Trivia and Other Fun Stuff on WHITE HEAT

White Heat was not James Cagney's last gangster role but it is generally considered his most extreme and enjoyable performance as a trigger-happy criminal; he would again play mobsters in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) opposite Barbara Payton and Love Me or Leave Me (1955), which earned him an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor as the gangster boyfriend of real-life singer Ruth Etting (portrayed by Doris Day in the film). In the film Each Dawn I Die (1939), Cagney had a prison freakout scene that would help prepare him later for the even more emotional outburst he has in White Heat. Wrongly convicted and incarcerated, Cagney is driven by the brutal conditions of the prison to the point of hysterical nervous collapse. "I'm gonna get outta here if I have to kill every screw in the joint!" he screams at the warden.

Director Raoul Walsh was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which among other things gives out the annual Academy Awards®.

Cagney and Walsh made three other films together: The Roaring Twenties (1939), Strawberry Blonde (1941) and A Lion Is in the Streets (1953).

Cagney and Virginia Mayo followed their turn as the murderous married couple in White Heat with a very different kind of picture, the musical The West Point Story (1950).

"Tough guy" James Cagney's first job as an entertainer was as a female dancer in a chorus line.

Edmond O'Brien had been promised equal billing with Cagney, but at the last minute the studio decided against it. Since Cagney hadn't made many movies since leaving Warner Bros. in the early '40s, publicists thought if audiences saw "Cagney" and "O'Brien" billed together, they would assume it was a reissue of one of the six movies Cagney made with Pat O'Brien between 1934 and 1940 and avoid the film. Cagney and Pat O'Brien made one final film together many years later ­ Ragtime (1981).

Screenplay authors Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts remained writing partners for the rest of their careers, turning out scripts for such movies as Come Fill the Cup (1951), which also starred Cagney; the Clark Gable film Band of Angels (1957); and the thriller Midnight Lace (1960), with Doris Day. The two were also the writers/producers responsible for the crime-oriented TV series Mannix, Charlie's Angels and Nero Wolfe.

Margaret Wycherly (Ma Jarrett) presented a very different (and far more traditional and heart-warming) image of motherly love opposite Gary Cooper in Sergeant York (1941).

Supporting player John Archer (federal agent Philip Evans) was once married to actress Marjorie Lord, who appeared opposite Cagney in Johnny Come Lately (1943). She is best known as Danny Thomas' wife on the TV series Make Room for Daddy (1957-1964). The couple's daughter is actress Anne Archer, who appeared in Fatal Attraction (1987), Patriot Games (1992) and Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993).

By Rob Nixon

Famous Quotes from WHITE HEAT

Cody Jarrett: Stuffy, huh? I'll give it some air. (Cody talking to man in trunk as he prepares to shoot holes in the car).

Cody Jarrett: A copper, a copper, how do you like that boys? A copper and his name is Fallon. And we went for it, I went for it. Treated him like a kid brother. And I was gonna split fifty-fifty with a copper!

Cody Jarrett: Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Verna Jarrett: Always "somebody tipped them off." Never "the cops are smart." (Verna making a reference to Cody's paranoid nature).

Cody Jarrett: You know something, Verna, if I turn my back for long enough for Big Ed to put a hole in it, there'd be a hole in it.

Verna Jarrett: I'd look good in a mink coat, honey.
Cody Jarrett: You'd look good in a shower curtain.

Hank Fallon: You put it on a pole, wind a spool of silk thread around it, and you hold the pole over the water. Then you sit under a nice shady tree and relax. After a while, a hungry fish comes along, takes a nip at your hook, and you've got dinner. For the next two weeks, I'm not gonna think about anything except the eternal struggle between man and the fish...

Engineer: What's this, a hold-up?
Cody Jarrett: Naw, naw, you're seven minutes late. We're just changin' engineers.

Zuckie Hommell: Sounds bad, Cody.
Cody Jarrett: Why don't you give 'em my address too...
Gas Station Attendant: Wise guys, didn't even buy gas.

Roy Parker: You wouldn't kill me in cold blood, would ya?
Cody Jarrett: No, I'll let ya warm up a little.

Cody Jarrett: If that battery's dead, it will have company!
Reader: That's a phone call that will cost more than a nickel!
Cody Jarrett: Next time bring the gun.