White Heat

Infobox_Film
name = White Heat


director = Raoul Walsh
writer = Virginia Kellogg (story)
Ivan Goff and
Ben Roberts
starring = James Cagney
Virginia Mayo
Edmond O'Brien
Margaret Wycherly
Steve Cochran
producer = Louis F. Edelman
music = Max Steiner
cinematography = Sidney Hickox
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = September 2, 1949 (U.S. release)
runtime = 114 min.
language = English
imdb_id = 0042041

"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 consider one of the great gangster films and a classic film noir.

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 whiskey with the toast, "Top of the world." It is revealed that Jarrett's father died in an insane asylum.

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 an alibi. He is sentenced to one to three years.

Evans is not fooled. He plants undercover agent Hank Fallon (Edmond O'Brien) in Jarrett's cell; Fallon goes by the name 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 learns that Ma is dead and goes berserk in the mess hall.

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 developed a genuine liking. Jarrett insists on sharing the proceeds from their robberies with him: "I split even with Ma, didn't I?"

While the gang prepares its next heist, a stranger shows up at their isolated country hideout, asking to use the phone. 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 Jarrett that he is not the fisherman he claims to be. To Pardo's surprise, he is introduced by a trusting Jarrett to the Trader (Fred Clark), the fence he was to track down.

Jarrett intends to steal the payroll at a chemical plant in Long Beach, California, using a large gas truck as a Trojan Horse to get in. Pardo (a.k.a. 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 and Evans calls on Jarrett to surrender. On finding out about Pardo's deception however, Jarrett decides 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 several times with a rifle, Jarrett starts firing into the tank and shouts, "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" just before it goes up in a massive explosion.

Inspiration

The character of Cody Jarrett was based on New York murderer Francis Crowley, [ [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/francis_crowley/1.html All about Francis Crowley, by Mark Gado ] ] 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.

The train robbery which opens the film appears to have been closely based on the robbery of Southern Pacific's "Gold Special" by the D'Autremont brothers in 1923.

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". [cite web |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9503E5DD1E3EE03BBC4B53DFBF668382659EDE&oref=slogin |title=James Cagney Back as Gangster in 'White Heat,' Thriller Now at the Strand |date=September 3 1949 |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |publisher="The New York Times" |accessdate=2007-09-05] Tim Dirks on the website Filmsite.org writes that the film may have also inspired many other successful films: [http://www.filmsite.org/whit.html Filmsite.org]

:"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. [cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/white_heat/ |title=White Heat (1949) |publisher=rottentomatoes.com |accessdate=2007-09-05] It was also part of Time magazine's all-time top 100 list.

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. "White Heat" was acknowledged as the fourth best in the gangster film genre. [cite news | publisher = American Film Institute | title = AFI's 10 Top 10 | date = 2008-06-17 | url = http://www.afi.com/10top10/gangster.html | accessdate=2008-06-18]

Quotes

*Cody " [cornered at the end of the film] ": "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" :The quote is number 18 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie quotes.

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".

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".

*Weird Al Yankovic's music video to "Don't Download This Song" includes a reference to the famous "top of the world" finale.

*Adam Ant's 1985 single Vive Le Rock (from the album of the same name) ends with the famous quote.

*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).

*Kevin Garnett screamed, "I made it ma! Top of the world! TOP OF THE WORLD!" as part of his emotional postgame interview immediately after the Boston Celtics won their 17th NBA Championship on June 17, 2008.

*Most of Naked Gun 33 1/3 is a parody of the second act of this film.

References

External links

*tcmdb title|id=1413
*amg title|1:54303|White Heat
*rotten-tomatoes|id=white_heat|White Heat
* [http://www.filmsite.org/whit.html Greatest Films Web Site]
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/francis_crowley/1.html Francis Crowley] at Crime Library
* [http://www.edmondobrien.com Edmond O'Brien]
* [http://home.aol.com/MG4273/walsh.htm The Films of Raoul Walsh]