Pépé le Moko (1937) User Reviews

Before there was Bogart...

[BobHudson74 · 9/10 · 12 June 2003]

In the greatest gangster film of all time, Duvivier brings to the silver screen a gripping tale of love, passion, friendship and loyalty, as Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin) reclusively hides in the seedy, underground of the Casbah quarters of Algiers. Elusive and dangerous, Pépé is considered one of France's most wanted at-large criminals. However, upon meeting a beautiful "parisienne", Gaby Gould (Mireille Balin), Pépé discovers that his heart is in Paris. Willing to risk his life and freedom to pursue his new love, Pépé takes to the streets of Algiers to find Gaby.

An enlightening look at French Algeria in the early 20th-century, Pépé le Moko is a cultural and historical masterpiece as much as it is a classic film. Examining the diversity of the inhabitants of the Casbah and exploring its architectural layout, this film provides for an extremely interesting postcolonial, anthropological, even Freudian (architectural) reading.

The friendship that develops between Inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux), a native Algerian investigator sent to capture the fugitive, and Pépé adds an element of perplexity, as the inspector is caught in a crux of friendship and loyalty and his duty to the state.

What ensues is a heartwrenching scene between the disconsolate gangster pursuing his beloved Gaby while being pursued by his inspector friend and the French Algerian police. One of the greatest endings in the history of film, Duvivier exposes the sovereignty of the heart, even the heart of a brazen criminal.

Duvivier's best effort and the greatest gangster film ever, this film ranks in my top ten of all-time. To truly understand Humphrey Bogart, Edward Robinson, Robert Mitchum and Al Pacino, one must first discover Jean Gabin, the archetype gangster for the crime genre. Duvivier's masterpiece is a film that all lovers of cinema simply must see.

French film-noir before film-noir even existed.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 9/10 · 17 September 2008]

The term film-noir didn't got handled until the '40's but this term would also really apply to this movie. It features all of the film-noir ingredients with its story as well as its atmosphere.

The movie isn't as smooth or expensive and good looking as an American movie but otherwise there is not much wrong with it. It features a typical crime story in which a Parisian gangster hides in Algeria. Combined with this get the usual factors such as romance and a tough main character, who of course also shows his humane side. It has a solid story that is typical for the genre and therefore for the regular genre viewer won't feature many surprises in it but it's for them also nice and interesting to see how this typical film-noir ingredients all got handled in a '30's, before the film-noir got even really truly invented.

But because the movie isn't American this of course also means that this movie is a 'different' one to watch. It features often some more interesting camera-angles and style of editing. It makes some of the sequences really great to look at. It also has a good and pleasant pace and is skillfully being directed by Julien Duvivier.

It's also a movie that got greatly carried by its principal actor Jean Gabin. He plays his character in the right way for the movie. He's a criminal but you still like him. It's a great character played by a great actor. Not all of the supporting actors are just as good however and act in a more typical kind of '30's over-the-top acting style, though the movie does feature some more great characters.

The movie got for some part shot in Algeria itself but some sequence are also sometimes painfully obvious studio-work. It's the foremost reason why the movie at times has a sort of cheap and less smooth look over it. The movie did became a success though and even managed to get an American release. This success inspired Hollywood to make one year later an American remake of this movie, called "Algiers", starring French born actor Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr.

A real fine late '30's French crime drama, which really can be seen as an early film-noir.

9/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

White Nights

[nin-chan · 9/10 · 30 September 2007]

It's not so surprising that this film originally bore the working title of "Les Nuits Blanches", as it certainly shares more than a passing resemblance to Dostoevsky's timeless tale and Visconti's mesmeric adaptation. "Pepe Le Moko" is, more than anything else, a love story, though it functions more as a commentary on the dynamics and nature of love than an exultation in its virtues. Like Dostoevsky's hapless dreamers, Duvivier's characters are in love with phantoms, incorporeal fantasies that they project onto canvas of flesh. Naturally, idealism and reality are hopelessly estranged, and efforts of reconciliation can only precipitate frustration and tragedy.

Pepe le Moko is a tormented fugitive and exile, liege lord of a vice-ridden, sweltering microcosm and crown fool. Like the swaggering, stolid gangsters of Jean-Pierre Melville, Pepe is a victim of himself, prisoner of arbitrary codes of masculinity and honor. His hauteur are undermined by the minuteness of his empire, itself infested with conspirators eager to sell him to the police. His "freedom" itself is pathetic enough to be risible, venturing outside the insular sanctuary and he is fair game for the police. Clinging doggedly to whatever semblance of liberty he has left, Pepe acts out a tragic comedy within the confines of his circumscribed universe, his roles of Don Juan and Capone underscored by pathos and ennui.

