9/4/2023 0 Comments Virginia mayo james cagney![]() ![]() ![]() He later manages to escape, taking the undercover cop with him. He goes berserk and knocks out several guards before being overpowered and carried kicking and screaming from the room. In one of the most electrifying scenes of Cagney's career, he learns about his mother's death while eating a meal in the prison mess hall. Meanwhile Cody's wife (Virginia Mayo) is playing hide-the-salami with Cody's right hand man, Big Ed (Steve Cochran). The feds send in an undercover cop to befriend him while in prison in order to gather evidence against him that will lead to the electric chair. After a particularly brutal train hold-up Cody takes the rap for a lesser crime in order to avoid the more serious charge of murder. 'Made it Ma! Top of the world!!'Ĭody Jarrett is a cold-blooded killer prone to brain splitting migraines that only his mother can soothe. The final scene of this fast-paced thriller is one of the most famous moments in movie history. As Cody Jarrett, Cagney painted a chilling portrait of a mentally disturbed psychopath with a mother fixation. Movie fans were hungry to see him get back in the gangster saddle, so to speak, and White Heat became one of his biggest box-office hits. He outsmarts the law for a time then is killed.White Heat marked James Cagney's return to the gangster genre after a ten year period during which he had tried his hand at playing the hero. Jimmy gets pushing around from Ward Bond, crooked detective, in “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.” ![]() Jimmy weds Helena Carter, cast as daughter of multi-millionaire in action-packed film. He escapes from prison farm, leads hectic life of crime. Jimmy and Steve Brodie in “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” a Cagney production.Īs Ralph Cotter, Jimmy's college professor gone wrong. Their pleas were soon answered, for “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” Jimmy’s latest melodrama, has all of the stirring ingredients that made “White Heat” and other Cagney classics surefire entertainment. Jimmy’s kids, Katherine and James, Jr., know their father as a tolerant, easy-going guy who’s a farmer boy at heart.Īfter watching Jimmy Cagney be his exciting, ruthless self again in the recent “White Heat,” movie-goers begged for another such thriller, with the lovably contemptible guy, before too long a wait. Virginia Mayo, his wife in “White Heat,” double-crosses Jimmy, but charms him into sparing her when he kills her lover. He’s the same taut, cocky Cagney, piling up thrill on top of thrill in his return to infamy and leaving fans in the same “White Heat” as the film.Įven in rehearsal James Cagney, with Director Raoul Walsh and Fred Coby, does his scenes like an aggressive hornet. Jimmy’s warped, but slick, and has a plan for evading arrest for murders committed during a train robbery, which goes awry when an equally slick T-man manages to join the gang. In Warners’ “White Heat,” Jimmy’s a ruthless gang leader with a progressive brain disorder, who slaps Virginia Mayo around with relish, and leaves a member of his gang to die as casually as a rubbish man discards his day’s haul. The king of the tough boys is back, the killer with the coldest eye and the itchiest trigger finger in the Hollywood homicide racket, James Cagney. Cagney is terrifically chilling, Virginia Mayo, as his mercenary spouse is perfect, and Margaret Wycherly as the mother is great. O’Brien amasses all the necessary evidence but when Cagney learns that he’s a T-Man, you start wondering how nerve-wracking can situations be. The death of his mother causes Cagney to go berserk. Wise to his game, the T-Men plant agent Edmond O’Brien in Cagney’s cell as a brother convict. If caught, Cagney faces a murder charge, so he confesses to a small crime committed hundreds of miles away and at the same time the train hold-up was pulled. After Cagney and his gang hold up a train and make off with 300,000 in currency, their perfect crime starts falling apart when the Treasury men find a dead man and tie him to the robbery and Cagney’s mob. Movie Review - White Heat (Modern Screen, 1948)īrutal melodrama starring James Cagney as a homicidal psychopath with a mother fixation.Ī gang leader and murderer of long standing, Cagney’s only decent feelings are for his mother, Margaret Wycherly, who has aided and abetted his crime career. ![]()
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