Pop Culture 101 - WHITE HEAT

Cody Jarret's final defiant shout, "Made it, Ma. Top of the world!" has become one of the most familiar lines in film history, although often erroneously quoted as simply "Top of the world, Ma!"

The prison scenes in White Heat were spoofed in Naked Gun 33 1/3 (1994). Scenes from the movie were also edited into the comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), in which, through an incredible editing feat, Steve Martin as a '40s private eye interacts with various tough guys and shady characters from classic Hollywood films.

In the black comedy, Fade to Black (1980), Dennis Christopher plays a movie-obsessed fan who retreats into a fantasy world, eventually becoming a homicidal killer. There are numerous movie references throughout the film such as his recreation of the famous wheelchair murder scene from Kiss of Death (1947), as well as an ending copied from White Heat ­Christopher goes up flames atop Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The climax of the film noir thriller, Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), is an homage to White Heat ­ both Robert Ryan and Harry Belafonte have a shootout on top of an oil storage tank and both perish in the explosive fire that follows.

By Rob Nixon