When a flighty Parisienne catches a glimpse of the fabled kingpin, she becomes instantly infatuated with his imperious manner, seeing him and the bloodthirsty world he represents as salvation from her stuffy bourgeois existence. In Aeschylean fashion, neither Pepe nor said femme fatale love one another, they merely love effigies, ideals. The female is Pepe's solitary conduit to his beloved Paris and the only confidante for his crippling homesickness. His indifference to her extravagant jewelry reveals the absolute arbitrariness of his criminal pursuits, a mere pretext for action in such boring climes. Yet, the viewer is acutely aware that the Paris Pepe longs for no longer exists, if it is represented by the addle-brained, vacuous Sybarites that his lover surrounds herself with. The mere fact that a Parisienne would exalt him as her liberator should itself alert him to the folly of his reveries. Sustained by his illusions, Pepe withdraws further from reality. Everything about Jean Gabin's character makes me want to cry- his fragile stoicism, his crestfallenness, his obsessive delusion, his self-destructiveness.

There are some who would take issue with the implicit ethnocentrism in the "Casbah" imagery. Note that this was an adaptation of a novel written in the midst of fervent pro-colonial sentiment, and that, in Duvivier's hands, the Casbah becomes mythic, poetic, allegorical. The impenetrable veils of smoke are almost Cocteau-esquire, giving the film the sensuous richness of Scheheradze's chambers. At the same time, the mists accent Pepe's self-deception- his entire persona is fictive, as are his illusions of freedom and escape. The sequence of Pepe's fevered sprint toward the harbor may be maligned nowadays for its visual sloppiness, but I think it's absolutely marvelous, masterfully capturing Pepe's childlike impetuousness. As Pepe courses onward, the surrounding Casbah gradually blurs around him, the juxtaposition of back/foreground indicating his flight from one fantasy into another, as well as highlighting the sheer depth of his delusory monomania and tunnel-visioned myopia. As psychology transformed into image, this one works.

Beyond everything, Pepe Le Moko is a deeply cynical film, its slightly jaundiced perspective on human nature reminding one of Clouzot, Hitchcock and Joseph Conrad. The entire film is a tight lattice of interwoven self-interests- look at the Parisienne's corpulent, autocratic husband, the obsence, oleaginous Regis and the servile, serpentine Slimane for some fine examples of the vile characters on display. Even the character who loves deeply and truly, the forbearing Ines, would rather betray Pepe than be estranged from him...a commentary on the covetous, self-serving nature of love, perhaps?

I haven't seen any other Duvivier films, but he doesn't seem to be the humanist that Becker and Renoir are, and I can appreciate him all the more for that. Like Becker, he seems to have been largely misunderstood and under-appreciated in his time, at least on these shores, and the interview appended on the Criterion disk suggest that he was a retiring and modest sort, never garrulous about his art (and hesitant to even think of it as art, which it assuredly is). What a film this is....a terrific achievement. I love the golden age of French cinema, and this affirms and reinforces that affection.

Film noir from the French, before they invented the phrase

[tprofumo · 23 April 2002]

"Pepe Le Moko" is an early film noir, coming several decades before the French themselves invented the term to explain atmospheric American crime films. And it is one of the best, a film ranking right up there with the work of Melville, Becker, and other top post war directors.

This is being billed in the US now as a sort of lost film. Actually, it wasn't lost. Hollywood simply bought the rights and kept it off American movie screens so it could release its own remake of it in 1938, retitled "Algiers." That wasn't a half bad film, made enjoyable for the most part because it was a very off-beat story, had great atmosphere and featured the breathtakingly beautiful Hedy Lamarr in the role of Gaby.

At first, when looking at this French original, you wonder why it seems so familiar. Then you realize that the Hollywood version is almost a shot for shot remake, copying almost everything. Everything, that is, but the performance of Jean Gabin.

Hollywood's version, which stared Charles Boyer, always seemed a little contrived, primarily because Boyer was just not very convincing as the tough Paris gangster who pulls a bank heist and flees to Algiers, where he takes up permanent residence in the Arab quarter, the Casbah. Boyer just didn't seem like the gangster type.

Gabin, who had played rough characters before and would go on to play many others, is perfect as the smart, charismatic, but sometimes brutal Pepe.

It is ironic that the French, so in love with gangster films that they copied American cops and robbers films of the 30s, actually made one of their own in that era that wound up being copied by the Americans.

