Runtime: 114 minutes
Directed by: Raoul Walsh
Starring: James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo, Margaret Wycherly, Steve Cochran
From: Warner Bros.
Made it ma! Top of the world!
Last night was finally the night for me to view this motion picture and have it be discussed here now. What a return to Warner Brothers it was for Cagney; he had an acrimonious relationship w/ the studio back in the 30's but after flopping when he tried to produce some movies on his own in the 40's, he really needed the paycheck. From such circumstances came an effort that echoed the gangster movies he did earlier in the career but this was even better than those.
From the very beginning it has your undivided attention as an epic heist is done on a mail train carrying a huge amount of cash. Not only is Cody Jarrett mentally unstable and his psyche is not helped by his occasional migraine headaches, he is fanatically devoted to his Ma, who accompanies him on his crime sprees. In a pinch he takes a false rap to create a false alibi but an undercover cop is planted to nail him on the heist. From there comes an even bigger event that closes the film and it is a thing of legend.
What a cornucopia of characters: Cody, Ma, his put-on wife, all of his lackeys, a guy in prison who is hard of hearing but is an expert at lip reading, associates that wish to take charge of the gang by having Jarrett killed in prison, etc. Not only was it fascinating seeing all these people interact with each other and try to outwit their opposition, not a moment was wasted in the script; the almost two hours flew by. To be perfectly honest, movies set in prison or have long stretches in that setting aren't always to my tastes-among other things, that can be incredibly rote & cliché. However, that was no issue here.
It was a more than capable cast, no matter if I recognized the actors or not; for me, the most familiar names of the co-stars was Virginia Mayo and Edmond O'Brien. However, of course it was Cagney who shone brightest... it was the best I had ever seen him, which is no small feat. It was clear from this performance alone why he was so famous back in the day and still has plenty of fans among film aficionados today; he was simply a star and that transcends the time period he worked in. If you enjoy any or all of the following then this is a must-see: 1940's crime dramas w/ violence, film noir, undercover films, James Cagney, prison movies. It receives the highest possible rating from me because... well, pun intended it worked like gangbusters.
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