"white-heat"

Using smiles, warm hugs, fresh-baked goods, outright manipulation, and, occasionally, a baseball bat, Hollywood mothers shaped our favorite characters to be the men and women they are today. We all have mothers, after all – or did. Even the most evil entities the world has ever seen – Hitler, Godzilla, Michael Bay – have or had mothers who loved them. The characters in our favorite films are no different, and would probably be sending their mothers some cinematic roses if they could. So, just in time for Mother’s Day, we bring you the most memorable movie moms from the best films ever made. 

A few months ago, I was watching a flavorful early Cagney entry called “Taxi!” (1932), and in one early scene, witnessed the diminutive but feisty actor of Irish/Norwegian stock speaking Yiddish…not one or two words, mind you, but whole sentences. And I thought to myself — yet another reason to love Jimmy Cagney.

The cinema has given us many great gangster films, showcasing some of the nastiest, shiftiest, most venal criminals in the world. On paper, their deeds are rotten, maybe even murderous, putting innocent people at risk and defying the forces of law and order.  Yet very often, you still sympathize with these characters; you may even root for them. After all, usually their backs are up against the wall. You sense that poverty and dysfunction placed them on the wrong side of society. Born into the right circumstances, they coulda been contenders. You glimpse a trace of honor, even goodness in them. Whenever there’s talk of the greatest films ever made, gangster pictures always figure in. You know the usual suspects, but we’ve rounded up ten of varying ages that we think are... well, for the ages.