This one is well worth seeing.

"Everyone in the world has two fatherlands: his own and Paris".

[Galina_movie_fan · 10/10 · 28 March 2007]

"Pepe Le Moko" (1937) directed by Julien Duvivier - is a wonderful movie with the great performance from very young Jean Gabin. It just happened that I've seen several movies with him in the older age where he is serious, not very talkative man with the head full of grey hair and I like him in the later movies, too but it was so much fun to see him as Pepe - young, charming, dangerous, smart, brutal, irresistible, and so much in love with Paris that he'd lost forever. As much as I enjoyed the film as an early noir and crime, I think it is about the longing for home, about the nostalgia and as such it is even more interesting, deeper, poignant that just a noir. The celebrated film director Max Ophüls, who knew a lot about nostalgia and immigration said about Paris,

"It offered the shining wet boulevards under the street lights, breakfast in Monmartre with cognac in your glass, coffee and lukewarm brioche, gigolos and prostitutes at night. Everyone in the world has two fatherlands: his own and Paris."

I could not help thinking of his words when I watched the film. There is one scene that almost reduced me to tears - a middle-aged former chanteuse plays one of her records on a gramophone and sings along with her voice that has not changed at all even if she looks nothing like the picture on the wall from the days of her youth. The time may play very nasty jokes with a woman - she may get fat or skinny, lose her teeth and hair but her voice will stay as strong or tender, ringing or melodious as it was in the long gone days that stay forever in her memory. She sings about Paris and there are tears on her eyes and the scene simply can't leave any viewer indifferent. There is another scene - between Pepe and Gaby the girl from Paris with whom Pepe falls in love (Mireille Balin). They talk about Paris remembering different places which are dear to both of them, and in the end, they both named La Place Blanche where they both belong and not in Algiers's Casbah where Pepe is safe and he rules the world of criminals but can't forget the sound of Metro in Paris. When Pepe wants to tell Gaby that he loves her, he tells her that she reminds him of Metro in Paris...

I have not even mentioned how masterfully the film was shot by Julien Duvivier and how well it was acted, how fast it movies, and there are so many wonderful scenes that I have not mentioned...Great, great movie.

The Casbah

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 16 December 2005]

Julien Duvivier was one of the best French film directors of all times. He was a pioneer and an innovator of the cinema. His legacy is a rich one, producing films that were imitated, but never equaled by other men. Take "Pepe le Moko" is 1937 film that was remade by Hollywood twice, with mediocre results. One wonders how can, an original and pace setting work of art, be redone by people that had not the sense of style, nor the brilliancy of Julien Duvivier?

Duvivier took the production to Algiers with magnificent results. Working with the brilliant cinematographers, Marc Fossark and Jules Kruger, Duvivier captures the essence, vibrancy and mysteriousness of Algiers with emphasis in the Casbah quarter, which comes alive with the magical light his camera men got out of that closed quarter and that beautiful city by the sea.

The idea of having Pepe living in that maze of streets and houses that communicate through the roofs gives the film a claustrophobic feeling because our main character cannot leave this area without risking being arrested as soon as the police catch up with him. Pepe is a man that endears himself to the people in the Casbah. Together with his gang, he appears to thrive in this milieu.

Pepe is loved by the faithful Ines. She is a loyal woman who will do anything to protect Pepe and the rest of his cronies. Pepe, on the other hand, might be in the Casbah, but his heart is in Paris. That is evident when Gaby, the gorgeous kept woman, is separated from her party while at the Casbah, only to be rescued by Pepe, who soon discovers he has a lot in common with her. In fact, in a lovely sequence both Pepe and Gaby start naming favorite places in Paris. Place Blance, they discover is their kind of place. How true!

Pepe is a hunted man. This man, who has been able to elude being caught, makes a fatal mistake upon learning Gaby and her friends will be sailing for France. He manages to buy a ticket, but the police are on his trail and it's only a matter of time they'll get him. The final sequence of Pepe watching the ship pull away from the port is one of the saddest moments in the movie because this gangster's past interferes with the sudden passion he feels for a woman that will never be his.

Jean Gabin, what a charismatic actor he was! His Pepe is at times a fun man, a criminal, a lover, an escapee from the justice, and a fantastic actor that registers each phase of the character with conviction. M. Gabin was perhaps one of the best film actors of the French cinema; with Pepe, he clearly shows why he was an actor that could do nothing wrong. Pepe was one of his biggest creations for the screen.

