James Cagney playing Cody Jarrett in White Heat, U.S., 1949
He had played criminals before, but with Cody Jarrett, Cagney elevated the mobster to monster. The gang leader robs trains and factory safes, killing his underlings as the mood suits him. ("You wouldn't kill me in cold blood, would ya?" one asks. "No," he replies, "I'll let ya warm up a little.") All the while, he totes his mother around, at one point sitting in her lap. Cagney brings sadism and pathos to this epileptic Capone, this Oedipal wreck. His exit line, atop a gigantic gas tank, is one of the greats: "Made it, Ma — top of the world!"