of THE LADYKILLERS. Although many English movies and television shows have successfully been reworked into American movies and television shows, the Coen Brothers version is not one of those successes. Yes, the Coens made some interesting choices, moving the location of THE LADYKILLERS from London to Mississippi; changing the pleasant English Mrs. Wilberforce into the bible thumping widow Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall); and the heist from an armored wagon holdup near King's Cross to plucking $1.6 million from a riverboat casino. What the Coen Brothers remake proves is that THE LADYKILLERS belongs in England.  It's an English comedy with unique English characters that just doesn't Americanize. The Coens dumb up most of the criminals (easier for American audiences to recognize), throw in heaps of profanity, and make their THE LADYKILLERS the opposite of Mackendrick's sophisticated gem. 

For director Alexander Mackendrick, THE LADYKILLERS would be his calling card to Hollywood where Burt Lancaster would hire him to direct the savage SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) written by playwright Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman based on Lehman's novel. Today, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is considered a masterpiece.  For audiences in the 1950s, the film's blistering take on a gossip columnist who rules New York and the soulless press agent who tries to appease him was too much for audiences. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS would be a critical and box office failure at the time. Mackendrick would only make a couple more films before he was offered the job as Dean of the Film Department of the California Institute of the Arts where he was beloved by film students from 1969 until his death in 1993.

When you watch a heist film, you often find yourself rooting for the criminals to get away with the crime. In THE LADYKILLERS, I was rooting for Professor Marcus and his odd accomplices. They had pulled off the perfect crime, they weren't going to hurt Mrs. Wilberforce, and they were just waiting for One-Round to say goodbye.  But heist films almost never end happily. THE LADYKILLERS even tosses a red herring when Mrs. Wilberforce slumps in her sitting chair as if she's expired only to awaken from a quick nap. The criminals have multiple opportunities to just flee and take their chances that the police won't believe her story (which turns out to be true).  But poor judgement will cloud their thinking and they decide to kill Mrs. Wilberforce to silence her with unexpected consequences for them all. 

Like some American comedies, some English comedies from the past are lowbrow, reaching to the wider public with stale, familiar stories and going for cheap laughs.  The British Ealing Studios raised the comedy bar with its series of original stories using a troupe of excellent English actors to delight audiences. THE LADYKILLERS was Ealing's crowning achievement in the 1950s, starring its best comedic actor Alec Guinness (surrounded with a hilarious group of supporting players) and its best director Alexander Mackendrick, all shot in glorious, deep color. Even one of America's best pair of directors couldn't improve on THE LADYKILLERS.  Make yourself a cup of tea, settle into your soft recliner and prepare yourself for 91 minutes of dark, comedic glee. 

White Heat (1949)

My first encounter with the actor James Cagney wasn't from any of his over 60 films. It was from comedian Rich Little in the 1970s who would come on THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON and do impressions of famous people and politicians. Little did a great impression of James Cagney ("You dirty rat!") that imprinted on me to this day. I may never have seen Cagney yet but I sure knew what he sounded like. Cagney would often show up in caricature in Warner Brothers cartoons I watched either as himself or impersonated by Bugs Bunny.  Along with Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, and Bette Davis, James Cagney was one of the biggest stars for Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 40s. I gravitated first toward Flynn for his swashbuckling films like CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935) and THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) and toward Bogart for THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and CASABLANCA (1943).  Cagney was appearing mostly in gangster films like William Wellman's THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) and Michael Curtiz's ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938). I wasn't particularly interested in gangsters early in my movie watching youth.  That would change with Francis Coppola's THE GODFATHER (1973) and Martin Scorsese's GOODFELLAS (1991). 

I recently watched Raoul Walsh's THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939) with Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in which Cagney actually played a relatively nice, naive World War I veteran who becomes a successful bootlegger during Prohibition until his partner Bogart turns on him.  For the most part, when Cagney did play gangsters or criminals they were charismatic but ultimately bad guys (like Bogart in THE ROARING TWENTIES). One of Cagney's final bad guy films is one of his most famous and over the top performances as criminal Cody Jarrett, a psychopath with a mother complex in the great Raoul Walsh's WHITE  HEAT (1949). 

