The Great Cody Jarrett

One of the more intense Jimmy Cagney movies is one called White Heat. Released in 1949, this gangster-crime drama has significantly more depth than several of the earlier Warner Brothers movies Cagney made in the 1930's. Likely, this probably had much to do with the maturation of audience sensibilities toward violence following World War II. White Heat portrays characters with more emotional depth, better dialog, and here's the shocker: a plot. Indeed, the greatness of this movie is found in the unexpected turns, the character dynamics that reveal the complexities of the human conscience, and the suspense that builds throughout. As great as some of the pictures of the 1930's were, after a while the viewer began to come away with the idea that the characters were more cartoonish or caricatures - two dimensional at best (sadly, many modern offerings from Hollywood are still this way). Cagney's Cody Jarrett is far from two-dimensional. Cody Jarrett is a bona-fide bad guy, ultra paranoid and sporadically psychotic, and in every way the proverbial "momma's boy." But as tribute to the genre, Jarrett fights to the end, and goes down in a "blaze" of glory.

Not long ago, Big Hollywood posted an article about this movie. If you don't mind spoilers, have a read. Video clips included.

Without question, Cody Jarrett is one of my favorite bad-guy characters. White Heat is a good story, and a great movie.

"I made it, Ma! Top of the world!"