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4. Round up the usual suspects.

One of the amazing things about Casablanca is that it managed to be a romantic epic, a crime thriller, and a goofball comedy all at once, and seamlessly. The number of times in which this mesh of genres works effectively can really be counted on one hand. But leave it to the not-quite-sidekick Captain Renault to deliver one of the more memorable lines of the film. Every time something mischievous happens in Unoccupied France, the Captain showcases his feigned usefulness by “rounding up the usual suspects.” At some point, he even boasts to the Gestapo officer watching over him that he is making so many efforts to find the murderer of two German officers that he is “rounding up twice the number of usual suspects.” The line works.

Oh, and how many movie lines can claim the distinction of having spawned an entire movie themselves, after which the movie itself was named (I’m speaking, of course, of the now-classic crime thriller, The Usual Suspects).

3. I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

Enter Captain Renault again, to deliver the number three entry. If for the first act of Casablanca you are not buying the star-crossed romance between the dashing Bergman and the aging Bogart, it is when the defector Victor Laszlo (Ilsa’s husband, with whom she’s fleeing from the Nazis) takes a courageous stand and sings the French National Anthem to drown out the Nazi recitation of their own chants at Rick’s Bar Americain that you realize there is something emotionally special about this movie.

One can only imagine the sentimental impact that this scene must have caused in 1942/1943, released when France was still occupied, and when the world was still under the yolk of tyranny. Several nationalities join Laszlo (himself a Czech citizen) to make this act of quiet/singing defiance. The moment is simply stunning and, indeed, could easily be on entry on this list as well.

Not a full minute later, however, Captain Renault is asked to shut down Rick’s in payback for the stunt, and, when asked for the reason for the citation, Renault responds with the line that is today number three on the A-List. What follows is comic genius - the croupier rushes out quickly to say, “Here are your winnings, sir,” to Renault, to which Renault stoically counters, “Why, thank you.” The quote is marvelous, then, because it is the perfect landing from the first true emotional high of the movie. The screenwriters, unforgivingly, yank you from delirious exultation to earth-grounded humor.

The juxtaposition of the fight for one’s ideals with the cynicism and practicality of the world is ever-present throughout Casablanca. Somehow, miraculously, the writers manage to deliver the clear message that neither the idealists nor the pragmatists should or will carry the day, but that there is hope and resignation in both approaches. This line, in some subtle, almost indescribable way, manages to encompass this point in a brilliant nutshell.

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