By 1949, Cagney had been making movies since the beginning of the talkies in the early 30s. In WHITE HEAT, Cagney finally looks older and paunchier yet Cagney's just as dynamic as when he was hoofing it as George M. Cohan in Michael Curtiz's YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942). Besides Cagney, WHITE HEAT has the good fortune of having Warner Brothers stalwart Raoul Walsh at the helm as director. Walsh is not as famous as well known Warner directors Michael Curtiz (DODGE CITY) or John Huston (THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE). Walsh was just as prolific and his movies had great stories, complex characters, and plenty of action in films like HIGH SIERRA (1940) and THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941).

With a screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts suggested by a story by Virginia Kellogg and directed by the eye patch wearing Raoul Walsh, WHITE HEAT begins on the California State Line where criminal Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) and his gang including Big Ed Somers (Steve Cochran) and Cotton Valletti (Wally Cassell) rob a train carrying $300,000 in federal currency. A couple of innocent train engineers are shot and killed and one of Cody's gang Zuckie Hommell (Ford Rainey) catches a blast of hot steam in the face from the locomotive. Cody and his gang return to their high sierra hideout where they hook up with his mother Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly) and wife and moll Verna Jarrett (Virginia Mayo). There's some tension between Cody, Big Ed, and Verna. Cody suddenly has a seizure. Ma takes Cody to another room and helps him overcome his migraine. A storm arrives, providing the perfect getaway for Jarrett's gang. They leave behind the bandaged Zuckie who freezes to death in the cabin. After making a death mask of Zuckie's face, Treasury Agent Philip Evans (John Archer) is able to connect the dead man to Cody's gang and the train heist. 

The Jarrett Gang returns to a small southwest city, hiding out in a non-descript motel off the beaten track. Returning from the market where she bought strawberries for her son, Ma Jarrett is tailed by several members of Evans task force. She almost loses them. Evans accidentally finds her car. Waiting for back up, he encounters Cody who wounds Evans in the shoulder. Cody, Ma, and Verna flee, hiding out at a Drive-In theater.  Cody reveals to Ma and Verna his latest plan. He's going to turn himself in to the authorities, only for a heist in Springfield, Illinois that another crook committed that had no murders. Cody made a deal with that crook to take the fall for that crime to avoid the death penalty for the train heist killings. Cody is sent to a federal prison in Illinois. Evans brings in his undercover prison specialist Hank Fallon (Edmond O'Brien). Hank under the fake name Vic Pardo will be placed in the prison to ingratiate himself with Cody and find out who bank rolled the train robbery.

Cody goes to prison for a sentence of 1-3 years. With Cody behind bars, Big Ed takes over the Jarrett gang, under the suspicious eye of Ma Jarrett. Hank works to get into Cody's confidence.  While standing in line to be vaccinated, Hank recognizes a convict who he sent to prison. Hank starts a fight to avoid getting identified. Big Ed pulls off a heist, netting $57,000.  Ma reminds Big Ed that Cody still receives a share.  Big Ed confides to Verna he has an inside man named Roy Parker (Paul Guilfoyle) who will kill Cody for Big Ed. Roy tries to drop an engine on Cody. Hank notices and pushes Cody out of the way just in time. Ma visits Cody in prison and tells him Big Ed and Verna are now an item. Cody begins a plan to break out of prison. Hank offers to help. Cody asks a new prisoner Tommy Ryley (Robert Osterloh) if he's heard any news about Ma.  Tommy tells him that Ma is dead. Cody has a breakdown. He's put in a straightjacket and prepared to be sent to an asylum per the prison physician Dr. Harris's diagnosis.

Before Cody can be whisked away, Tommy smuggles in a gun to Cody. Cody, Hank, Parker, Tommy, and the Reader (Michael Curtin) force Dr. Harris to drive them out of the penitentiary and to freedom. Cody locates Big Ed and Verna at their latest hideout. Verna gives up Big Ed to Cody who shoots him. Cody and Verna are back together. Cody meets with the Trader aka Winston (Fred Clark) who plans and bankrolls their next job - to steal almost half a million from a chemical plant's payroll. Cody suggests the old Trojan Horse ploy. They will buy an empty gas tanker that will be driven by ex-con Bo Creel (Ian MacDonald) who's a driver at the plant and hide themselves in it until they pass through the security gate. Hank plants a homing device under the tanker for Evans and his T-Men to track the tanker. WHITE HEAT'S explosive finale has shoot-outs, tear gas, double crosses, and Cody atop a chemical holding sphere, fire all around him, shouting his final famous line, "Made it Ma! Top of the World!"  

