Rating: NR
Genre:
Crime
Release Date: 01/25/2005
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 113 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Not For Children
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
In later years,
James Cagney regarded
White Heat with a combination of pride and regret; while satisfied with his own performance, he tended to dismiss the picture as a "cheap
melodrama." Seen today,
White Heat stands as one of the classic
crime films of the 1940s, containing perhaps
Cagney's best bad-guy portrayal. The star plays criminal mastermind
Cody Jarrett, a mother-dominated psychotic who dreams of being on "top of the world." Inadvertently leaving clues behind after a railroad heist,
Jarrett becomes the target of the feds, who send an undercover agent (played by
Edmond O'Brien) to infiltrate the
Jarrett gang. While
Jarrett sits in prison on a deliberately trumped-up charge (he confesses to one
crime to provide himself an alibi for the railroad robbery), he befriends
O'Brien, who poses as a hero-worshipping hood who's always wanted to work with
Jarrett. Busting out of prison with
O'Brien,
Jarrett regroups his gang to mastermind a "Trojan horse" armored-car robbery.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
