"James Cagneyreturned to Warner Brothers after a five-year absence in a burst offiery glory as Cody Jarrett, a cocky gangster hell-bent on murder andmayhem. In his 1931 incarnation as 'public enemy' Tom Powers, thegangster's immoral life of crime was depicted as a product of theDepression era. In 1949, to an America becoming aware of Freud, thegangster was, in the studio's words, 'a homicidal paranoic with a motherfixation.' Society was no longer held responsible for the existence ofcrime; instead, in a switch from a social to a psychologicalexplanation, a misguided, well-intentioned mom was saddled with theblame. When director Raoul Walsh-who had earlier chronicled the rise(The Roaring Twenties) and fall (High Sierra) of the gangster-movedinside his mind, he didn't abandon the world of physical action. This isa fast-paced, violent classic of the American gangster genre." KathyGeritz