NFR Project: 'White Heat' (1949)

 

NFR Project: “White Heat”

Dir: Raoul Walsh

Scr: Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts

Pho: Sidney Hickox

Ed: Owen Marks

Premiere: Sept. 2, 1949

114 min.

James Cagney was looking for a hit. After he won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1942, he left Warner Brothers, went off on his own and tried to make his own movies independently. He failed. So back he went to Warner Brothers, signing up to make more movies for the studio he had originally rejected.

The studio was eager for him to make a gangster film. Cagney resisted, as he thought he was being overidentified with the genre. However, he overcame his reluctance and made White Heat, one of the most iconic of all crime films.

It’s a bifurcated story. One half of it is about the modern police’s enhanced abilities and procedures that allow them to track down and neutralize bad guys; the other half is about Cody Jarrett. Cagney is Jarrett, in a towering performance of psychotic intensity.

Jarrett is a bank robber, ruthless and insane, unconcerned with his casual murders. He is unnaturally attached to his criminal “Ma” (Margaret Wycherly), who both lives for him and controls him. He suffers from spells of burning headaches that torment him; only Ma can soothe them away. Together, they seek to live large (“top of the world,” she tells him) He leads a gang that includes his wife Verna (Virginia Mayo) and right-hand man “Big Ed” (Steve Cochran).

Cody is almost nabbed for a train robbery, but pleads to a lesser (false) charge, so that he is sentenced to only two years in prison. A Treasury agent places an undercover man, Fallon (Edmond O’Brien) in prison, assigning him to befriend Cody.

Verna and Big Ed are playing around behind Cody’s back. Big Ed tries unsuccessfully to have Cody killed in prison. In an iconic scene in the prison mess, Jarrett finds out that Ma is dead. (Look closely in this scene for the great Native American athlete, Jim Thorpe.) He goes berserk, slugging guards and writhing frantically as he is carted away.

He vows to escape, and does with Fallon in tow. Returning home, he kills Big Ed and the inmate who tried to kill him. Soon the gang has another robbery in mind – the payroll department of a big chemical plant. Using a gas truck like a Trojan horse, the gang enters the plant and begins to crack the safe. Fallon is recognized, but escapes. Surrounded, the gang is rubbed out one by one. Jarrett climbs to the top of an enormous storage tank and fires into it. It bursts into flame. Shouting “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” Jarrett exults and is blown to smithereens.

Cagney was 49 when he made White Heat; his youthful good looks were leaving him and he was making the transition to character roles. His decision to play an utterly despicable character was unique, but it worked. Jarrett is a complex of violent impulses, barely capable of getting through the day without killing someone. It’s a brilliant portrayal of a criminal as a mentally damaged individual.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Bohulano family film collection.

NFR Project: 'Twelve O'Clock High' (1949)

 

NFR Project: “Twelve O’Clock High”

Dir: Henry King

Scr: Henry King, Sy Bartlett, Beirne Lay Jr.

Pho: Leon Shamroy

Ed: Barbara McLean

Premiere: Dec. 21, 1949

132 min.

American war movies made during World War II were pure propaganda – gung-ho adventure stories in which the bad guys, the Nazis and the “Japs,” always lost. There was no shading, no questioning of the effort. It took a few years for more nuanced examinations of the conflict to appear on film.

One of the best is Twelve O’Clock High. It’s the fact-based story of an American bomber group in England in 1942. At that time, they were the only part of the American fighting forces to do battle with Nazi Germany. In order to blunt the German war effort, they engaged in daylight bombing of enemy targets. The difficulty and danger of these sorties were magnified by the fact that Allied fighter planes at the time did not have the range that would allow them to protect the bombers. B-17s flew into enemy airspace guarded only by their own guns.

The pressure was intense, as the higher-ups called for “maximum effort” – an unrelenting schedule of bombing raids, day after day, despite losses and despite the fatigue of its crews. Twelve O’Clock High takes on the story of the imaginary 918^th Bomber Group. Its efficiency is questioned, and complaints center on the attitude of its commander, Col. Davenport (Gary Merrill). Major Gen. Pritchard (Millard Mitchell) decides to replace him with Brigadier Gen. Savage (Gregory Peck), a by-the-book man who takes the tough-love approach with his fliers.

He is assisted by the capable and thoughtful Group Adjutant, Major Stovall (Dean Jagger) and the group doctor, Major Kaiser (Paul Stewart). Savage reads the riot act to his men, demoting some and disciplining others. All the pilots request transfers.

Savage delays their requests while he struggles to earn their confidence. He finds himself moved by the efforts and attitudes of his airmen, and begins to unbend. The transfer requests are withdrawn.

The action takes place in and around the base; the film could be a stage play save for a long combat sequence late in the film, culled entirely from documentary footage.

Gradually, he begins to identify with his men. He becomes more and more concerned with their survival, as the missions become longer and more devastating to the attackers. Finally, Savage finds himself incapable of entering his airplane for a mission. Catatonic, he is returned to base while his men fly off without him. It’s only when they return safely that he snaps out of it and goes to sleep.

All this is bracketed by the post-war visit of Stovall to the old field – this is a memory play, his memory. We never learn what happened to Savage.

The movie is a textbook study of the management of men – in this case, men in battle. Despite the formalities and conventions of military life, the human factor bleeds through and engulfs even the hardest-hearted general. Peck is solid as Savage, and Jagger delivers a Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning performance as Stovall. Gary Merrill and Millard Mitchell, usually not seen in centra roles, do a great job in their performances. Hugh Marlow, in particular, makes am memorable impression as disgraced pilot Gately.

Vulnerable men try to do the impossible, and they largely succeed. But at what cost?

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: White Heat.

NFR Project: 'The Lead Shoes' (1949)

NFR Project: “The Lead Shoes”

Dir: Sidney Peterson

Premiere: 1949

17 min.

Uh, OK. An experimental film, shot in surrealist style. A young woman drags an empty diving suit around. Hopscotch is played in slow motion. Blood splatters from a loaf of bread. There is no attempt to make sense of things. This film is an exercise in non-narrative cinema. As such, I guess that it is successful – on its terms. For me, it is merely a self-indulgent curio.

 

 

 

 

 

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Twelve O’Clock High.