Tagged: James Cagney
White Heat: James Cagney’s Chalkstripe Suits and 1949 Mercury
James Cagney with Margaret Wycherly in White Heat (1949)
Vitals
James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son
Los Angeles, California and Springfield, Illinois, Fall 1949 to Spring 1950
Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Closing out Noirvmber but speeding into this winter’s Car Week, Raoul Walsh’s hard-boiled 1949 masterpiece White Heat erupts at the intersection of film noir and the classic Warner Brothers gangster film, which its star James Cagney had a hand in pioneering through his roles in The Public Enemy (1931), Angeles with Dirty Faces (1938), and The Roaring Twenties (1939). The latter had been his final criminal role for nearly a decade, as he evolved toward romantic and comedic roles including his Academy Award-winning performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
But as his subsequent movies were unsuccessful with audiences, Cagney reluctantly returned to both the cinematic underworld and Jack L. Warner’s kingdom when he signed on to play the volatile gang leader Cody Jarrett in White Heat. Virginia Kellogg’s story was loosely inspired by the myth surrounding the ill-fated “Ma” Barker and her sons during the Depression-era crime wave, purchased for $2,000 by Warner Bros., where Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts spent six months adapting into a fictional screenplay where—much to Jack Warner’s frustration—they only envisioned Cagney to play Cody.
Following a $300,000 mail train robbery in the Sierra Nevada mountains that left four crewmen dead, Cody leads his gang’s retreat from their mountain hideout, splitting off with his sultry wife Verna (Virginia Mayo) and domineering mother (Margaret Wycherly) to hole up in a motel on the outskirts of Los Angeles. We’ve already seen Ma’s powerful influence over her son, both supporting him when he has his mind-splitting migraines and gently suggesting that he execute a wounded gang member rather than take the chance he’ll talk.
When Ma risks a trip into town to buy Cody’s favorite strawberries for him, she picks up a police tail that has Cody again at the wheel of their Mercury to make their getaway. After a night-time police chase through the streets of L.A., Cody ducks the Mercury into a drive-in theater and develops his plan to take the fall for a hotel heist in Illinois that was the same day as their deadly train robbery, giving himself a 2,000-mile alibi:
While those hoodlums were killing those innocent people on the train, I was pushing in a hotel in Springfield! Couldn’t be in both places at once, could I?
Cagney’s Corduroy Jacket in White Heat
James Cagney in White Heat (1949)
Vitals
James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son
Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, Fall 1949
Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago this week, brothers Ray, Roy, and Hugh DeAutremont attempted to rob a Southern Pacific Railroad “San Francisco Express” as it sped through the Siskiyou Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Panicking when the heist didn’t go according to plan, the three brothers murdered four employees on the train and were forced to flee empty-handed. Famous forensic criminologist Edward Heinrich’s investigation eventually identified the DeAutremont brothers as the perpetrators, and the trio were captured after a four-year manhunt.
The “Siskiyou Massacre” of October 11, 1923 formed the basis for the opening scene in Raoul Walsh’s 1949 noir thriller White Heat, one of the great gangster movies of all time that returned James Cagney to the genre that made him famous. Continue reading
Cagney’s Chalkstripe Suit in The Public Enemy
James Cagney as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931)
Vitals
James Cagney as Tom Powers, dangerous gangster and bootlegger
Chicago, Spring 1922
Film: The Public Enemy
Release Date: April 23, 1931
Director: William A. Wellman
Costume Designer: Edward Stevenson
Wardrobe Credit: Earl Luick
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago at midnight tonight, on January 17, 1920, the Volstead Act went into effect, beginning a 13-year prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States… and kicking off what Herbert Asbury referred to in his informal history of the Chicago underworld as “the saturnalia of crime and corruption which has been called ‘a noble experiment’,” due to the resulting surge in organized crime that effectively gave rise to the modern gangster.
As moving pictures evolved as a popular medium in the waning years of Prohibition, so too did the gangster movie. Warner Brothers took the lead, exposing audiences to snarling violent hoodlums based on the real-life criminals who bloodied the streets of New York and Chicago. It was in the 1931 hit The Public Enemy that James Cagney made his star-making turn as the psychopathic gangster Tom Powers.
The Public Enemy: Cagney’s New Clothes and Car
James Cagney leans on the door of a LaSalle as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931)
Vitals
James Cagney as Tom Powers, dangerous gangster and bootlegger
Chicago, Spring 1920
Film: The Public Enemy
Release Date: April 23, 1931
Director: William A. Wellman
Costume Designer: Edward Stevenson
Wardrobe Credit: Earl Luick
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is the 86th anniversary of the 21st Amendment that repealed Prohibition, the 13-year ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Even before Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933, the wave of organized crime it inspired across the country was a popular subject for movies of the era, with Warner Brothers taking the lead with hits like Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, and Scarface that made stars out of intense actors like Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.
The latter was particularly renowned for his performance in The Public Enemy, a “ripped-from-the-headlines” tour de force of violence based on an unpublished novel written by two former newspapermen who had witnessed firsthand the impact of Al Capone’s brutal stronghold on Chicago during the beer wars of the roaring ’20s.
As #CarWeek continues, let’s flash back to the Prohibition era as Cagney’s Tom Powers hopes to make an impression with his new tailored suits and shiny new touring convertible. Continue reading
Cagney’s Leather Jacket in White Heat
James Cagney as Cody Jarrett in White Heat (1949)
Vitals
James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son
Los Angeles, Spring 1950
Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 120th birthday of James Cagney, the intense actor who brought realism and energy to his performances that ranged from deadpan comedy to complex tough guys. It was for the latter that Cagney, who Orson Welles described as “maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of the camera,” is most remembered, particularly for his mature performance as the complex gangster Cody Jarrett in White Heat.
Cagney’s Cardigan in The Public Enemy
James Cagney as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy (1931)
Vitals
James Cagney as Tom Powers, petty criminal
Chicago, Fall 1915
Film: The Public Enemy
Release Date: April 23, 1931
Director: William A. Wellman
Costume Designer: Edward Stevenson
Wardrobe Credit: Earl Luick
Background
In the waning years of Prohibition, Warner Brothers met the public demand for bringing the violent daily headlines to the screen with a succession of films that firmly established the genre of American gangster cinema. One of the most enduring of these pre-Code hits is The Public Enemy, the 1931 movie that made an instant star out of James Cagney.