''Pépé le Moko'' () is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier starring

Jean Gabin Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including ''Pépé le Moko'' (1937), '' La grande illusion'' (1937), ''Le Quai des brumes'' ...

, based on a novel of the same name by Henri La Barthe and with sets by Jacques Krauss. An example of the 1930s French movement known as

poetic realism Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s. More a tendency than a movement, poetic realism is not strongly unified like Soviet montage or French Impressionism but were individuals who created this lyrical style. Its leading filmm ...

, it recounts the trapping of a gangster on the run in Algiers, who believes that he is safe from arrest in the

Casbah A kasbah (, also ; ar, قَـصَـبَـة, qaṣaba, lit=fortress, , Maghrebi Arabic: ), also spelled qasba, qasaba, or casbah, is a fortress, most commonly the citadel or fortified quarter of a city. It is also equivalent to the term ''alca ...

Plot

Pépé le Moko, a criminal on the run from the police in

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...

, lives with his gang in the Casbah quarter of Algiers where he is beyond the reach of the local police. They seek ways to lure him out of his refuge and a plot results in the death of a fellow gangster, but not of Pépé. The wily Inspector Slimane sees his chance when he learns that Pépé, who is fed up with his enforced exile and with his mistress Inès, has been struck by meeting the glamorous French tourist Gaby, mistress of a visiting businessman. When Gaby agrees to an afternoon assignation in Pépé's hideout, Slimane leads her to believe that Pépé has been killed and she reluctantly stays with her lover, who immediately books a passage back to France. When Pépé is informed that Gaby is about to leave Algiers, he leaves the Casbah to find her and is arrested at the harbour by Slimane. As he watches the ship take her away for ever, he commits suicide with a knife.

Cast

as Pépé le Moko *

Gabriel Gabrio Gabriel Gabrio (born Édouard Gabriel Lelièvre; 13 January 1887 – 31 October 1946) was a French stage and film actor whose career began in cinema in the silent film era of the 1920s and spanned more than two decades. Gabrio is possibly best re ...

as Carlos *

Mireille Balin Mireille Césarine Balin (born Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin; 20 July 1909, in Monte Carlo – 9 November 1968 in Paris)"Balin, Mireille (1911–1968)." ''Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages'', edited by Anne Commire ...

as Gaby Gould, the beautiful Parisienne *

Saturnin Fabre Saturnin Fabre (4 April 1884 – 4 October 1961) was a French film actor. Selected filmography * ''La rafale'' (1920) - comte de Bréchebel * ''Mademoiselle de La Seiglière'' (1921) * '' The Road Is Fine'' (1930) - Le professeur Pique * '' ...

as Le Grand Père * Fernand Charpin as Régis *

Lucas Gridoux Lucas Gridoux (16 April 1896 – 22 April 1952) was a Romanian-born French stage and film actor.Lanzoni p. 99 Biography He was born in 1896 in Herța, at the time in Dorohoi County, Kingdom of Romania. After emigrating to France, Gridoux began h ...

as Inspecteur Slimane *

Gilbert Gil Gilbert Gil (September 9, 1913 – August 25, 1988) was a French film actor. He also directed a single film '' Criminal Brigade'' in 1947.Oscherwitz & Higgins p.47 Partial filmography * ''Mayerling'' (1936) - Un étudiant (uncredited) * ''Les gr ...

as Pierrot * Marcel Dalio as L'Arbi *

Charles Granval Charles Granval (born Charles Louis Gribouval; December 21, 1882 – July 28, 1943) was a French stage and film actor.Macdonald p.244 He was Jean-Pierre Granval's father. Selected filmography * '' Golgotha'' (1935) * ''La belle équipe'' (1936) ...

as Maxime *

Gaston Modot Gaston Modot (31 December 1887 – 20 February 1970) was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors. Biography Modot lived in Montmartre at the beginning of the 20th cen ...

as Jimmy * René Bergeron as Inspecteur Meunier * Paul Escoffier as Chief Inspecteur Louvain * Roger Legris as Max *

Jean Témerson Jean Témerson (1898–1956) was a French actor. Selected filmography * '' The Lover of Madame Vidal'' (1936) - Guillaume - le domestique * '' With a Smile'' (1936) - Cam (uncredited) * '' Pépé le Moko'' (1937) - Gravère * ''Blanchette'' (1 ...

as Gravèr * Robert Ozanne as Gendron *

Philippe Richard Philippe Richard (24 June 1891 – 24 December 1973) was a French film and theater actor. Richard was born in Saint-Étienne and began his film career in the early 1920s in silent film. In 1948 he starred in the film '' The Lame Devil'' under ...

as Janvier * Georges Péclet as Barsac *

Line Noro Line Noro (22 February 1900 – 4 November 1985) was a French stage and film actress.Hayward p.172 During the 1930s she played glamorous, often exotic, women in films such as '' Pépé le Moko''. Between 1945 and 1966 Noro was a member of the Co ...

as Inès *

Fréhel Fréhel (; born Marguerite Boulc'h; 13 July 1891 – 3 February 1951) was a French singer and actress. Biography Born in Paris to a poor and dysfunctional Breton family, Marguerite Boulc'h was a child left to a life on the streets in the sord ...

as Tania * Olga Lord as Aïcha *

Renée Carl Renée Carl (10 June 1875 – 31 July 1954) was a French actress of the silent era. She was born in Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée, France, and died in Paris, France. Between 1907 and 1937, she appeared in 186 films. A favorite of film directo ...

as La mère Tarte

Production

Principal photography for the film was shot at a replica of the Casbah at Joinville-le-Pont, near Paris, and only exterior shots were filmed in Algiers. Lead actress

never set foot in Algeria during the making of the film.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 100% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 8.65/10. Metacritic reports a score of 98, based on 12 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". English author

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

in a review of the film for ''The Spectator'' asserted: "One of the most exciting and moving films I can remember seeing". It succeeds in "raising the thriller to a poetic level". According to a BBC documentary, it served as inspiration for Greene's screenplay for ''

The Third Man ''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten ...

''. It has many similarities with the American film ''Casablanca'', which was released a few years later.

Remakes

The film was remade in America in 1938 as '' Algiers'', starring

Hedy Lamarr Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...

and

Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...

, and again in 1948 as ''

'', a musical starring Tony Martin,

Märta Torén Märta Torén (21 May 1925 – 19 February 1957) was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. Torén's father was a Swedish military officer, and for three years, during World War II, she was a secretary in the Swedish war offic ...

, Yvonne de Carlo, and

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

. The title character's French accent and womanizing, as portrayed by

in the 1938 remake, inspired the name and comic premise of the Looney Tunes cartoon character, Pepé Le Pew, introduced in 1945.

References

External links

* * * * *
''Pépé le Moko''
an essay by Michael Atkinson at the Criterion Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Pepe Le Moko 1937 films 1937 romantic drama films 1937 crime drama films French romantic drama films French crime drama films 1930s French-language films French black-and-white films French gangster films Films based on French novels Films set in Algiers Films directed by Julien Duvivier Films produced by Robert and Raymond Hakim 1930s French films