Of all the films in all the world, 'Casablanca' tops romance chart

Call it a case of rounding up the usual suspects but the American Film Institute has announced its list of the top 100 most romantic movies made in the United States and Casablanca, the perennial Saturday afternoon melodrama, takes pride of place.

Following quickly in descending order are Gone With The Wind, West Side Story, Roman Holiday and An Affair to Remember. Then come The Way We Were, Doctor Zhivago, It's a Wonderful Life, Love Story and City Lights.

Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart are the two most heavily featured actors in the list, with six and five titles respectively, and the famously unrelated Hepburns, Audrey and Katherine, share 11 appearances. The Philadelphia Story is in there, in 44th place, and so is The African Queen (number 14). More recent romances include Sleepless in Seattle (45), When Harry Met Sally (25) and, the most recent of all, Shakespeare in Love, made in 1998, made it to number 50.

It may sound like an unadventurous list but challenging the status quo is hardly the AFI's intention. This is the fifth year in a row the organisation – the US counterpart to the British Film Institute – has come up with a "100 best" list and the point is to encourage Americans to think beyond the latest action blockbusters at the multiplex and rediscover the great audience-pleasers of the past.

Last year, the AFI focused on thrillers. (Psycho won that contest.) The year before, it was comedies, with Some Like It Hot in the top spot, and the year before that it was movie stars (with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn sharing top honours). In 1998, when the initiative began, the list was the top 100 American movies. Citizen Kane came first and Casablanca, this year's big title in lights, was number two.

Whatever. It's only a list. And Bogart and Bergman will always have Paris.