"WHITE HEAT" ( 1949 )
I'd love to see this on a double bill with
"Brute Force" another strong tough muscle movie. Adult, men, pulls no punches...futility 'till the end. I watched it recently and was reminded of how good a movie this is, and how much I like it. What can I add to what’s already been wonderfully stated? I can only be a big ol’ copycat and echo the praises of my fellow travelers in the posts before me. What a good movie. For me
“WHITE HEAT” carries the banner of a Shakespearean epic of a flawed, demented king with an Achilles Heel:
( * ) blinding hellacious headaches
( * ) an Oedipus complex
From the Queen Mother who spits nails and supports her boy in the family business (
GANGSTER ) to a dreamy blonde who he can trust about as far as he can throw her ( though he does carry her upstairs ) to some dissension in the ranks and topping it off...a trusted right hand man who throws Cody Jarrett under the bus, every character down to the bone is cast perfectly. ( I like John Archer too. ) Even a buzzard loves her baby buzzard, and Ma Jarrett (
Margaret Witcherly ) is no different. I love her. I love how she coaxes Verna when they get questioned by the police, and how she calms down Cody after one of his headaches. I love how she shakes the police when they tail her. I love Verna (
Virginia Mayo in her best role ) always looking out for herself, her barely concealed contempt for her mother-in-law, her making time with her husband’s good-looking henchman (
Steve Cochran. ) I loved her fear when Cody busts out of prison and comes back home to settle some scores. She doesn’t want him to find out
she shot her mother-in-law
...in the back, a piece of info Cochran holds over her. Egads, a den of wolves.
I really love
Edmond O’Brien in this movie, wheedling his way into Cody’s good graces like Iago. This is one of my favorite roles of the actor ( including “The Barefoot Contessa” “Seven Days In May” “D.O.A.” And “The Killers.” ) I'm with you guys on whether O'Brien's "Fallon" is a good guy or a traitor. It must be the strength of Cagney’s persona that really makes me feel the depth of Fallon’s betrayal. Wait...how am I feeling sorry for Cody? He just left one of his men to die, and plugged another guy in the trunk of the car. Hey I don’t question my crazy mixed up emotions...I just go with it. Jax
Xxon, I’d like to think in some quiet moment, Fallon feels bad about what he did to Cody. ( I admit, I’m torn and twisted. ) Things are not black 'n white. They're fifty shades of crap; not a redeeming quality among 'em. But we get a window into reality when at the big shoot out at the end, Fallon shoots up at Cody saying
“What’s holding him up!”
Cagney’s simply a force of nature as the stone-cold killer ( cross him at your
own peril. ) His abject grief at the news of the death of his Rock of Gibraltar puts a lump in my throat. He hold nothing back and it’s uncomfortable. ( It makes me think of Jack Lemmon’s looking for alcohol in the greenhouse in “The Days of Wine and Roses.” ) He's only got two relationships in the movie where his trust is involved, his mother and Fallon. Verna? It's a rather asexual relationship except on occasion. She's just there as a convenience. You don't think Cody loves and trusts her, d'ya? Cagney is great all the way through and through. He does what any legend would do when given the role of his career; he pours his blood, sweat and tears into every frame of his greatest triumph. Oh I could go on and on about him, but ( his ) actions speak louder than my ( meager ) words. See the movie. He gives a towering performance and ends in the most perfect movie ending I've seen. I wish James Cagney would have won the Academy Award for going to Kingdom Come in smithereens, rather than kicking up his yankee doodle heels.
Great comparison you guys to "Touch Of Evil." Disloyalty. How sharper than a serpent's tooth...