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White Heat (1949)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 28
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 0

Raoul Walsh's crime drama goes further into the psychology of a gangster than most fear to tread and James Cagney's portrayal of the tragic anti-hero is constantly volatile.

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 0

Raoul Walsh's crime drama goes further into the psychology of a gangster than most fear to tread and James Cagney's portrayal of the tragic anti-hero is constantly volatile.

audience

93

liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 8,022

My Rating

Movie Info

In later years, James Cagney regarded White Heat with a combination of pride and regret; while satisfied with his own performance, he tended to dismiss the picture as a "cheap melodrama." Seen today, White Heat stands as one of the classic crime films of the 1940s, containing perhaps Cagney's best bad-guy portrayal. The star plays criminal mastermind Cody Jarrett, a mother-dominated psychotic who dreams of being on "top of the world." Inadvertently leaving clues behind after a railroad heist,

Jan 25, 2005

Cast

All Critics (28) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (31) | Rotten (0) | DVD (12)

Brilliantly directed by Raoul Walsh, an old master of cinema hoodlumism, it returns a more subtle James Cagney to the kind of thug role that made him famous.

April 27, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Cagney has an excellent supporting cast.

April 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Raoul Walsh's heroes had a knack for going too far, but none went further than James Cagney in this roaring 1949 gangster piece.

April 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The simple fact is that Mr. Cagney has made his return to a gangster role in one of the most explosive pictures that he or anyone has ever played.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Magnificent examination of the criminal mind and Cagney's finest moment.

April 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Cagney supercharges the entire film with frenetic energy.

October 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

Its archetypal influence on later films like Goodfellas and the Al Pacino Scarface is striking, even if we can never again experience how new and bold it was back in its day....

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

Part of the six-disc Warner Gangsters Collection, White Heat arrives on DVD struck from a print that's a real beauty. The image is nearly flawless, cleaner and truer by miles than any previous edition perhaps since its original theatrical run.

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

Despite chronology (deranged by the censor's influence on the studios), this is really the fitting climax of the '30s gangster movie.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Cagney, intenso como de hábito, cria um personagem que, apesar de sua óbvia instabilidade psicológica e de sua crueldade patológica, conquista o espectador com sua carência emocional.

November 22, 2005 Comment
Cinema em Cena

Raoul Walsh's Freudian film is one of the fastest and toughest crime-gangster films ever made, boasting a bravura performance from James Cagney as a misogynist mama boy ("top of the world, Ma").

August 14, 2005 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Film noir masterpiece, with brilliant direction and visual style

May 28, 2005 Full Review Source: Classic Film and Television | Comment
Classic Film and Television

Cagney gives an utterly ferocious performance, arguably his finest, as Cody Jarrett, a psychotic gangster with an unholy mother fixation.

March 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Walsh makes parts of it seem almost documentary in style when the script delves into police procedural work, but mostly the film is all Cagney, coming apart at the seams.

February 24, 2005 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

White Heat is vigorous and uncompromising. Cagney is all kinetic energy and raw nerve.

February 24, 2005 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

If you're looking for Cagney's best gangster role ever, you got it right here, on the top of the world.

February 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

If you were James Cagney's mother, would you have rubbed the back of his neck? I didn't think so.

February 4, 2005 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

White Heat's ultimate message: love's a *****...even crypto-incestuous love.

February 4, 2005 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Cagney's finest hour and one of the best gangster pictures ever made.

April 23, 2004 Comment
Flipside Movie Emporium
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for White Heat

Someone on IMDB called "White Heat" the bridge "between film noir and WB's classic gangster flicks", and I think it's a pretty apt description. It's the story of Cody Jarrett, psychotic gangster feared by everyone, and yet constantly looking over his shoulder as conspirators lie in wait at every turn (whether it be

November 28, 2011
Mr Awesome
First Last

Super Reviewer

My favourite gangster movie, Cagney is brilliant as the crazy mama's boy gang leader. The ending is classic. I love it.

September 5, 2010
ajv2688

Super Reviewer

    1. Arthur Cody Jarrett: Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

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