Casablanca, December 1941: a plane, in black and white, crosses the misty tarmac of an airfield in Vichy French Morocco.  It’s carrying Ilsa Lund and her husband, Resistance leader, Victor Laszlo.  The plane is watched by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and corrupt official Capt Renault (Claude Raines) who works for the Vichy government.  Rick has a gun hidden in his coat and has forced Renault to let Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and Laszlo escape.

Suddenly Major Strasser – the Nazi commander sent to capture Laszlo – arrives, having had a tip-off from Renault.  Finding Laszlo’s plane already on the runway, he calls the control tower.  Rick warns him to stop, twice.  Strasser draws his gun to silence Rick, but Rick shoots him – dead.  A detachment of Vichy police arrive in a truck and report to Capt Renault.

There is a moment, after he tells the police that Major Strasser has been killed, when we imagine Renault will have Rick arrested.  He pauses.  For once, Renault does the right thing by lying. With bureaucratic insouciance he tells the police to ‘round up the usual suspects’ instead. They head back to town to knock on the doors they knock routinely whenever they need someone – anyone – to take the rap.

 

What do you think:

Are the ‘usual suspects’ in Casablanca like community leaders in your part of the city?  If you refer to them as ‘the usual suspects’, which character in the film might people see you as?

Go back to a list of the kind of people who might be Local Leaders in your area

Remind yourself of a couple of things which make councillors special

OR – follow the menu on the right to have a look at other parts of the guide.