Casablanca named greatest movie script

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca

LOS ANGELES - Round up the usual suspects.

The Writers Guild of America has named Casablanca as No 1 on its first list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays.

The screenplay for the wartime tale of courage and cynicism starring Humphrey Bogart was written by Howard Koch and brothers Julius and Philip Epstein.

It was followed on the list by the screenplay for The Godfather, written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola; Chinatown, written by Robert Towne; Citizen Kane, by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles; and All About Eve by Joseph Mankiewicz.

Rounding out the top 10 were Annie Hall, by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman; Sunset Boulevard by the writing team of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.; Paddy Chayefsky's Network ; Wilder and I A L Diamond's Some Like It Hot ; and Coppola and Puzo's The Godfather Part II.

Three writers -- Allen, Coppola and Wilder -- had four films on the list, while three others had three: William Goldman, John Huston and Charlie Kaufman.

The list was announced by the Writers Guild on Thursday night.

The list was chosen by Guild members from more than 1400 nominated screenplay.

- REUTERS