White Heat (1949) - Raoul Walsh 

Top of the world Ma!
   That right there is why White Heat is the best gangster film ever made. It was the return of James Cagney to the genre that made him a legend. Yet it wasnt particularly a warm welcome. Cagney hated the role and grew to resent the genre. The film was quickly disregarded as a money maker and nothing more. It wasnt until decades later when Cagneys cult emerged that the true appreciation for White Heat began to emerge. After many decades many people have now come to regard it as superior to Cagneys original the Public Enemy (1931).
   The film is the grand send-off to the classic gangster film much like the Wild Bunch (1969) is the farewell to the Western. It was directed by veteran Warner Bros. contract player Raoul Walsh, who also directed Cagney in the Roaring Twenties (1939). Gangster films were becoming old news. The stories of prohibition gangsters started to seem dated after World War II. Throughout the forties the output of the genre continued to decline, gradually being replaced by crime films, mysteries, and what is now called noir. Much like the character of Cody Jarrett (Cagney), the films themselves were becoming outcasts and quickly forgotten.
   So if Walsh was going to send the genre off, he was going to do it in grand style. Much like the final film in a trilogy tries to encapsulate everything, so did Walsh with White Heat. It opens with a train robbery, straight from the old Edwin S. Porter days. The film has all the dimensions that you could ask for in a gangster film. Since this isnt an epic the films jam packed action makes this incredibly fast paced. It has snitchers, action, prison scenes, back stabbing, the gangster moral code, and an amazing performance by Cagney. Not to mention the fact that this adheres to the Godfather (1972) ethic that the family is number one.
   Jarretts family consists only of his mother (Margaret Wycherly), and his unfaithful wife Verna (Virginia Mayo). Cody has no love for his backstabbing wife. He is abusive to her, and she in turn does everything she can to hurt him. She even has an affair with Big Ed Somers (Steve Cochran) who is trying to hone in on Jarretts gang. He even tries to set him up to be killed while hes in prison. Like the typical rat, he immediately cowers away from Cody once he is sprung.
   Jarrett is not the cruel monster of Edward G. Robinsons Rico, instead he is the sympathetic one that we root for. Cagney was too likeable to ever really be a villain. All of his gangsters, from Tom Powers in the Public Enemy right up to Jarrett, was a guy that you wanted to pull through. Like his character in the Roaring Twenties he seems to lose everything. His mother dies, his friend turns out to be a cop, and his wife and her lover tried to have him killed. He has been betrayed and is standing on the outside of the world he created. On top of it he suffers from violent headaches that only seem to go away when he is looked after by his mother. When he is in prison and suffers a headache he has no one. The same is said when he is out and finds out of his mothers death. There is no place left for him in the world. So he prepares to go out.
   It seems all too standard that the gangster hero needs to die. The Hollywood production code was quite vocal about punishing the lawlessness. So how do you make it interesting, even though you see it coming a mile away? You may be upset that I have virtually given away the ending to every gangster film, but thats just the way they were made. So with the script of Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts in hand, Walsh set out to stage this explosive conclusion. I couldnt have imagined any other performer for this role. Cagney truly is perfect, and it seems almost a blessing that his previous films did so poorly, otherwise he would have declined. Cagneys final line and that image of Jarrett being surrounded by flames just before the final explosion is the most memorable from any gangster film. It was the finest death for any gangster hero, and the only one that could have concluded the whole genre.
   In the 1930s Cagney was one of the most ferociously active actors. He spent the decade at Warner Bros. and quickly became the top action star. After Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Cagney greatly slowed down. He had his Oscar and formed his own production company. Like Bogarts Santana company, Cagney wouldnt have much better luck. After four failed films the chance came to go back to Warner Bros. A defeated Cagney swallowed his pride and agreed. He remarked that he couldnt wait to get on to make more family oriented pictures.
   The films Oscar nominations were a staggering one, for best black and white cinematography. It didnt win, but then again how often do the Oscars overlook a masterpiece? That years big winner was All the Kings Men (1949) which was directed by Robert Rosen who had a hand in writing the Roaring Twenties. Walsh would never win a best director Oscar. His specialty was always for action films and he was responsible for bringing Humphrey Bogart into the leading man light with High Sierra (1941). Walsh was even more active than Cagney, the only director who could rival him in terms of Filmography would be Michael Curtiz. Like Curtiz, Walsh was also an immigrant who got his start in the silent days. For all of the films made by Walsh in his busy career, none are as exciting, entertaining, or worth watching as much as White Heat.

Grade A