| Plot: | Cody Jarrett is the sadistic leader of a ruthless gang of thieves. Afflicted by terrible headaches and fiercely devoted to his 'Ma,' Cody is a volatile, violent, and eccentric leader. Cody's top henchman wants to lead the gang and attempts to have an 'accident' happen to Cody, while he is running the gang from in jail. But Cody is saved by an undercover cop, who thereby befriends him and infiltrates the gang. Finally, the stage is set for Cody's ultimate betrayal and downfall, during a big heist at a chemical plant.
The psychopath criminal Arthur 'Cody' Jarrett (James Cagney), who has Oedipus complex, and his gang rob a fortune from a train killing four people. In order to escape from the gas chamber, he confesses another crime in another state and is sentenced to two years in a prison. The secret agent Hank Fallon (Edmond O'Brien) assumes the identity of Vic Pardo and shares the cell with Cody, trying to find where the money is. When Cody's mother is killed, he escapes from prison with three criminals and Vic to catch the killer. HE considers Vic his baby brother, and is betrayed in a heist of the safe of a chemical plant.
James Cagney returns to the gangster film genre as Cody Jarrett, a killer with a mother fixation to rival Oedipus Rex as he tries to get to the "top of the world".
A mentally disturbed gangster who's in love with his mother plans on pulling off the robbery to top all robberies, not realizing that his newest henchman is an undercover detective and his right hand man is trying to have him killed.
After killing two men in a train robbery, Cody Jarrett pleads guilty to a far less serious crime that occurred at the same time, but in a distant location, thereby giving him a perfect alibi. The Treasury Department decides to plant one of their officers, Hank Fallon, in the prison to see if they can learn where Jarrett hid the Treasury Bonds he stole. Jarrett and Fallon become good friends and when Jarrett makes a break for it, Fallon goes with him. Jarrett s next robbery involves stealing the nearly half-million dollar payroll from a chemical factory, but using modern technology the Feds are able to track him down and bring his robbery and killing spree to an end.
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