Trivia / White Heat

• Actor-Inspired Element: It was James Cagney who had the idea of making Cody psychotic. Cagney attributed his performance to his father's alcoholic rages, which he had witnessed as a child, as well as someone that he had seen on a visit to a mental hospital.
  • The scene where Cody sits on his mother's lap was Cagney's idea. He told Raoul Walsh: "Let's see if we can get away with this", to which Walsh agreed. However, in his 1974 autobiography Each Man in His Time, Walsh took credit for the idea and said the scene worked because Cagney and Margaret Wycherly made it so convincing.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The page quote is often misquoted as "Top of the world, Ma!"
• Career Resurrection: James Cagney hadn't had a hit film since Yankee Doodle Dandy. He'd left Warner Bros. and retired from gangster films to form a production company with his brother William. It produced four films, none of which were successful, so he came back to Warners for the kind of film he swore off doing.
• Creator Backlash: Although James Cagney found this to be a good picture on a number of levels, in his 1985 autobiography Cagney called the film "another cheapjack job" because of its limited shooting schedule and the studio's decision to "put everybody in it they could get for six bits." Cagney was particularly irritated by the fact that he pressed them to cast his old friend Frank McHugh in the small role of Tommy in order to bring a touch of humor and lightness to the otherwise heavy piece. According to the star, Warners repeatedly agreed to do it, putting Cagney off until the first day of shooting when he was told McHugh wasn't available. Cagney found out later McHugh had never even been asked.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • The extras in the scene where Jarrett goes ape after being informed of his mother's death were not told of how far James Cagney would go. Their surprise was real.
  • Virginia Mayo, who played Verna, revealed in an interview that James Cagney was hiding in a different spot than where she had been told he would be during the scene when they are reunited after he's been in prison. He then deliberately missed his cue, causing her shock and fear to be real. She said for a few seconds, she was actually afraid he was going to kill her.
• Executive Meddling: Edmond O'Brien had been promised equal billing with James Cagney, but at the last minute the studio decided against it. Since Cagney hadn't made many movies since leaving Warner Bros. in the early '40s, publicists thought if audiences saw "Cagney" and "O'Brien" billed together, they would assume it was a reissue of one of the six movies Cagney made with Pat O'Brien between 1934 and 1940 and avoid the film.
• Fatal Method Acting: (Barely) averted. At the time of filming, special effects were not yet using squibs (tiny explosives that simulate the effects of bullets). The producers employed skilled marksmen who used low-velocity bullets to break windows or show bullets hitting near the characters. In the factory scene, James Cagney was missed by mere inches.
• Technology Marches On: Much attention is given to depictions of the cops' (now-dated) "modern" techniques, such as radio tracking.
• Throw It In!: In the scene where Cody has his Villainous Breakdown, he had the two biggest extras seated on both sides of him and had the camera follow him no matter what.

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