Raoul Walsh directed a "White heat" written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien are starring in this crime drama that tells a story about a psychopathic criminal devoted to his "Ma" who was leading his gang from prison. Since there is someone who wants to take over the gang, he is doing everything to make an "accident" happen to Cody, the violent, eccentric leader. After, believe it or not, being saved by undercover cop, Cody becomes friend with him and infiltrates him in his gang. The unusual storyline gets into weird plot twists, and builds up the tension till the end of the movie.
Verna Jarret was playing the "Ma", Cody was so devoted to, while Cody was James Cagney. His true character is described in one of his sentences "To me, you're a face and a number, and let's keep it that way" which shows how much he didn't care about anyone but his mom.
The film was released in September, 1949 and an interesting detail about making the scene of "the telephone game" is that no one actually knew what was Cagney going to do. That is why all those surprised faces looked so real- because they were real. He just said to the director to keep filming, no matter what.
The close relationship between Cody and his mother was inspired by real people and events.
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