WHITE HEAT
WHITE HEAT (Raoul Walsh, 1949)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Monday, March 17, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30
Series runs March 12-26
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
“‘If you haven’t got the story, you haven’t got anything’: Raoul Walsh used to say this,” Martin Scorsese explains in A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies. BAMcinématek is celebrating the careers of both men in “Under the Influence: Scorsese/Walsh,” a two-week series focusing on both men’s gangster films, including what is arguably the first of the genre, Walsh’s 1915 Regeneration. One of Walsh’s best is the film noir classic White Heat, which is being shown on St. Patrick’s Day. It might have been nominated for a mere single Oscar, losing for Best Motion Picture Story (to The Stratton Story), but it quickly came to be considered one of the greatest gangster pictures ever made. The 1949 film, which is loosely based on the true story of Francis “Two Gun” Crowley, stars James Cagney as Cody Jarrett, a devout criminal married to the beautiful moll Verna (Virginia Mayo) but still deeply (and unhealthily) attached to his mother (Margaret Wycherly). While doing time for a train robbery gone wrong, Jarrett finds out that his gang has been taken over by his former flunkie Big Ed Somers (Steve Cochran), who also seems to have taken over Verna as well. Jarrett decides he must break out of jail, setting the stage for an unforgettable climax. Walsh (High Sierra, They Died with Their Boots On) doesn’t concentrate just on the action, of which there is plenty, instead focusing on Jarrett’s troubled psyche as he blindly seeks revenge. “Under the Influence: Scorsese/Walsh” continues through March 26 with such other Walsh or Scorsese films as Raging Bull, Gentleman Jim, Taxi Driver, The Roaring Twenties, Casino, and The Man I Love.