Movies We Like: ‘White Heat’ (1949)

Acting’s in the eyes and regardless of the role Jimmy Cagney’s eyes always screamed “caged.” Whether playing George M. Cohan or some middle-aged Coca-Cola executive, watching Cagney is like watching the lit fuse of a firecracker and whether it was with an explosion of song, dance or violence, Cagney never disappointed — he went off. In “White Heat,” director Raoul Walsh’s magnificent closing chapter in a magnificent two-decade series of Warner Brothers’ gangster pictures, Cagney again explodes …only this time, literally.

Jimmy Cagney in the early 1930s

Produced in 1949, within just a few minutes “White Heat” announces itself as something unlike anything that came before starting with the introduction of Verna Jarrett (29 year old Virginia Mayo), a striking, almost regal beauty shown fast asleep in a close up. Walsh immediately knocks the bark off his perfectly groomed leading lady by having her snore like a sailor after a three day bender. The message is clear: don’t believe everything you see. In just a few more minutes things will move even further beyond normal and straight into disturbing.   (more…)

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Tags: Cody Jarrett, Edmond O'Brien, gangster, James Cagney, Jimmy Cagney
Posted Aug 26th 2009 at 9:10 am in Reviews, Today's Pick | 21178638 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/08/26/movies-we-like-white-heat-1949/Movies+We+Like%3A+%27White+Heat%27+%281949%292009-08-26+16%3A10%3A46John+Nolte

Hollywood Unveiled: John Wayne Walks Like a Girl

John Wayne walks the walk in Hondo, 1953.

It’s in the walk.

Think of Mae West, hands caressing her Rubenesque hips, head tilted, not just sauntering, but oozing forward, the exaggerated female.

Elbows cocked and angled at his hips, moving with concentrated energy, Jimmy Cagney looks like a coiled spring about to explode.

Joan Crawford, leading with her linebacker shoulders, like a tank on the battlefield, determined, dangerous, unstoppable. (more…)

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Tags: Andy Hardy, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Harry Carey, henry fonda
Posted Jun 9th 2009 at 6:42 am in Celebrity News | 153810One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ravrech/2009/06/09/hollywood-unveiled-john-wayne-walks-like-a-girl/Hollywood+Unveiled%3A+John+Wayne+Walks+Like+a+Girl2009-06-09+13%3A42%3A35Robert+J.+Avrech

Mae Clarke: Gangster, Grapefruit and Forty-One Seconds to Screen Immortality

Jimmy Cagney smashes a grapefruit in Mae Clarke’s face, The Public Enemy, 1931.

Most actors are remembered for their unique personae. Clark Gable was a man’s man. The humorous gleam in his eye sent daggers to the knees of women everywhere. Bette Davis practically cornered the market on the deeply neurotic woman clawing at the boundaries of love with Baroque fury. Gary Cooper was the classic taciturn American, a solid, self-confident Yankee who spoke eloquently through his silences. Marilyn Monroe is still the paradigm of the woman as vulnerable child waiting to be rescued by a knight in shining armor.

Of course Fay Wray, who played in over eighty motion pictures, is only remembered for her role in King Kong. Thus she is, for better or for worse, the shrieking woman, for all time.

Less common is the actor who is identified and remembered for a single brief scene. (more…)

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Tags: Jimmy Cagney, Mae Clarke, the public enemy, Waterloo Bridge, william wellman
Posted May 19th 2009 at 6:39 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment | 1350264 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ravrech/2009/05/19/mae-clarke-gangster-grapefruit-and-forty-one-seconds-to-screen-immortality/Mae+Clarke%3A+Gangster%2C+Grapefruit+and+Forty-One+Seconds+to+Screen+Immortality2009-05-19+13%3A39%3A50Robert+J.+Avrech