SummaryA psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Directed By:Raoul Walsh
Written By:Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts, Virginia Kellogg
White Heat
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
89
User score
Generally Favorable
7.8
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
100% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
In Raoul Walsh's potent portrayal of a criminal gang roving backroads America, Cagney permanently redefined psychopathic criminality in the movies. [22 May 2005, p.25]
100
White Heat is to the gangster genre what The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly was to Westerns: it took all the clichés, tropes and general violence of its genre and made it into art.
100
Talk about your baby boys – Cagney takes the cake here as a psychopathic gangster with a seriously perverse mother complex. A gangster classic.
90
What makes the famous 1949 Raoul Walsh gangster film White Heat a classic is its crackling tension that derives from Walsh's breakneck pace and the developing psychological complexity of James Cagney's Cody Jarrett. [21 Oct 1990, p.6]
83
Cagney's magnetism stems from his note-perfect combination of broad gestures and subtle shifts of posture, but the keen eyes of his directors are what make his gangster pictures classics.
80
Raoul Walsh’s heroes had a knack for going too far, but none went further than James Cagney in this roaring 1949 gangster piece.
63
White Heat’s ultimate message: love’s a bitch…even crypto-incestuous love.
User score
Generally Favorable
95% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Sep 4, 2024
8
One of James Cagney's last gangster roles is also his most fondly remembered, not to mention his best. Spoiled with an outstanding supporting cast, he cuts loose as the remorseless, cackling villain Cody Jarrett, a flawed mastermind with enough emotional baggage to fill a warehouse. The film's plot alternates from simple to involved and back again; a pair of rudimentary heist tales drive the action, while a whole slew of gripping tentacles tie every footnote and aside into the big picture in time for the explosive finale. White Heat also shows no reluctance about killing off major cast members. Perhaps because there are so damn many of them. Outside of the very first scene (a train robbery that doesn't exactly go according to plan) the plot is essentially one long, bad idea that slowly grows and unfolds into the inevitable climactic shootout. Easy to follow and to enjoy, it accepts no excuses from any perspective.
