FILM NOIR | White Fire

On Top of the World!

A year ago, we presented a double feature of heist films—*Gun Crazy*, featuring lovers on the run, and *The Asphalt Jungle*, featuring a criminal gang—and now we’re following up with a film by director Raoul Walsh that’s a year older (The Roaring Twenties, High in the Mountains), which, along with the aforementioned films, laid the foundations for the heist film genre.

This noir gangster film masterfully employs the narrative conventions of the heist and prison subgenres, presenting the classic plot of a notorious criminal on the run who is planning his (final?) big heist. Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) ends up in prison after a train robbery. When he discovers a betrayal within his gang and senses that his beloved mother is in immediate danger, he decides to escape. He has no idea, however, that the police have planted an undercover agent (Edmond O’Brien) on him and are using modern technological advances...

James Cagney, an iconic actor of the golden age of gangster films, makes a brilliant return as a ruthless, unpredictable, and mentally unstable gangster. His character, Cody, is pathologically fixated on his mother (a member of the gang), suffers from uncontrollable outbursts of violence, severe headaches, and a craving for strawberries. His character also serves as a parallel to the atmosphere of the Cold War and the fear of the nuclear threat. The neurotic Cody is literally a ticking time bomb that is bound to explode sooner or later.

The film is driven not only by Cagney’s maniacal performance but also by Max Steiner’s orchestral score, an atmosphere of paranoia, a pace that was exceptionally brisk for its time, and dynamic action, all culminating in a climactic, powerful finale. Last but not least, it is one of the finest explorations of the Oedipus complex in the history of crime cinema. (Michal Šmajda, Milujem Film Noir)

You can purchase tickets online or in person before the event. The final ticket price includes a €0.50 processing fee, which is added to each ticket at the payment gateway or at the box office. This fee is non-refundable in the event of cancellation.