White Heat Movie Review

White Heat (1949)

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Written by: Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts (screen play), Virginia Kellogg (suggested by a story by)
Directed by: Raoul Walsh
Starring: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
Rated: NR [PG]
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Plot
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.

Verdict
The problem with older movies is that their innovations have been copied and  improved or even run into the ground. For the time, I'm sure this was impressive. The shoot outs, car chases, and subterfuge have sincee all been bettered. For someone interested in the origins of action crime movies this is a fun footnote. Against modern day movies it just can't compare.
Skip it.

Review
Opening with a train robbery in broad daylight, Cody (James Cagney) leads his gang which includes his girlfriend and his mom. One of his crew is injured during the heist and subsequently left at a safe house. That alerts the police who begin tracking Cody and his crew. They're able to find him by following his mother which leads to a car chase. It's an underwhelming chase, but the cops get their guy, the daring criminal with mother issues.

Cody's clever plan is to plead guilty to a smaller crime which provides an alibi for the train heist. It works, but he does end up in prison where the police put undercover officer Fallon (Edmond O'Brien) with him to earn his trust and gather evidence. That's easy enough when Cody's old gang wants to tie up loose ends and attempts to kill him, led by his former lieutenant and girlfriend. That provides Fallon the chance to save Cody's life.

James Cagney plays Cody Jarrett

Cody escapes prison with Fallon helping to maintain the ruse. Soon enough Cody is staging his next heist while Fallon tries sending updates to the police without exposing his actual identity. Cody's next robbery involves hiding in an empty tanker truck to gain access to a chemical company for his next robbery. What he doesn't know is that the cops are on his trail due to Fallon.

This movie suffers from the typical problem with old movies. The novel ideas at the time have been reduced to standards or even tropes. The context of this movie is lost, especially when it's seventy-five years old. This predated the popularity of heist movies that would start in the following decade. I'm sure this was good at the time, but it pales to even average current movies.