X
- 1949
- Approved
- 1 h 54 m
- 1949
- Approved
- 1 h 54 m
Summary A 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
- 1949
- Approved
- 1 h 54 m
- 1949
- Approved
- 1 h 54 m
White Heat
User Score
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Where to Watch
Summary A 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
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
89
100% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
89
100% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
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]
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.
Talk about your baby boys – Cagney takes the cake here as a psychopathic gangster with a seriously perverse mother complex. A gangster classic.
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]
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.
Raoul Walsh’s heroes had a knack for going too far, but none went further than James Cagney in this roaring 1949 gangster piece.
White Heat’s ultimate message: love’s a bitch…even crypto-incestuous love.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
National Film Preservation Board, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Edgar Allan Poe Awards
• 1 Nomination