The beautiful Mireille Balin is seen as Gaby, the woman who conquers Pepe's heart. They have a lot in common. Her unusual situation gets in her way and her love for Pepe will not be possible. Line Noro plays Ines, the woman who adores Pepe, but she realizes she can't have him. Also in the cast Fernand Charpin, Gabro, Lucas Giroux, Gilbert Gil give good performances for M. Duvivier.

The film is a classic of the period. Julien Duvivier was at the top of his craft, as he clearly proves with this movie.

French Gangsters... pre-Melville

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 8 April 2016]

A wanted gangster is both king and prisoner of the Casbah. He is protected from arrest by his friends, but is torn by his desire for freedom outside. A visiting Parisian beauty may just tempt his fate.

English author Graham Greene in a review of the film stated "One of the most exciting and moving films I can remember seeing... Raises the thriller to a poetic level!" According to a BBC documentary, it served as inspiration for Greene's acclaimed novel "The Third Man". This would be quite interesting. "Pepe" is seen as a precursor to film noir, but in my opinion "Third Man" is one of the greatest films of all time... if this film was a direct influence, it deserves to be studied by more film lovers.

Rock the Casbah

[blanche-2 · 10/10 · 13 November 2006]

A gang of thieves hide out above Algiers in the Arab section of the city, the Casbah, in "Pepe le Moko," a 1937 film - an homage to the U.S. gangster movie - that is often credited as the inspiration for the film noir craze that swept U.S. cinema. In order to draw attention to the American version, "Algiers," producer Walter Wanger tried to destroy all copies, subsequently buying the rights to keep it off the screen. But you can't keep a good movie down.

Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin) is wanted by the police, so if he leaves the crowded and maze-like Casbah to go into town, they will nail him. There is an inspector who keeps an eye on Pepe, Inspector Slimane. Pepe and the inspector have become friends, but Pepe knows Slimane is just waiting for him to make his move. When Pepe meets the exotic and bejeweled Gaby, a situation presents itself where he might risk his freedom.

Pepe is the great French actor Jean Gabin, a marvelous-looking, rugged actor with tremendous magnetism. It's no wonder Marlene Dietrich chased him all over the world. Gabin's Pepe is the forerunner of the Bogart persona - he's a confident, handsome man, dismissive of women and has the ability to be both funny and cruel. He lives with his devoted girlfriend, Ines, and is surrounded by his motley mob who are familiar with the seedier side of life.

There are some brilliant moments and great performances in this film, which is rich in atmosphere and interesting faces. The French star Mireille Balin, whose real-life story is more bizarre than any fiction, is Gaby, a kept woman who enchants le Moko as they talk about their great love for Paris, most especially, Place Blanche. Line Noro is Ines, doomed to love and lose Pepe, and Frehel is Tania, a friend. In one of the best scenes in the film, Tania reminisces about her youth and sings along with her own recording. A wonderful artist. The entire cast is marvelous. The director, Julien Duvivier, orchestrates the proceedings with tremendous style and tension, capturing the heat, the light and the sounds of the Casbah.

Often imitated - by "The Third Man," "Odd Man Out," "Casablanca," "The Time Of Your Life," "To Have And Have Not," "The Wages of Fear," -- and let's not forget Pepe le Pew - "Pepe le Moko" and Jean Gabin's Pepe stand on their own as hallmarks in film history.

Pepe Le Moko

[harveyeton · 7/10 · 21 November 2006]

I found this film very well shot, particularly the opening introduction of the Casbah, with each shot representing the well thought out narration. However, the particular theme of the film that interested me was the role of women in the film. Having been made in the 30's, there is of course a varying degree of sexism, which we see throughout the film. Despite the fact the protagonist is a gangster, we still see a shocking display of behaviour towards women, but in a subtle light. There are various conversations between the men on the subject of women, and how they should be beaten and kept in their place. The most shocking part of this is the way they talk about it in the presence of the women. Pepe le Moko uses his partner like a piece of rubbish, and does with her as he likes, not caring how she feels. In conclusion, his character portrays a sly and cool gangster, but with his frustration at times, he can lose it, and our respect lessens for him.

The greatest French director?

[dbdumonteil · 10/10 · 5 May 2004]

Some say Renoir.Some say Carné.Some say Clouzot.Some will say..yuk ..Godard..

I say Duvivier.His career spans half a century,from the silent era to the sixties,full of detours and retreats.But when he broke through -and his epiphanies were many and various, (there are masterpieces all along his career;never until the very end he produced anything mediocre)he made brilliant films.

