White Heat (1949).

White Heat(1949). Film Noir. Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly and Steve Cochran. Directed by Raoul Walsh from the Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts screenplay based on a story by Virginia Kellogg.

While Cody Jarrett and his ruthless gang robs a train, Cody kills the engineers and as one of them falls, it hits a steam valve, scalding bad guy, Zuckie Hommell.



 Along with Cody's mother and his wife Verna, the gang hides out in the mountains. Ma, is the only one who knows what to do to help him though his migraine headaches. She also helps him fight off Big Ed Somers, who wants to take over the gang and get Verna for himself.

During a thunderstorm, Cody decides to leave the hideout with his gang. He tells Zuchie that he will send a doctor back to take care of him, but.. orders Cotton Valleti to kill him. Instead Cotton, pretends to kill him and leaves a pack of cigarettes behind.

After Zuckie's body, is found along with Cotton's prints on the cigarettes, the Treasury Department has enough evidence to link the train robbery to Cody's gang. Agent Philip Evans and his men come close to catching Cody, but.. thanks to Ma, the gang escapes.

Cody, comes up with an alibi for the murderous train robbery, by confessing to a smaller robbery in Illinois that took place at the same time. Evans, knows that Cody is lying, but.. cannot prove it. He sends undercover agent Hank Fallon. Under the name Vic Pardo, Hank to jail, where he plans to befriend Cody.

Meanwhile.. Big Ed, takes over the gang.

At the prison, Hank saves Cody's life when Roy Parker, one of Big Ed's thugs, try to kill him. After Ma hears about the attack, she promises Cody that she will take care of Big Ed. Back in his cell Cody, has one of his headaches and Hank helps Cody, the way his mother did. Later that night, Cody shares his plans to escape. Hank, passes on the escape plans to an agent who is pretending to be his wife, but.. on the day of the planned escape, a newly arrived prisoner tells him that Ma is dead.

Cody, loses it in the prison mess hall and is taken to the dispensary. There, he uses a smuggled gun to take the doctor hostage and along with Hank, Parker and two other in-mates, makes his escape. Outside, Cody kills Parker and then heads for Bakersfield to avenge Ma's death.

Even though it was Verna, who killed Ma, she tells Cody that Big Ed shot her in the back. Cody kills Big Ed and then joins the rest of the gang. Cody, plans to rob a payroll by sneaking the gang into a company inside an oil tanker. Will Hank, be able to tip off the police in time, before any one else is hurt?.

Fun Facts:

If the surprise expressed by James Cagney's fellow inmates during "the telephone game" scene in the prison dining room appears real, it's because it is. Director Raoul Walsh didn't tell the rest of the cast what was about to happen, so Cagney's outburst caught them by surprise. In fact, Walsh himself didn't know what Cagney had planned; the scene as written wasn't working, and Cagney had an idea. He told Walsh to put the two biggest extras playing cons in the mess-hall next to him on the bench (he used their shoulders to boost himself onto the table) and to keep the cameras rolling no matter what.

The unusually close relationship between Cody Jarrett and his domineering mother was inspired by real life bank robbers Kate Barker (aka "Ma Barker") and her sons.

I' m not really a James Cagney fan but, I did enjoy him in this film His character, Cody Jarrett, is one of the best classic movie bad guys you will find on film. Cagney's wife, is played very well, by one of my favorite actress Virginia Mayo. The final scene of White Heat, is one you will not soon forget.

Margaret Wycherly (26 October 1881 – 6 June 1956), was primarily a stage actress, appearing in one silent film. In 1929 at the advent of sound pictures she appeared in her second film, but first talkie, The Thirteenth Chair, based on the 1916 play by her husband in which she had starred. The film was directed by Tod Browning and was in the genre of mystery-old house melodrama.

Twelve years later, Wycherley appeared in Sergeant York in 1941. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role of Mother York, though perhaps her best remembered screen role was as "Ma Jarrett", the mother of the psychopathic gangster Cody Jarrett, in White Heat (1949), which famously starred James Cagney.

Wycherly starred in several popular Broadway plays, including Tobacco Road, Random Harvest, Liliom, Six Characters in Search of an Author and The Thirteenth Chair (which role she reprised in the film of the same name). Her other films include Keeper of the Flame, The Yearling, Forever Amber, The Man with a Cloak and Johnny Angel starring George Raft.

From the Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5: Backfire(1950).

Backfire(1950). Noir. Cast: Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Edmond O'Brien and Viveca Lindfors.

This movie mystery is told in flashbacks: About a returning serviceman in a VA hospital recovering from a spinal injury. During his recovery he falls in love with his nurse and begins to make plans with his friend Steve to buy a ranch together.

While still in the VA hospital, Bob begins to have nightmares that his friend Steve is in danger. Late one night, he’s visited by Steve’s girlfriend, who tells him that .. Steve, is badly injured. Bob falls asleep before he can find out more. (The blurred vision give a hallucinatory quality to the scene).

After Bob, is released from the hospital he has plans to spend a romantic weekend with Mayo. Their weekend plans come to an end when he’s picked up by cops and taken to the homicide division. There he’s told that his best friend is the main suspect in the killing of a well known gambler. Bob, wants to help his friend clear his name.

