Review of White Heat (1949) by Veronique K — 15 Dec 2007

As the studio shedded off the moral code which had been effeminating the flicks for a decade in 30s, james cagney rises up again to be the incorigible villainy man without converting to the heroic roles he had taken such as "g men", "each dawn I die" and "city of conquest"..etc. this time his sinisterness erupts as some volcanic force which detonates right in front your face when his cody jarret finally reach toward "the top of the world"....

Cagney plays cody jarret, a mobster leader with oedipus complex, morbidly fixed at ma, and his mystically legendary headache tears him into pieces then he besseches ma's bossom to soothe it. obsessed with absolute domineering power thru brutal violence that is the psychotic trait of homicidal inclination. he swears like machine gun and he slaughters mercilessly. except his affectionate adherence to ma, his human-ness is amputated then he's a thug machine bridling his gang mugs and his harpy wife. and director raoul walsh settles some scene even with the suspense horror to interpretate cody's intimidating evil momentum: in one scene, his murderous glare creeks thru the leak of doorgate on the eve when he's about to dispose of his rival, then cody cold-bloodedly grabs his mistress' arm to drop-kick the corpse downward the stairway complecently. here you witness a monster striking around with tricky chortle.

As some misogynism expresses proudly in "public enemy" such as the notorious grapefruit-smashing scene, "white heat" also bears cagney role's misogynism in a more subdued way by enhancing cody's affinity with ma that explains his reluctant neglect to his wife, as one scene says it outloud: cody inquires his wife where ma goes, she replies with impatient smirk "don't you like strawberry?! she happens to go to buy some for her boy!!" then cody spurns her away from the chair while she stands upon it to wear her mink coat. as a mama's boy, cody has no concrete relationship with women excpet the amative lust. he treats her friendly only when he's in the urge of sex that suggests his compliment on her looking good in the shower curtain. genuinely cody's heart belongs to ma, the prison scene of him runing lunatic after acquiring the news of ma's demise is a great showcase for cagney. eventually cody ends up ruined without the discerning flair of ma, enmeshing into the scheme of doublecross.

Unlike the 30s gangster flicks which always enclosed with a moral lesson, our cody jarret simply doesn't give a damn! he would rather torches himself into the outburst of gasoline than submit to the police imprisonment, persisting untamed as his consistent revolt against society and morality. self-destructs before be destructed by others as he hollers "make it, ma! top of the world!!!" with his last inconformable flatulency.