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.
In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.
An aging, world-weary gangster is double-crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom.
Pierre Gilieth has committed a murder in Paris. He flees to Barcelona, where he runs out of money. So he joins the Spanish Foreign Legion. He meets there two fellow countrymen, Mulot and ... See full summary »
A charismatic thief makes friends with a bankrupt baron who comes to live in the thief's slum. Meanwhile the thief seeks the love of a young woman, who is held emotionally captive by her slumlord family.
A young couple, Renee and Pierre, take one night a room at the Hotel du Nord, in Paris, near the canal Saint-Martin. They want to die together, but after having shooted at Renee, Pierre ... See full summary »
Director:
Marcel Carné
Stars:
Annabella,
Jean-Pierre Aumont,
Louis Jouvet
During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from.
A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the Belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police description. His name is Amedee Lange, and he murdered Batala in Paris. ... See full summary »
Pépé le Moko is a gangster from Paris that hides in Algier's Casbah. In the Casbah, he is safe and is able to elude the police's attempts to capture him. But he misses his freedom, after two years in the Casbah. He meets a gorgeous Parisian tourist, Gaby, and they fall in love. Native inspector Slimane tries to use her to attract Pépé out of the Casbah in order to catch him. Written by
Yepok
A favorite film of Jordan Mohr and an influence on the Hollywood Mouth trilogy. See more »
Goofs
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 "JG" on the pocket; clearly the monogram of the actor (Jean Gabin) and not the character. See more »
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.
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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.