White Heat

White Heat was the triumphant return of James Cagney to the genre of gangster movies. Quite what prompted this move by Cagney I can't say without a little bit of research. I've read a biography or two about him but I can't recall the actual reasons. What I do know is that he wasn't a great fan of these type of films, and was more inclined to more family fare and especially a bit of song and dance. However the public is a beast with an insatiable appetite and they tend to get what they want. So I'm guessing a number of years of basic public indifference persuaded Cagney back into the type of the role that he is still best remembered for today - the hard nut gangster. Although he adds a new dimension in White Heat as his character, Cody Jarrett, isn't just a gangster. Prohibition has ended and WW2 has played out and Jarrett is a vocational thief . With a (possibly first?) mother fixation and a psychotic personality it's easy to see how the audiences arrived in their droves to see this new brutalised version of the pre-war gangster movies. And today it is still brutal. Obviously not 'Joe Pesci' brutal by today's standards but it leaves no room for guessing why it caused waves on it's release.