History Film / WhiteHeat

* AlasPoorVillain: After Cody's DyingMomentOfAwesome, Fallon closes the film with a ironic, yet somber, note.

* GetIntoJailFree: Hank Fallon does this regularly, and in the movie does it to gain the confidence of Cody Jarrett.

* IncrediblyObviousTail: The cops following Ma Jarrett aren't that subtle, but as they are co-ordinating their movements, she has a hard time shaking them.

* InTheBlood: Cody's father died in an insane asylum, and his brother also lost his grip on sanity at the end of his life.
* TheInfiltration: Hank Fallon, posing as inmate "Vic Pardo" and joining Cody's gang.

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Ma Jarrett is described as the "prop" that holds Cody up. Fallon sets himself up as her replacement to gain Cody's trust and keep him from going off the deep end.

* ChekhovsGun: The radio tracking device, and the mention that with the knowhow you could build one out of a regular off-the-shelf radio.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Verna.

* DivingSave: Fallon shoves Cody out of the way when another inmate tries to drop a heavy piece of machinery on him in the prison workshop.

* FamousLastWords: See above.

* InTheBack: Verna shoots Ma this way, then lies to Cody, saying Big Ed did it. As a way of poetic justice, he then deliberately does the same to Ed. Cody later does this to a bad guy who tries to surrender to the cops.
* InTheBlood: Cody's father died in an insane asylum.
* IncrediblyObviousTail: The cops following Ma Jarrett aren't that subtle.

* ReadingLips: An older inmate who's gone partially deaf is used by Cody to spy on other prisoners' conversations.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: When Cody and his last {{Mook}} are surrounded by the cops, the Mook tries to come out and surrender. Cody shoots him.

* MyBelovedSmother: Ma Jarrett is completely devoted to Cody.

* SignatureLine: The page quote.

* ChekovsGun: The radio tracking device, and the mention that with the knowhow you could build one out of a regular off-the-shelf radio.

* RasputinianDeath: The climax has Cody shot three times by Hank with a sniper rifle, yet he continues to struggle, much to Hank's astonishment. Cody finally dies once he blows himself and the chemical plant up.

* RasputinianDeath: The climax has Cody shot three times by Hank with a sniper rifle, yet he continues to struggle, much to Hank's astonishment. Cody first dies as he blows himself and the chemical plant up.

''White Heat'' is a 1949 Creator/WarnerBros FilmNoir directed by Creator/RaoulWalsh and starring Creator/JamesCagney. Cagney is Cody Jarrett, the violent and emotionally unstable gang leader who [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas still has a soft spot for his Ma.]] After pulling off a train heist, he gets arrested and convicted for a robbery he didn't commit (as part of an alibi he'd previously arranged). Waiting in prison until the heat is off, he's worried about Big Ed, his second-in-command, taking control of his gang and his (unfaithful) wife. When he hears Ed has killed his mom, an enraged Cody busts out, determined to rub out Ed and regain control of the gang.

What he doesn't know, though, is that a trusted fellow con who escaped with him is really [[TheMole an undercover cop.]] It all comes to a spectacular finish during another heist, where Cody makes it to the top of the world...

''White Heat'' is a 1949 Creator/WarnerBros FilmNoir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Creator/JamesCagney. Cagney is Cody Jarrett, the violent and emotionally unstable gang leader who [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas still has a soft spot for his Ma.]] After pulling off a train heist, he gets arrested and convicted for a robbery he didn't commit (as part of an alibi he'd previously arranged). Waiting in prison until the heat is off, he's worried about Big Ed, his second-in-command, taking control of his gang and his (unfaithful) wife. When he hears Ed has killed his mom, an enraged Cody busts out, determined to rub out Ed and regain control of the gang.

* AssholeVictim: Big Ed

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Rather than surrendering to the police, Cody chooses to blow himself and the chemical plant up, triumphantly shouting "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" as he does so.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome

* AwardSnub: Seriously, Cagney didn't even get ''nominated'' for Best Actor that year?
* AwesomeMusic: The score is one of MaxSteiner's best.

* BeamMeUpScotty: The page quote is often misheard as "Top of the world, Ma!"

* EnforcedMethodActing: The extras in the scene where Jarrett goes ape after being informed of his mother's death were not told of how far Cagney would go. Their surprise was real.
** Virginia Mayo, who played Verna, revealed in an interview that Cagney was hiding in a different spot than where she had been told he would be during the scene when they are reunited after he's been in prison. He then deliberately missed his cue, causing her shock and fear to be real. She said for a few seconds, she was actually afraid he was going to kill her.

* ThrowItIn: In the scene where Cody has his VillainousBreakdown, he had the two biggest extras seated on both sides of him and had the camera follow him no matter what.

* AwesomeMusic: The score by MaxSteiner.

* TrojanHorse: The gas truck Cody's gang rides into the chemical plant. It's even lampshaded.

-->'''Cody:''' They think they've got Cody Jarrett. They haven't got Cody Jarrett, you hear? They haven't got him. And I wanna ''show'' you they haven't got him.

* TalkingToTheDead: Cody addresses Ma this way after her death.