ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – WHITE HEAT (1949)

“White Heat” is a Crime Drama, Screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts from a Story by Virginia Kellogg and Directed by Raoul Walsh.

The central character of the story is Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) who is a sadistic psychopathic criminal and leader of a ruthless gang of thieves.

Cody is a volatile, violent, and eccentric leader, fiercely devoted to his ‘Ma’ (Margaret Wycherly) and afflicted with terrible headaches.

While he is running the gang from in jail Cody's top henchman Big Ed Somers (Steve Cochran) wants to lead the gang and, in cahoots with Cody’s two-faced wife Verna (Virginia Mayo), plots with inmates for Cody to have an accident, but Cody is saved by an undercover cop, Hank Fallon aka Vic Pardo (Edmond O'Brien) who thereby befriends him and infiltrates the gang.

After making a daring break from prison he leads his old gang back on the outside and the stage is set for Cody's ultimate betrayal and downfall, during a big payroll heist at a chemical plant.

The final scene, with the line “Top of the World, Ma!” is one of the most famous in all of film history.

If you like James Cagney and you like 1940 film noir, then it doesn't get any better than this.

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE LADY VANISHES (1938)

“The Lady Vanishes” is a thriller based on the story "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl, Iris Matilda Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), her friends Blanche and Julie (Googie Withers and Sally Stewart) are stranded in the mountainous European country of Mandrika, along with the rest of the passengers on a scheduled train delayed for 24 by a day due to an avalanche, and as a result they are forced to spend the night in an overcrowded Inn.

The next day Iris says goodbye to her girlfriends before heading back to England to get married but she receives a blow to the head from a falling flower pot and a middle aged English governess named Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) takes her under her wing, and they spend some time in the dining car before taking their seats in their compartment where Iris promptly falls asleep.

When she wakes up Miss Froy is nowhere to be seen and she knew she was on the train but none of the people who saw them together will corroborate her story and she is universally dismissed and a possible concussion is cited as the cause.

Only one person is prepared to humour her, an Englishman named Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a musicologist, but will his help be enough to find Miss Froy?

 

As you would expect with a Hitchcock Classic there is a depth of quality in the cast to drive the story, Cecil Parker and Linden Travers as the Todhunter’s, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters and Caldicott, Catherine Lacy as the Nun and Mary Clare as Baroness Athona all contribute to a great film.