A boy's best friend . . .

White Heat

(1949)

From the standpoint purely of screen time, this might be as much police procedural as it is gangster flick, but let me just ask you: do you remember who the character Philip Evans is, or that he was played by John Archer? And if you remember Edmond O'Brien at all, isn't it as the undercover cop who rats out Cody? Face it: even before the final conflagration, Cagney burns so brightly that there's no oxygen for anyone else--except maybe a little bit for Margaret Wycherly as Ma Jarrett, and Virginia Mayo as cinema's most despicable gun moll.