But those precious years just before WW2 were justly looked upon as the best French cinema that had ever been.And Duvivier was among the creme de la creme ,producing during this golden era a chef-d'oeuvre a year (la belle equipe:1936;la fin du jour:1939).But 1937 was Duvivier's year:he made not one but two classics :"un carnet de bal" and "Pepe le Moko" both rated four stars by Leonard Maltin.

"Pepe le Moko" 's screenplay is so simple it's a wonder Duvivier could make such a masterwork from such a script.More than the story itself,it's the atmosphere which matters ,and a bevy of colorful characters surrounding the hero,played by the director's favorite actor Jean Gabin :one often forgets that it's Duvivier who launched Gabin,the most famous French star of the era (and maybe of all time)in such works as "la bandera" (1935)and "la belle equipe" (1936).

"Pepe " takes place in Algiers ,in some kind of ghetto" la casbah" .the hero is a gangster who reigns in this underground world ,but we soon discover he is actually a prisoner:a cop,like a spider on its web, is waiting for him to leave his refuge to arrest him.Duvivier's camera work is dazzling ,using panoramic shots which depicts la casbah as a maze ;when Pepe finally leaves the place ,the background behind him becomes blurred ,then merges with the sea,the gate of freedom.More than a gangster story ,it's a tale of nostalgia.Pepe falls in love with a woman (Mireille Balin) "from the outside world" while talking with her about different places in Paris,ending with la place blanche where they both belong.There 's the harrowing sequence where a has-been chanteuse (Frehel) plays one of her records on a gramophone ,thinks of her glorious past,and sings the chorus with her youth's voice as her tears fall down.

There are also exciting film noir sequences:the informer (Charpin) ,more and more terrified ,as the room fills with men ready to kill him;his death against a player piano ;Pepe behind the gates in the harbor.All the final scenes had probably a strong influence on Carol Reed's "odd man out" (1947)

Remade as "Algiers" by John Cromwell(1938) ,Charles Boyer taking on Gabin's part.

Good, but no masterpiece

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 12 August 2002]

In 1937 France, thief Pepe Le Moko (Jean Gabin) is hiding out in the city's notorious Casbah district. One step out of it and he'll be sent to jail. He falls in love with a high class woman, Gaby (Mireille Balin) but he must leave the Casbah to be with her...and the police are closing in.

This is a good movie...at times a great one, but not the masterpiece I've heard it is. It drags at times and some of the subtitles read pretty stupidly. Also there's some truly ugly sexism on display. But, it's well directed by Julien Duvivier and Gabin was one hell of an actor. He's handsome, intelligent and full of charisma. In one great sequence, he's so happy that he's literally singing and you see how it affects everyone around him. Also Balin is beyond beautiful and Lucas Gridoux (as a sleazy detective) and Gilbert Gil are very good. And the ending is shattering and very moving.

So...it's a very good French film.

It's just been reissued in a beautiful new print (as of August 2002)...try to catch it.

Women Were His Salvation and Doom

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 31 January 2006]

In the 30's, in Algeria, the charming Parisian gangster Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin) rules in the district of Casbah. Surrounded and protected by the women and his gang, he is unattainable by the French and Algerian police forces, but also he has been imprisoned in the area for two years. The police unsuccessfully try to bring Pépé le Moko to the center of Algiers to capture him, and he misses his former life in Paris and Marseilles. The astute and ambiguous Algerian inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux) promises to arrest Pépé le Moko the day he leaves Casbah. When Pépé meets the French Gaby Gould (Mireille Balin), she represents everything he misses in his life, and he has a crush on her, bringing a fatal jealousy in his mate, Inès (Line Noro).

"Pépé le Moko" is a great film-noir, with a good romance and excellent locations. The screenplay is very well developed, showing clearly the maze where Pépé is trapped, and explaining each character very well. Jean Gabin has an excellent performance in the role of a seductive criminal; Mireille Balin is extremely elegant, wearing beautiful costumes; and Lucas Gridoux is perfect in the role of the smart inspector Slimane. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Demônio da Algéria" ("The Demon of Algeria")

Gabin was excellent but the plot had a few too many clichés

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 31 October 2006]

This was a very stylish film that I did enjoy, but not nearly as much as I thought. While considered a classic, Gabin's excellent performance and the movie's overall style was not enough to help it overcome one glaring cliché. You see, Pepe Le Moko is supposed to be the coolest and smartest thief in the Casbah, but time and again late in the film he just acts stupidly. Think about it--Le Moko has successfully avoided capture for years and is just too cool for words BUT in this film, he falls hard for a woman he barely even knows--leading to his ultimate downfall. You know, the silly old "love at first sight" cliché that they use in films when they want a quick and cheap plot device. Also, while the ending is really neat to watch, killing yourself that easily and quickly with a small pocket knife is ridiculous and ill-conceived. Without these, the film might have merited an 8 or 9. As it is, the film just seems like a great example of a film that ALMOST hits its mark. Still, the film is overall a bit better than its American remake, ALGIERS.

