Pepe Le Moko (The Criterion Collection)
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Actor: Gabriel Gabrio, Jean Gabin, Line Noro, Lucas Gridoux, Mireille BalinBrand: Criterion
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Pepe Le Moko (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: A Young Magnetic Gabin IS Pepe le Moko
Summary: 5 Stars
"Pepe le Moko," (1936) is a classic French film, a black and white crime/drama/romance, and an early film noir, made before the concept was even codified, by the French, of course. It was based on a novel by Henri La Barthe, writing under the nom de plume of "Ashelbe," which is simply the author's initials: he also did the screen play. Julien Duvivier directed. It concerns the notorious Pepe le Moko, Parisian gangster, on the lam after pulling off a big Marseilles bank job in which there were casualties. He's a wanted man, and he must cool his heels in the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers, in what was then the French colony of Algeria, in Northern Africa. Within the Casbah, the native quarter, he is beloved, extremely popular with the women, and safe from the police, who, however, never stop scheming as to how they may yet net him. And then he meets and falls for Gaby Gould, a gorgeous Parisienne, and leaves the Casbah for her. It is his undoing.
The magnetic young French actor Jean Gabin, who was born in Montmartre, Paris, embodied the title role magnificently: he had the presence, the chops and the charisma to make it his. Mireille Balin played the beauteous adventuress. Gilbert Gil plays Pierrot; the well-known theatrical star Marcel Dalio, who played Gabin's friend in Grand Illusion - Criterion Collection, and the croupier in Casablanca, plays L'Arbi. The film was made at the height of French interest in its colonies: it is exotic, moody, atmospheric as all get-out and gives us a great sense of the sun washed, multi-ethnic, menacing city. Black and white photography has seldom been used to better purpose: you can just about feel the heat.
It has been said that if "Pepe le Moko" had never been written, it would have had to have been written as a vehicle for Gabin, and I believe it. Later in his life, he had great success as Simenon's detective Maigret, but he's more than a little rough around the edges, and makes an entirely convincing gangster; he played many. It has also been said that if "Pepe le Moko" had never been made, the tremendously popular, Oscar-winning "Casablanca" would never have been made, and I believe that too. "Casablanca" borrows the sense of the atmospheric, mysterious, menacing northern African city, jammed with many different ethnic groups, in its entirety.
Between "Pepe" and "Casablanca," there was, of course, a third film, the 1938 Hollywood remake of "Pepe," called Algiers. It starred the very beautiful Hedy Lamarr as the adventuress, in which role she does quite well, her beauty sure helped; and Charles Boyer in the Pepe role. Boyer was, of course, a very handsome Frenchman, but he quite lacked the sheer working class presence that Gabin brought to the role, and cannot, actually, carry the picture as Gabin did. Walter Wanger produced the American copy; it is said that he tried to destroy all copies of the French original, which, luckily for us he was not able to do. To compare the two versions of the story is certainly instructive. It is said that actors were hired for the American copy based upon their resemblance to the French originators of the roles, and that Wanger had a Movieola running at all times in the studio as he was filming, making virtually scene for scene copies of the original. You can, in fact, see that the backgrounds are frequently identical, the lighting just the same, the placement of the actors just the same, and the actors strongly resemble those in "Pepe." There is, of course, something to be said for "Algiers," even so, but you owe it to yourself to see the original.
Description of Pepe Le Moko (The Criterion Collection)
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