Pépé le Moko (1937)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Julien Duvivier

Writers:

Henri La Barthe (novel)
Henri La Barthe (scenario) ...

Release Date:

3 March 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Pépé le Moko is a gangster from Paris that hides in Algier's Casbah. In the Casbah, he is safe and is...

Plot Keywords:

Casbah | Police | Gangster | Algeria | Gang

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	Pépé le Moko
Gabriel Gabrio	...	Carlos
Saturnin Fabre	...	Le Grand Père
Fernand Charpin	...	Régis (as Charpin)
Lucas Gridoux	...	Inspecteur Slimane
Gilbert Gil	...	Pierrot (as Gilbert-Gil)
Marcel Dalio	...	L'Arbi (as Dalio)
Charles Granval	...	Maxime (as Granval)
Gaston Modot	...	Jimmy
René Bergeron	...	Inspecteur Meunier (as Bergeron)
Paul Escoffier	...	Chef Inspecteur Louvain (as Escoffier)
Roger Legris	...	Max (as Legris)
Jean Témerson	...	Gravère (as Temerson)
Robert Ozanne	...	Gendron
Philippe Richard	...	Janvier

Also Known As:

Les nuits blanches (France) (working title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Arabic

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone)

Certification:

Singapore:PG | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Algiers, Algeria

Company:

Paris Film

Trivia:

When Walter Wanger produced Algiers (1938), the American remake, he tired to have all copies of "Pépé le Moko" destroyed. Fortunately, he was not able to do so.

Goofs:

Continuity: In a scene after Pierrot's death, Pepe is getting progressively drunker and his suit coat opens to reveal more of his shirt. His shirt has the monogram of "J.G." on the pocket; clearly the monogram of the actor (Jean Gabin) and not the character.

Quotes:

Pépé le Moko: Blame it on the Casbah.

Movie Connections:

Featured in La marge (1976)

A wealth of cinematic connections, and cultural and historical conclusions.

It is widely reported that Graham Greene, usually bitingly severe when it came to film criticism, was almost lost in praise for Pepe Le Moko. This is very interesting, as he effectively wrote and screen-adapted his own even more brilliant version a decade or so later, in the form of the incomparable The Third Man (1949). Jean Gabin's Pepe's effective imprisonment in the Kasbah becomes Orson Welles' Harry Lime's own condemnation to haunt only the Russian sector and the sewers of Vienna, where the Russians can use him and the British cannot reach him. And Mireille Balin's Gaby becomes Alida Valli's Anna, respectively the direct and indirect causes for the downfall of the anti-heroes whom they love. And the sly but ruthless inspector Slimane becomes the relentless Major Calloway. And the shadows and camera-work are in spirit transported from one film to the other, as are the little poignant moments like the child on the Kasbah lane, who becomes the little boy with the ball. Another classic with strong connections to Pepe Le Moko is The Wages of Fear (1953), with Yves Montand again a Frenchman for whom Paris is the universe, trapped this time by penury in a South American backwater that he hates, with death again in the last scene providing an alternative release from such bondage. And the unorthodox, opportunist and patient tactics of inspector Slimane recall the equally ruthless brooding intensity of Major Ali Tufan in Topkapi (1964) - both lawmen getting their European men. There is a much wider lesson in this, and never more so than at this time of Western capitulation in Iraq. These films, like also the brilliant Oeil Pour Oeil (An Eye For An Eye, 1957), are typical of a very long tradition by film-makers of keenly recognising the fact that the Islamic world generally made a very bad foe, and a very good grave, for Westerners. The imperial British in Afghanistan and Rudyard Kipling as their troubadour understood exactly as much, too. They may fight opportunistically and they may fight suicidally, but in the end their overwhelming asset is that they fight at home, against displaced Westerners who are as uncomprehending as they are repelled in such alien lands. And the result is always the same, extendable by analogy to Viet Nam and other wars. Films such as all the above may be fiction, but their greatness lies in their profound observation and perspective on life and the real world. Perhaps every new government in Washington, Canberra and elsewhere should be sat down to such great examples of the cinematic art, on the off chance that they might have enough perspicacity to detect in them some of the fundamental truths that they seem to have missed via other means.