Good Riddance!

[disinterested_spectator · 5/10 · 20 December 2014]

You can tell when a movie is trying to impose an attitude on you, but it just doesn't take. We are obviously supposed to regard Pépé as a charming rogue, but I thought he was rude and inconsiderate. We are supposed to feel sorry for Inès, who truly loves him, but it is hard to care about a woman who will allow a man to treat her like dirt.

We are supposed to believe that Pépé and Gaby truly love each other, but I could not begin to swallow that one. Though Pépé appears to be about thirty years old, and supposedly has had his way with countless women, yet we are asked to believe he would fall madly in love with Gaby at first sight, acting as if he had the emotional maturity of an adolescent half his age. And she is a hard boiled, gold-digging mistress of an older man, so true love at first sight does not suit her very well either.

We are not supposed to like Slimane, but I kept pulling for him to catch Pépé and put him in prison as he deserves. But nothing so mundane. When Pépé realizes he cannot have the woman he loves, he carves himself up with a knife. Oh well, at least the bad guy died in the end.

The exotic origin of film noir

[dominic-9 · 1 February 1999]

Pepe le Moko marks a fundamental step in the aesthetic development of european cinema. It is also one of many great crime films of the thirties that is sadly overlooked in many critics top 100 lists.

Through it's lush sense of location and character Duvivier builds up a sweaty, exotic and complex picture of the underworld life of the Kasbah and the vast panorama of engagingly seedy characters especially Pepe le Moko, played with such effortlessly charismatic ease by Jean Gabin. But it is the rich claustrophobic atmosphere and the relentless pressure of the police that powers this film along to it's elegantly tragic conclusion. A masterpiece, and the clearest fore-runner to the whole film noir genre.

Fantastic

[gbill-74877 · 9/10 · 14 April 2021]

The atmosphere that Julien Duvivier creates in this film is absolutely fantastic. The narrow streets filled with multicultural characters, the flourish of details in the set designs, and how he portrays the seediness and danger of it all really stands out for a film from 1937, and holds its own against films from decades later. Jean Gabin has never been better than he was here, playing a gangster hiding out in the Casbah portion of Algiers. He's a ladies man who falls for the mistress of an older man, played by the radiant Mireille Balin, who the police hope to use to lure him out of hiding. He's very open about his playing around to his heartbroken girlfriend (Line Noro, who also shines), just as the film is open about letting us know that Gabin and Balin's characters have a physical relationship. There is a mix of toughness, romance, double-crossing, and expat sentimentality for Paris here, and it's all blended together into a very satisfying tale. The ending is excellent, that moment with the ship's horn especially. Oh, and look for the wonderful little scene Fréhel has when she says "when I feel down, I change eras ... I think of my youth, I look at my old photo and imagine it's a mirror" before winding up an old phonograph and singing along to it. Simply sublime.

Plenty of pep

[seveb-25179 · 8/10 · 6 October 2018]

One of the classic crime fiction films ever made and a fantastic time capsule containing the distilled exotic ambience of French colonial Algiers. Like many French movie stars, Jean Gabin is no oil painting, but he does have a certain energy and charisma, and he needs to, in order to avoid being upstaged by the colourful menagerie supporting players who surround him. Wanted by the French authorities, master criminal Pepe le Moco and his gang take refuge in the seamy labyrinth of the Algiers Casbah, where the police can never quite catch up with them, but slowly his sanctuary becomes his prison... Meanwhile the wily local inspector bides his time until a woman provides the flashpoint that could prove to be Pepe's undoing. If you have enjoyed the feel of Casablanca you may well fall in love with this one.

GABIN IN HIS SIGNATURE ROLE...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 2 May 2021]

French royalty Jean Gabin's signature role in this 1937 melodrama. Gabin lives in a seedy section of the Casbah in Algiers & is smart enough to stay amongst his own, knowing if he steps outside of his comfort zone, the cops will have him. The authorities known this as well as they take an opportunity to snatch him up when a French national goes missing in the Casbah & comes into Gabin's orbit where he thinks he can return home again as their relationship blossoms. If all of this sounds familiar, it does since Charles Boyer would remake the film (called Algiers) the following year. It's great to see where the original idea came from & since I'm very Gabin deficient (I did see The Grand Illusion), it's nice to trace the DNA of where the prototype began.

