Renault's one of my favorite characters from cinema, and really the reason I watch Casablanca again and again. Elsa, Rick and Lazlo are, to me, "a hill of beans." They are not going to do anything other than what their archetypes want them to (noble sacrifices, etc.), but Renault? He's the wild card, the lynchpin--it's his moral choice that let's Elsa and Lazlo escape, and in a nanosecond I see across Rains' face the play of emotions of a man who is just about to throw away EVERYTHING (position, power, comfort, easy sex, etc.) for a just cause.

Ivan: Hope you don't mind but I'd like to update the OP with your observation as I think it's a terrific one. Thanks!

He's an amazing character with tons of subtext. However, I'm tired of psychoanalysis becoming an excuse to find homosexual themes EVERYWHERE. Sometimes American cinema and literature doesn't have gay undertones, but don't tell that to modern college professors.