Author Topic: Casablanca tops movie script poll (Read 2083 times)

Clive · « **on:** April 08, 2006, 12:33 »

Classic World War II movie Casablanca has been voted the film with the best screenplay by top script writers in the United States.

The 1942 film starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and was written by Julius and Philip Epstein.

The Godfather written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola came second in the list from the Writers Guild of America

Guild members voted for the top 101 film scripts from an original list of more than 1,400 nominated works.

Third on the list came crime thriller Chinatown written by Robert Towne and starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway under the direction of Roman Polanski.

Top 10 best movie scripts
1. Casablanca
2. The Godfather
3. Chinatown
4. Citizen Kane
5. All About Eve
6. Annie Hall
7.Sunset Boulevard
8. Network
9. Some Like It Hot
10. The Godfather II

Citizen Kane - another 1940s classic - by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles was in fourth place followed in fourth by All About Eve by Joseph Mankiewicz.

The other films in the top 10 were Annie Hall, by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, Sunset Boulevard by the writing team of Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and DM Marshman Jr and Some Like It Hot by Wilder and IAL Diamond.

Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Billy Wilder each have four screenplays on the list.

Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and John Huston earned three mentions each.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4890590.stm

GillE · « **Reply #1 on:** April 08, 2006, 17:15 »

I'm surprised they overlooked Harold Lloyd's masterpiece, "Safety Last".

Gill

Clive · « **Reply #2 on:** April 08, 2006, 19:09 »

Can you actually buy those silent movies on DVD Gill?

Clive · « **Reply #3 on:** April 08, 2006, 22:16 »

I've now found the top 101 (.pdf file) and Safety Last still doesn't appear in it.

http://www.wga.org/uploadedFiles/news_and_events/101_screenplay/101press.pdf

I wonder if they now have the technology to view these films at their original 18 fps instead of the mandatory 24 fps which makes the pioneers of cinematography appear to be a bunch of incompetants. Showing those silent movies at the wrong speed is a gross insult.

GillE · « **Reply #4 on:** April 09, 2006, 01:43 »

I was actually making an ascerbic comment about the calibre of American screen writers.

:roll:

Gill

Sandra · « **Reply #5 on:** April 09, 2006, 01:49 »

Subtlety isnt usually wasted on Clive, but it has to involve something being of an ovine nature to be certain of it :wink:

Clive · « **Reply #6 on:** April 09, 2006, 08:59 »