Captain Louis Renault from Casablanca

Name and rank
Captain Louis Renault from Casablanca (1942), police chief of the Vichy-controlled Moroccan capital, played with urbane charm by Claude Rains.

Worst offense
He shamelessly cosies up to the Nazis, inveigles young immigrants into his bed, takes bribes and deports political refugees back to near-certain death in Europe. It was unusual in those days for Hollywood to depict an officer of the law in such unforgiving light, but then again, he was French.

Mitigating behavior
Turning a blind eye to the shooting of a top Nazi and showing impeccable taste by initiating a “beautiful friendship” with Humphrey Bogart.

Ten bad cops: Hollywood's meanest law enforcers

We honor the nastiest and most crooked movie cops

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“Every cop is a criminal” according to Mick Jagger’s “Sympathy for the Devil,” and as the victim of a dubious drug bust, he knew of what he sang. In the explosive movie Rampart, Woody Harrelson takes the classic cinematic archetype of the corrupt policeman to new heights with his portrayal of violent, womanizing, borderline-racist ghetto patrolman, “Date Rape” Dave Brown. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to dig through the criminal records and come up with a list of our favorite felonious flatfoots. Is there anyone we’ve missed? Or do you think some of these guys are just misunderstood?

Take a closer look at the world of action...

The 100 best action movies
The 100 best action movies

We polled over 50 experts in the field, from essential directors like Die Hard’s John McTiernan to the actual folks in the line of fire, such as Tarantino favorite Zoë Bell (the fearless stuntwoman behind Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill movies). The result: The 100 best action movies, a definitive look at the genre from the earliest silent classic short film of 1896's “Arrival of Train at La Ciotat” to Marvel's big-screen fighting force of 2012's The Avengers.

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