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.