WHITE HEAT'S Cody Jarrett may be one of the most complex, fascinating criminal characters in the Golden Age of Cinema. Nobody could have played Cody better than James Cagney. Cody is a homicidal, psychopathic criminal but he's so much more. Cody's a Mama's boy, propped up when he's depressed by his mother Ma Jarrett who's one of the gang. Cody depends on Ma more than a grown man normally would. When Cody has his debilitating headaches, it's Ma who escorts him to another room and cares for him, shielding his weakness from his fellow crooks. WHITE HEAT hints that insanity and psychological issues runs in the Jarrett family, beginning with Cody's father. Cody had a tough childhood and had to fight most of his life to get near the top of criminal food chain. His mother was there to support him all the way. 

Which brings us to Cody Jarrett's famous phrase, "Top of the World!" Top of the world represents Cody both figuratively and literally. When Cody's feeling strong and in control, he'll use that phrase. It's a feeling instilled by his mother Ma who has pushed Cody from a young age to strive to be the best, even if it's the criminal best. With Cagney's short stature, the phrase is a mantra for short guy Cody. He can't be tall in stature but he can be at the top of the criminal food chain. Cody often references his mother when saying it. After Ma's murdered and Cody escapes from prison, he grows sullen at her absence. He walks into the woods and has a chat with his dead mother (off screen). Cody returns to the safe house revitalized. Ma's spirit has put Cody on top again. In WHITE HEAT'S fiery finale, Cody climbs to the highest point at the chemical plant as his life of crime comes to an end. Before sharp shooter Hank/Vic fires one last fatal shot at Cody, Cody shouts his final words to the world and to the one person who believed in him the most. "Look at me Ma! Top of the World!," Cody exclaims before the holding sphere explodes in a ball of fire, obliterating Cody forever. 

If you're a fan of geometric shapes, WHITE HEAT is full of fascinating triangles, relationship triangles. First, there's the Cody, Verna, Ma triangle.  Cody and Verna seem to have a love/hate relationship. Having Cody's mother Ma in the gang and always around them probably doesn't help.  Verna feels Ma is always looking over her shoulder, keeping a watchful eye on her, judging the woman who has a place in her son's cold heart. It's to no one's surprise that when Cody's sent to prison and Big Ed and Verna start to get a little cozier, Ma tattles on them to Cody. Big Ed and Verna's answer to Ma snooping on them will be Verna shooting and killing Ma (off screen and revealed later).

The Cody, Verna, Big Ed triangle adds nice tension to the story. Cody's the jealous type but Big Ed plays it cool with his hot headed boss.  Verna just wants to be on the right side of the two alpha males. As bloodthirsty as Cody and Big Ed are killing innocent bystanders in their crime sprees, Verna rivals them.  She murders Ma Jarrett to get her out of the way. When Cody comes looking for Big Ed and Verna, Verna turns on Big Ed, setting him up for Cody to gun him down.  The Cody/Verna relationship is back on. There's no code of honor among these thieves. 

The relationship between Cody and Hank/Vic in WHITE HEAT is classic criminal bonding with a catch. Hank/Vic is an undercover treasury agent, planted in the same prison as Cody so he can infiltrate Cody's inner circle and if he's lucky, befriend the maniac and uncover who Cody's silent partner for funding his holdups. Cody's suspicious of everyone when he first arrives in the pen. Hank/Vic begins to win Cody over after saving his life from a falling engine. When Cody breaks out of prison with Hank/Vic and his cronies and reuniting with Verna, Hank offers to fix her broken radio, further ingratiating himself with Cody. Even though Hank/Vic is risking his neck both in prison (where he's almost recognized by a convict he put away years earlier) and running with the dangerous Jarrett Gang, Hank begins to develop a friendship with Cody.  It's a friendship doomed to survive. Director Quentin Tarantino will use this similar plot twist in RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) with undercover cop Tim Roth as Mr. Orange bonding with one of his fellow crooks Harvey Keitel as Mr. White when they are both hired for a jewelry store heist that goes terribly awry. 

