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. Citizen Kane, by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles, was in fourth place.