White heat

The searing classic featuring the last great gangster performance by the legendary James Cagney. In 1931, Cagney stunned audiences with his portrayal of a no-good street punk in “Public Enemy” and helped define the screens’ image of underworld thugs. In “White Heat” he expands that image with a blistering performance as psychotic gangland kingpin Cody Jarrett. Devoted to his hard boiled Ma and possessed of an itchy trigger finger, Jarrett is a study of unequalled ferocity, a walking timebomb who robs, tortures and kills without conscience. When he is finally captured, Jarrett escapes a murder rap by doing time for a lesser crime. Still, “The Big House” cannot hold him and he escapes into one of the most famous finales of movie history. Driven by Raoul Walsh’s keen direction and Cagney’s vivid, hypnotic characterisation, “White Heat” won Life Magazine’s kudos as a wild and exciting picture of mayhem and madness.