A fool for love and risk

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 28 March 2021]

Pepe LeMoko first was portrayed on the silver screen by French acting legend Jean Gabin. Despite American versions of this story starring Charles Boyer and Tony Martin, this became the standard the others are measured by.

The Casbah section of old Algiers is where noted thief LeMoko holds sway and the natives accord him demi-god status. No doubt from the fact he's paid off the native population well for protection. An attempt is made by the French occupiers to go in and take him out, but the police are made fools of.

It's hen protection becomes a prison. And the sight of a beautiful and chic French woman played by Mireille Belin sets Pepe to thinking about what he can't have.

Beilin is wonderful in the Delilah role opposite Gabin's Samson. But there's more to it than carnal desire. Pepe lives for his work, the planning and execution of a caper, pitting his wits against law enforcement. His real nemesis Inspector Slimane knows Pepe better than Gabin knows himself. Slimane is played well by Romanian actor Carlos Gridaux.

As for Gabin he creates in Pepe one of the great portrayals of his career. He led a life quite similar to one of the existential characters of his career.

Smartly directed by Julien Duvivier. Pepe holds quite well, as well as the Hollywood version starring Charles Boyer that came out th following year..

This is one not to miss.

Film Noir Deluxe - Pepe le Moko

[arthur_tafero · 7/10 · 17 August 2021]

Jean Gabin is a legend of French cinema, although he is not too well known in the US. Film students and other film aficionados will know his name, of course. This is his masterpiece, as the script, characterizations and location are first-rate. The location, the Casbah in Algiers, was one of the best locations to shoot a film in the history of cinema. In this film, Gabin is a sucker for love. In real life, hoods like him are seldom, if ever, a sucker for love. But this is the movies; so enjoy the fantasy.

Rarity wanted by so many

[marcin_kukuczka · 8/10 · 15 July 2007]

When you think of film noir, your thoughts are most likely to be around American movies. Moreover, if you are more knowledgeable of old cinema and you hear of the Casbah criminal, it most probably makes you think of ALGIERS (1938) with Charles Boyer. But...it appears that a true classic concerning the theme had been a bit earlier. PEPE LE MOKO from 1937: a French film noir made before WWII, directed by one of the greatest directors of the time, Julien Duvivier, with such talented cast like Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Gilbert Gil and Lucas Gridoux. The film was quite popular in Europe before WWII but later, a lot of people simply forgot it. However, nowadays, surprising as it may seem, PEPE LE MOKO is a pure rarity, a very interesting work that memorably combines action, charm, great performances, marvelous shots and unforgettable scenes. Yes, PEPE LE MOKO has become even more powerful after these 7 decades when film noir fails to reflect its most precious aspects, like good action, thrill and content.

Jean Gabin is excellent in the lead. He portrays the most wanted gangster, a charming thief hiding in the maze like section of Algiers, the Casbah, where everybody look for him but nobody can capture him. It is Pepe Le Moko on whose funeral there would be three thousand widows lamenting but who, at last, finds the love of his life. That love, however, can never be fulfilled... Jean depicts this man extremely well. I think that he was really a great actor and I will look for his other movies. Considering other performances, Milleine Balin is very convincing as lustful exotic Gaby worn in jewels, a beauty as if from a thousand and one nights who reminds Pepe of the Parisian underground. Lucas Gridoux as Inspector Slimane also does a fine job showing his character's indefatigable desire to capture Pepe and ways of investigation galore.

Action is another flawless aspect of the movie. It is managed so well and so flexibly that the viewer never gets bored. All the time, something is happening and captivates a person who has at last decided to see this film. It is, perhaps, unusual for such old movies to keep viewer's attention, but indeed accurate to say it about Duvivier's film - action of PEPE LE MOKO has already stood a test of time with marvelous results.

Memorable moments are something much to talk about. First, I will never forget the presentation of the Casbah - narrow streets of peculiar names, maze like group of buildings, different nationalities, various girls of various size... Authentic locations of Algiers section provides this moment (as well as most part of the movie) with exceptional atmosphere. Another key moment is close the end when an elderly lady Tania (Frehel), aiming to improve her mood, puts on a song on a gramophone, a song she once used to sing on stage, and starts to sing along with her recorded voice. The voice is the same, after all these years, but, this time, her eyes are full of tears... Finally, the third brilliant moment is when Pepe talks to Gaby about Paris - a wonderful moment of cinematography, lightning lingering on their nostalgic faces as they enumerate the places of Paris. Here, great thanks to Marc Fossard! And this technical aspect is something I'd like to discuss in more details (if you don't mind such a long review).