James Cagney, the golden boy of Warner Brothers in the 1930s, grew weary of playing gangsters and criminals for the studio.  After appearing in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, Cagney would leave Warner Brothers to pursue other types of roles in different genres, forming his own production company for films like JOHNNY COME LATELY (1943) and BLOOD ON THE SUN (1945). Cagney would eventually be drawn back to Warners for WHITE HEAT.  Cagney reportedly found the WHITE HEAT script dull so he suggested giving Cody a domineering mother similar to the real life bank robber Ma Barker with her sons. The intense relationship between Cody and Ma is the crux of WHITE HEAT. Cagney goes so far as having Cody sit on Ma's lap in one scene (which both Cagney and Walsh took credit for the idea).

I recently came across actress Virginia Mayo in Raoul Walsh's western remake of his own HIGH SIERRA called COLORADO TERRITORY (1949) where she stood out. Mayo was just one of a group of interesting actresses during that time including Jane Greer, Veronica Lake, and Jane Russell. The underrated Mayo stands out as she wasn't typecast just as a femme fatale. Mayo was a dance hall girl in COLORADO TERRITORY, an unfaithful wife to a returning WWII vet in William Wyler's THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1945), and Burt Lancaster's captive and love interest in Jacques Tourneur swashbuckling THE FLAME AND THE ARROW (1950). In WHITE HEAT, Mayo bares her femme fatale fangs as Cody's scheming wife Verna. Verna's always trying to find the most advantageous side to be on whether it's Cody, Big Ed, or at the end of the film the T-Men (they turn her down to make a deal). In the mid-70s, I was on a Universal Studio's tour in Los Angeles. We stopped at a stop sign on the studio lot. Our tour guide pointed out an older, pretty woman sitting on a bench. "That's screen star  Virginia Mayo," he said. I have a feeling Universal hired retired movie stars like Mayo to spice up the tour. Sadly, at the time, I had no idea who Mayo was. Now I do. 

The versatile and prolific Edmond O'Brien pops up again, this time in WHITE HEAT as Hank Fallon, the Treasury Department's undercover snoop placed in prison under the pseudonym Vic Pardo to buddy up to Cody Jarrett. O'Brien's Hank/Vic's has a cool demeanor, patiently biding his time until he can get in Cody's good graces while navigating the danger of someone recognizing he's a law officer or getting ratted out to Cody.  Like Virginia Mayo, O'Brien was rarely typecast. O'Brien would play a Roman senator in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's JULIUS CAESAR (1953), win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Ava Gardner's publicist Oscar Muldoon in Mankiewicz's THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954) with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner, and play a newspaper editor in John Ford's western THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) with John Wayne and James Stewart. 

Margaret Wycherly was no stranger to playing mothers in film, most notably as Gary Cooper's Mother York in Howard Hawks SERGEANT YORK (1941) where she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Wycherly's Ma Jarrett is much darker and sinister than Ma York. She's built up her damaged son into a criminal powerhouse. When Cody's sent to prison, Ma loses her leverage in the gang. She's ultimately murdered by her daughter-in-law Verna for spying on her while Cody was in prison. And look for Native American Olympian and football athlete Jim Thorpe as Big Convict sitting near Cagney at a prison lunch table. 

Raoul Walsh began directing in the silent era, starting out as an assistant director on D.W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) before turning to directing himself including the original THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924). Walsh would famously wear an eye patch over his right eye for most of his career after a jack rabbit crashed through his windshield. Like Michael Curtiz, Walsh was comfortable in all film genres including crime drama, film noir, westerns, romantic comedy, and adventure.  Walsh would hit his peak at Warner Brothers in a three year period from 1931 to 1941 with hits like THE ROARING TWENTIES, HIGH SIERRA, and THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE (1941). I think Walsh's best films for Warner Brothers were with Cagney and Bogart. In the 1940s, Walsh would direct several World War II themed films with Errol Flynn including DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942) co-starring Ronald Reagan and OBJECTIVE, BURMA! (1945). 

WHITE HEAT is a pretty ordinary heist film that has great performances from Cagney, Mayo, O'Brien, and Wycherly. What makes WHITE HEAT special is the intense family relationship between Cody Jarrett and his mother Ma Jarrett. Normally, a mother/son bonding wouldn't make anyone blink an eye. But the fact that Cody and Ma are members of a murderous criminal gang makes this family dynamic special. Add in the great, underappreciated Raoul Walsh at the helm, WHITE HEAT is Cagney's swan song to the movies that made him a star but also drove him to seek out different roles.