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White Heat

White Heat is a 1949 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Edmond O'Brien.

For other uses, see White Heat (disambiguation).

White Heat

White Heat by Virginia Kellogg

  • September 2, 1949 (1949-09-02)

114 minutes

United States

English

$1 million[1] or $1,300,000[2]

$1.9 million[3] or $3,483,000[2]

Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, White Heat is based on a story by Virginia Kellogg, and is considered to be one of the best gangster movies of all time.[4][5][6][7] In 2003, it was added to the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress.[8][9]

as Arthur "Cody" Jarrett[10][11]

James Cagney

as Verna Jarrett[10][11]

Virginia Mayo

as Hank Fallon, alias Vic Pardo[10][12]

Edmond O'Brien

as "Ma" Jarrett[10][11]

Margaret Wycherly

as "Big Ed" Somers[10][12]

Steve Cochran

as Philip Evans

John Archer

as Giovanni "Cotton" Valletti

Wally Cassell

as Daniel "The Trader" Winston

Fred Clark

Uncredited:

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $2,189,000 domestically and $1,294,000 foreign.[2]

Critical response[edit]

Critical reaction to the film was positive, and today it is considered a classic. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "the acme of the gangster-prison film" and praised its "thermal intensity".[20]

In 2005, White Heat was listed in Time magazine's top 100 films of all time.[22] On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 80 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.50/10. The site's consensus reads: "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".[23]

Awards and nominations[edit]

In 1950, Virginia Kellogg was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story.[24] Also that year writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture, by the Mystery Writers of America.[25] In 2003, the United States Library of Congress selected White Heat for preservation in the National Film Registry.[26]


On June 4, 2003, the American Film Institute named Cody Jarrett in its list of the best heroes and villains of the past 100 years, he was voted 26th.[27] Furthermore, in June 2005, "Made it, Ma! Top of the World!" was voted 18th in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes;[28] while, in June 2008, White Heat was voted 4th in AFI's 10 Top 10 list of gangster movies.[29]

Legacy[edit]

Scenes of the film are featured in the 1992 crime-drama film Juice as well as the 1982 Hart to Hart episode "Hart and Sole." In the noir parody Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Steve Martin acts in scenes with Cagney's character through special effects and cross-cutting.


The "Made it ma! Top of the world" line is used in the 1991 film Ricochet, in which Denzel Washington recites the quote in the final scene atop a tower. A variation of the quote—"Top of the world, ma!"—appears in the 1986 movie Tough Guys during a scene in which Eli Wallach shoots at cops from a train; the same variation is used in the 1990 film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane by Andrew Dice Clay when he escapes kidnappers and discovers that he is atop the Capitol Records Building. It has also been quoted in a fifth-season episode of Cheers, a second-season episode of Breaking Bad and the series finale of Mixels. The line is also quoted in the Kings of the Sun song "Drop the Gun".


The film has inspired songs such as Madonna's "White Heat" on True Blue; the song was also dedicated to Cagney.[30] Sam Baker's "White Heat" references the plot and dialogue on his 2013 album Say Grace.[31]


The "Made it ma! Top of the world" line also was used in the opening of 50 Cent and PnB Rock's "Crazy" song.

essay by Marilyn Ann Moss at the National Film Registry

"White Heat"

at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

White Heat

at IMDb

White Heat

at AllMovie

White Heat

at the TCM Movie Database

White Heat

at Rotten Tomatoes

White Heat