Pépé le Moko
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Julien Duvivier
Screenplay by	Julien Duvivier Henri La Barthe Jacques Constant (adaptation) Henri Jeanson (dialogue)
Based on	Pépé le Moko by Henri La Barthe
Produced by	Raymond Hakim Robert Hakim
Starring	Jean Gabin
Cinematography	Marc Fossard Jules Kruger
Edited by	Marguerite Beaugé
Music by	Vincent Scotto Mohamed Ygerbuchen
Distributed by	Arthur Mayer and Joseph Burstyn (USA, 1941) The Criterion Collection (Region 1 DVD, 2004)
Release dates	28 January 1937 (1937-01-28) (France) 3 March 1941 (1941-03-03) (US)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Pépé le Moko ([pe.pe lə mo.ko]) is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier starring Jean Gabin, 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, it recounts the trapping of a gangster on the run in Algiers, who believes that he is safe from arrest in the Casbah.

Plot

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

• Jean Gabin as Pépé le Moko
• Gabriel Gabrio as Carlos
• Mireille Balin as Gaby Gould, the beautiful Parisienne
• Saturnin Fabre as Le Grand Père
• Fernand Charpin as Régis
• Lucas Gridoux as Inspecteur Slimane
• Gilbert Gil as Pierrot
• Marcel Dalio as L'Arbi
• Charles Granval as Maxime
• Gaston Modot as Jimmy
• René Bergeron as Inspecteur Meunier
• Paul Escoffier as Chief Inspecteur Louvain
• Roger Legris as Max
• Jean Témerson as Gravèr
• Robert Ozanne as Gendron
• Philippe Richard as Janvier
• Georges Péclet as Barsac
• Line Noro as Inès
• Fréhel as Tania
• Olga Lord as Aïcha
• Renée Carl 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 Mireille Balin 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.^[1] Metacritic reports a score of 98, based on 12 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[2]

English author Graham Greene 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".^[3] According to a BBC documentary, it served as inspiration for Greene's screenplay for The Third Man. 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 and Charles Boyer, and again in 1948 as Casbah, a musical starring Tony Martin, Märta Torén, Yvonne de Carlo, and Peter Lorre. The title character's French accent and womanizing, as portrayed by Charles Boyer in the 1938 remake, inspired the name and comic premise of the Looney Tunes cartoon character, Pepé Le Pew, introduced in 1945.^[4]