PÉPÉ LE MOKO (1937) / ALGIERS (1938)

The Casbah section of Algiers is a rough district of criminals and prostitutes, and it's where where Pépé (Jean Gabin, at left) is more or less trapped. He's a successful criminal and one whom the French police would love to nab, but the labyrinthine layout of the Casbah makes a raid unlikely, and the denizens of the Casbah like Pépé and hide him from the police. There is a local cop, Slimane, who is friendly with Pépé and mostly leaves him to his own devices (their chemistry is a bit like that of Rick and Renault in CASABLANCA), but even he realizes that getting Pépé out of the Casbah where an arrest would be easy to pull off would be a feather in his cap. Pépé's life is not bad: he is liked by his fellow Casbah citizens, he has a small gang and a casual mistress (though it is said that when he dies, "there’ll be 3000 widows at his funeral") and serves as something of a mentor/big brother figure to young Pierrot. But he yearns to leave the Casbah, and in particular, would love to go back to Paris someday. Enter the glamorous tourist Gaby (Mireille Balin), kept woman to an older businessman. She hears about Pépé and finagles a meeting, and the two fall for each other. Actually, her appeal to Pépé is more about how she conjures up Paris for him in their conversation, but still his mistress Ines gets jealous and winds up becoming an important tool for Slimane in his newly-hatched plan to get Pépé out in the open.

Like CASABLANCA (in addition to the resemblance I noted above), I think the feel of this movie is enhanced greatly by the sets. There is no one place like Rick's that stands out, but the entire district with its narrow streets and atmospheric interiors feels exotic. This isn't film noir, but I feel like Pépé is an early antihero, technically a bad guy who we root for, even as we'e pretty sure he will meet a bad end—though much of the film is light in tone, there is not a happy ending in store. It helps that Gabin is like a less intense Bogart, lighter on his feet and with a smaller chip on his shoulder. The large supporting cast is good, especially Lucas Gridoux as Slimane and Gilbert Gil as Pierrot. Mireille Balin is no Ingrid Bergman—she looks attractive and sophisticated but otherwise I didn't find her particularly appealing, partly perhaps because her character is rather flat. Nice line, from the unlikable Regis (Fernand Charpin): "I'm an informer, not a hypocrite!" The last few shots of Gabin are astonishingly good.

This French film, directed by Julien Duvivier, wasn't released in the United States until 1941, partly because Hollywood made what is virtually a shot-by-shot remake in 1938. ALGIERS features Charles Boyer as Pépé and Hedy Lamarr as Gaby, and includes some footage from the French film in the opening scenes which set up the location. The film was popular and may be familiar to some baby-boomers as the inspiration for the Looney Tunes character Pepe Le Pew, who also popularized the phrase (spoken in a thick French accent) "Come with me to the Casbah"—though that phrase is not actually in the movie. The copyright on the film was allowed to lapse so it's in the public domain and there are plenty of DVDs with dicey, murky prints; as far as I know, it has never been restored which is a shame because the cinematography by James Wong Howe is lovely. The earlier film has the edge over this version, but just barely. Boyer is a slicker version of Gabin, and Lamarr is far better than Balin as Gaby—though here, thanks to the Production Code, Gaby is not a kept woman but a fiancée. (The Code also mandated a different, less effective ending.) The supporting cast is filled with familiar faces who are every bit as good, if not better, than the French cast. Joseph Calleia is adequate as Slimane (though I give Gridoux the edge), and others including Alan Hale, Johnny Downs (Pierrot, pictured at right with Boyer), Leonid Kinskey and Robert Greig are fine, and Gene Lockhart as the informer Regis, who comes to a bad end, was nominated for an Oscar as supporting actor. This version has a comic bit I don't remember from the French version: one of Pépé's thuggish associates (Stanley Fields) argues with him about every little command but always acquiesces with a meek "OK." A good line: Alan Hale, playing Grandpere, one of Pépé's protectors, gets his door smashed in by the cops as they look for Pépé and says with exasperation, almost directly to the camera, "Every few weeks I have to get new doors!" I recommend both films. [The French film is on Criterion Channel; the Hollywood film is on DVD]