I really enjoyed seeing MacRae in a film noir. I mostly know him from his performances in musicals. There are plenty of flavorful character actors in supporting roles. I thought the film was suspenseful and very entertaining.

Dane Clark (February 26, 1912 – September 11, 1998) was an film actor who was known for playing the "Joe Average" character.

He graduated from Cornell University and earned a law degree at St. John's University School of Law in Queens, New York.

During the Great Depression, he worked as a boxer, baseball player, construction worker and model.

Clark got his big break when he was signed by Warner Bros. in 1943.

He performed in war movies: Action in the North Atlantic (1943), his breakthrough part, opposite Humphrey Bogart, Destination Tokyo (1943) with Cary Grant, and Pride of   the Marines (1945) with friend John Garfield. According to Clark, Bogart gave him his stage name.

Viveca Lindfors (29 December 1920 – 25 October 1995), was a Swedish stage and film actress.

She trained at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School, Stockholm. Soon after, she became a theater and film star in Sweden.

She moved to the United States in 1946 after being signed by Warner Bros. She appeared in more than one hundred films such as: Night Unto Night, No Sad Songs for Me, Dark City, King of Kings, Creepshow and Stargate.

In the last years of her life, she taught acting at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Happy Birthday: Virginia Mayo!

Virginia Mayo (November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005). Best known for the films: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and White Heat (1949).

After Mayo signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn she performed in several of Goldwyn's movies. With Danny Kaye in the films, Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).


Mayo was known as a "voluptuous beauty". It was said that she "looked like a pinup painting come to life," and she played just such a role in the film comedy, The Girl from Jones Beach (1949).

In 1949's White Heat she took on the role as the treacherous "Verna Jarrett", opposite James Cagney. She was also cast against type as a gold digger in, The Best Years of Our Lives. Her film career continued through the 1950s and 1960s, frequently in B-movie westerns and adventure films. While she also appeared in musicals, Mayo's singing voice was always dubbed.

Virginia and her husband, actor Michael O'Shea (of Jack London film fame) co-starred in the film, Tunnel of Love, Fiorello, and George Washington Slept Here. She has also starred in Cactus Flower, How the Other Half Loves, and the musical comedy, Good News.

Great Dramas this month on Noir and Chick Flicks - The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)

I mentioned to Dawn that we would concentrate on dramas during this month here on Noir and Chick Flicks. She agreed and I figured we would focus on some of the classic great dramas of all time. Dramas that focused on family life, married life, dramas dealing with important issues such as race, women's rights, medical dramas, prison dramas, etc. We could go on and on. But since November is a time of being thankful, I wanted to showcase some dramas that are very emotional and tug at the heart and make you think. So I hope everyone will enjoy this month here on Noir & Chick Flicks. And I decided to kick things off with the 1946 classic film The Best Years of Our Lives, which I recently wrote about on my blog, All Good Things.

This is one of my favorite films of all time, sitting right there nestled in my top 10. The story in this film centers on three returning WW Two veterans after the war has ended. Frederic March is Al Stephenson, who returns to his loving wife Milly (a magnificent performance by Myrna Loy), his two children Peggy (a terrific Teresa Wright) and Rob (Michael Hall). Al returns to an influential banking position, but finds it hard to reconcile his loyalties to ex-servicemen with new commercial realities. He has several scenes where he copes by drinking heavily. Dana Andrews is Fred Derry, an ordinary working man who finds it difficult to hold down a job or pick up the threads of his marriage with Virginia Mayo. He ends up falling for Peggy, and Peggy lets her mom know that she doesn't mind busting up the marriage to be with Fred. I was like, heck yeah, go for it Peggy. That's when I fell in love with Teresa Wright at that exact moment. And the last soldier is Homer Parrish (played by real life amputee Harold Russell) who unsure that his fiancée's (Cathy O'Donnell) feelings are still those of love and not those of pity. Each of these three men face a different crisis in their lives and try to cope and come through it emotionally sound. This movie is awesome. I can't find any faults with it. From the top notch cast to the expert direction by William Wyler to the epic music score by Hugo Friedhofer and the gorgeous cinematography by Gregg Toland. The Best Years of Our Lives is one of the best films ever made.

Facts about the film:

In 1946 this became the most successful film at the box office since Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released 7 years earlier.


For his performance as Homer Parrish, Harold Russell became the only actor to win two Academy Awards for the same role.


Myrna Loy receives top billing as she was the most successful female star at the time.

William Wyler, who served as a major in the Army Air Force during World War II, incorporated his own wartime experiences into The Best Years of Our Lives. Just as Fred Derry did in the movie, Wyler flew in B-17s in combat over Germany, although rather than being a bombardier, as Derry was, he filmed footage for documentary films. Additionally, Wyler modeled the reunion of Al and Milly, in which they first see each other at opposite ends of a long hallway, on his own homecoming to his wife, Talli.


This is the first film role for which Cathy O'Donnell, in the role of Wilma Cameron, receives screen credit. Her film debut was in Wonder Man (1945) as an uncredited extra in a nightclub scene.


In 1946 this became the most successful film at the box office since Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released 7 years earlier.


In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #37 Greatest Movie of All Time.