Whenever I consider such old films, I usually focus on camera movement. Memorably invented by F.W.Murnau in his masterpiece THE LAST LAUGH (1924), it was the most creative aspect of most movies from the late 1920s and the 1930s. PEPE LE MOKO can boast a true masterwork in this case. Camera lingers on important aspects of the scenes and, consequently, while watching the movie, you really know what it's going at. Everything is strictly planned, patterned (paradoxically many films have primarily forgotten about it nowadays). Consider, for instance, a brilliant technical moment when Pepe leaves the Casbah: this unforgettable focus on his footsteps, then his face, his head and the changing background from the streets to the sea.

PEPE LE MOKO is a very fine movie that should not be forgotten, a classic of film noir with great cast and an amazing exemplification of good technical job. Well worth seeking out! 9/10

OK - NOT Great

[zaarnak · 7/10 · 1 June 2005]

Pépé le Moko is a good picture, all right, but it is certainly not a great one, primarily because the story is told without much tension or credibility. How is Pépé characterized as a 'gangster?' He is a small timer. His cronies are just oddballs without much impact in the movie. None of these guys seem to have anything to do. Pépé is kind of a wimp, I'm afraid, whose suspicious indecision is fatal.

The 'beauty' from Paris is not very attractive. However, she has some nice jewelry which the small time hood (Pépé) covets. There was no 'magic' between Pépé and Gaby (the 'beauty'). Sparkless.

I enjoyed the pacing of the picture and Jean Gabin's valiant attempt to make Pépé as interesting as possible. I'm not sure he had much to work with. It's too bad Marcel Dalio had such a small role...he worked so well with Gabin in "The Grand Illusion."

Far Superior to "Algiers" -- Which Was Itself a Very Fine Film!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 28 August 2008]

Grim, shocking, realistic, yet undeniably romantic, Pepe le Moko has justly been hailed as one of the ten best films produced in France in the 1930s. The leads, Gabin and Balin, contrive to be both realistic yet poetic, aided by skillful direction, atmospheric photography and a haunting music score. Anyone who views this film first and then watches the Hollywood remake will notice how slavishly director John Cromwell duplicates both Julien Duvivier's camera angles and frame arrangements. And why not? In most cases, Duvivier's inventiveness was impossible to equal, let alone surpass. And as for the performances, with one or two exceptions—Boyer is the equal of Gabin, but his interpretation is geared to his far more romantic (in both senses of that word) screen personality—the originals outclass their imitators. Hedy Lamarr, alas, does not stand up to the wonderfully exotic but earthy Mireille Balin. It seems at odds with her screen image, but I feel Hedy brings a guileless innocence to the role, which is certainly interesting (and she looks great) but is not what the part demands. Cromwell has coached her to actually play against the script rather than with it, no doubt partly to assuage the Hollywood censor. In addition to the stars of the French version, three portraits really stand out in the support cast: Charpin as the venal informer, Lucas Gridoux as the sly, ostensibly friendly inspector, and Frehél as the overweight but still optimistic has-been. I love her nostalgic little song (just one of a few really memorable moments which are completely missing from the Hollywood movie).

Expected more, to be honest

[anilyasar72 · 6/10 · 3 January 2021]

The plot sounds promising enough at first: there's a wanted criminal, the infamous Pépé le Moko, lurking in the narrow streets of Algiers' notorious Casbah, played by Jean Gabin (always a solid choice for this type of characters), who's evaded capture for two years already, ridiculing French police forces and their informers at every turn, because the Casbah's inhabitants got his back. Then a Parisian lady turns up, and everything starts to go awry, culminating in a cliché-ridden "love at first sight"-story development and an ending the German language would best describe as pure Kitsch.

I was really looking forward to see this one, really wanting to like it; although there are a few memorable moments shining through here and there (like the old singer emotionally reminiscing her long gone days of youth over a record she plays), there simply isn't enough of what I need to classify it as a gangster movie: not enough grit, not enough action, barely any interesting character.

I just feel this could have been so much more, especially with the Algerian setting; the material was certainly there. Wasted potential, sorry to say!

Interesting Film

[shadownlite · 5/10 · 24 May 2003]

The setting was great with the showing of the city but the story was a little silly. I had to laugh at the ending...a bit to melodramatic. It is a good film to watch to pass the time however. I would watch it again if given the chance.