Toward the end of WHITE HEAT, mama's boy + psychopath Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) makes one one of the great - and most explosive - exits in all of film noirdom. One of the great exit lines, too: 'TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!" This rapid-paced prison breakout movie is basically a B movie with a couple of great A movie performances by Cagney and the underrated Virginia Mayo. Watch for “Ouch!” scene when Cagney kicks the chair she's perched on right out from under her - and another, when he empties his rod to ventilate both a car trunk and the hoodlum locked inside, while munching on a fried chicken leg.
WHITE HEAT (1949)
Cagney goes out in a blaze
Toward the end of WHITE HEAT, mama's boy + psychopath Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) makes one one of the great - and most explosive - exits in all of film noirdom. One of the great exit lines, too: 'TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!" This rapid-paced prison breakout movie is basically a B movie with a couple of great A movie performances by Cagney and the underrated Virginia Mayo. Watch for “Ouch!” scene when Cagney kicks the chair she's perched on right out from under her - and another, when he empties his rod to ventilate both a car trunk and the hoodlum locked inside, while munching on a fried chicken leg.
