1. White Heat (1949) – The last of the classic gangster pictures is also one of the best. Virginia Mayo gives the performance of her career, Edmond O’ Brien is sturdy as ever, and the script is a masterpiece of character, plotting, and story twists – but you never notice because Cagney’s towering performance as a mother-obsessed sociopath is so overpowering it sucks up all the greatness going on around him.
Which do you find more disturbing? Cagney’s Cody Jarrett eating a piece of chicken and shooting “air holes” in the trunk for the poor slob locked in there, the fifty year old sitting on his mother’s lap, or the prison scene when he’s told of dear old mom’s death?
What a movie.
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2. Love Me or Leave Me (1955) – Hopefully we’ll all live long enough to see this under-appreciated biopic of jazz singer Ruth Etting’s life receive the critical acknowledgement it deserves. Doris Day is terrific, the songs timeless, but once again the show is all Cagney as the thumb-shaped, sadistic gangster who manages Etting to fame but leaves a trail of wreckage in his jealous, manipulative wake.
After at least a half-dozen screenings, I still can’t figure out how Cagney manages to make us pity the S.O.B.
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3. The Public Enemy (1931) – The Mighty William Wellman had Cagney cast as the best friend but quickly recognized the young man’s raw screen power and placed him in the lead. Good call. Almost eighty years on you can still can feel a star being born as Cagney tears up the screen for 83 beautifully paced minutes playing Tom Powers, a low-level street thug who claws, kills, and smashes grapefruits all the way to the top.
And that final scene. Unforgettable.
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4. Each Dawn I Die (1939) – Cagney plays crusading reporter Frank Ross, who’s framed for murder and sent to prison. With the help of George Raft he plots his escape, and with the help of a melodramatic (in a good way) script, watching Cagney rage at the injustice and turn to ice inside makes for one pleasant afternoon at the movies.
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5. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) – Cagney started out as a song and dance man, and here, at the age of 43, he returns to his roots blazing with the confidence of a star who’s been at the top for a dozen years. This patriotic, warm, and often exhilarating biography of songwriter George M. Cohan won Cagney a well-deserved Oscar. A joy from beginning to end.
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