Pépé le Moko (1937)
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A French gangster Pépé is hiding in Casbah of Algiers and dreams of freedom and Paris.
The cat and mouse game between Pépé and Algerian inspector Slimane is something I don't usually like. I just keep thinking how much easier, safer and cheaper it would have been if Slimane (or French police) had had Pépé assassinated instead of the long plotting to get him out of Casbah. Also the relationship between the two makes one question Pépé's intelligence.
I liked the concept of Pépé being a prisoner in Casbah and his growing yearning to be back in Paris. I didn't see much hope for him and the film's ending was very fitting. There weren't characters I could sympathize with and especially the women in the film were truly revolting persons (particularly Inés).
Storywise there wasn't much. Pépé (and his mates) wandered around Casbah, Pépé treated women like trash and the women loved Pépé for it. Even the plot to get Pépé out of Casbah just materialized as he fell in love with vain escort from Paris. I suppose it's some sort of realism but it's just not very interesting to me.
Acting was pretty good for 1930s film and sets were nice as well (I'm not sure if any of the actual scenes were shot on location, IMDb says
panoramic views were shot in Casbah). Cinematography was alright with few good scenes. All in all it's a film that isn't exactly my type but I can still see the potential appeal. Personally I didn't like it that much but it barely misses the bad label.