Pepe le Moko (1937) is one of the masterpieces of the poetic realist movement that flourished in French cinema of the 1930s, and a film that became an inspiration for American film noir. Like other poetic realist films, Pepe le Moko deals with characters living on the margins of society. Jean Gabin plays a criminal known as "Pepe le Moko" ("Moko" was a slang expression for a sailor from the French port of Toulon) hiding out in the Casbah, the labyrinthine ancient quarter of Algiers, where police rarely venture. Pepe is a charismatic figure, dapper, charming, and beloved by the underworld denizens. As an admiring character tells us, he always has "a smile for his friends and a knife for his enemies." But Pepe is also lonely and isolated. His shelter has become his prison, because leaving the Casbah means certain arrest. Pepe's longing for home intensifies when he becomes involved in a doomed romance with Gaby, a Parisienne who is the mistress of a wealthy Frenchman, and the affair ultimately leads to his downfall.

Director Julien Duvivier shot some of Pepe le Moko in Algiers, but he felt that shooting in the actual Casbah would be a distraction, so he built a large stylized set at Pathe's Joinville studios. Duvivier, an expert craftsman, created a moody, atmospheric film, and Gabin's tough-guy allure and romantic melancholy made for a potent combination. The film made Gabin, already an important actor in France, a top international star. The script, the music, and a terrific supporting cast added to the film's appeal, and Pepe le Moko was a huge popular and critical success in France and around the world, including Japan, where it was the top-grossing film of 1937. Jean Cocteau declared it "a masterpiece." In his review, British novelist Graham Greene, who also worked as a film critic, called it "One of the most exciting and moving films I can remember seeing...I cannot remember seeing one which has succeeded so admirably in raising the thriller to a poetic level."

Pepe le Moko was not released in the United States until 1941, a victim of its international acclaim. MGM immediately bought the remake rights to the film, but had second thoughts when confronted with the characters' straightforward amorality, and sold the rights to independent producer Walter Wanger. As was the custom then, the original was kept off American screens until after the American version, Algiers (1938), was released and had ended its run. Wanger reportedly wanted Gabin to star in the remake, but Gabin demurred, saying that, like French wine, he didn't travel well. (Gabin's instincts were correct. The two films he made in America during World War II were flops.) Charles Boyer took on the role of Pepe, with Hedy Lamarr playing Gaby. Director John Cromwell allegedly had a moviola on the set of Algiers so he could copy the setups from Pepe le Moko. Cromwell also used location footage from the French original in Algiers. Pepe le Moko was remade as a musical called Casbah in 1948, starring Tony Martin as Pepe. Over the years, Pepe le Moko has been the inspiration for countless films, from Casablanca (1942), to the Warner Bros. cartoon character, Pepe le Pew, and an Italian spoof, Toto le Moko (1951), starring beloved comedian Toto.

Algiers was a box office hit, and its success led Wanger to finally release Pepe le Moko in the U.S. Audiences loved it. Critics rhapsodized. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times called it "the most distinguished 'new' French film in months and months...Jean Gabin's tough, unsentimental performance of the title role is much more credible and revealing than Charles Boyer's sad-eyed mooning in Algiers...Without criticizing Algiers, which was an exciting film in its own right, it can be fairly said that Pepe le Moko tells the same story more trenchantly and with decidedly more true flavor." The Time magazine critic was equally impressed. "By rights, the film should just be a dated straggler on the U.S. screen. Yet director Julien Duvivier's camera has caught such an accurate X-ray of a tortured mind, it deserves a gold star on any list...Having a copy from Hollywood for comparison, serious cinema students will find in Pepe le Moko an excellent example of a prime Hollywood weakness -- obeisance to its technical proficiency. With no scenic splendors to distract its attention, the French film studies its character with thought and patience."

Pepe le Moko was a high point of the poetic realism movement, and a defining moment in the careers of Jean Gabin and Julien Duvivier, a prolific and versatile director who began his film career in 1916, and worked until his death following a car accident in 1967 at the age of 71. But it was that very versatility that led to his dismissal by New Wave film critics of the 1960s as a polished hack, an empty technician who did not leave a distinctive imprint on his work like a true auteur. Yet Duvivier made some of the most memorable films in French cinema, from his own personal favorite, the silent version of Poil de Carotte (1925), to Pepe le Moko and Un Carnet de Bal (1937), to his last great film, Pot-Bouille (1957). As fellow director Claude Chabrol noted, "He was an auteur who didn't declare himself one. An auteur is someone who, whatever the subject, always manages to appropriate it; that's exactly the case of our friend Duvivier." In a tribute to Duvivier following his death, Jean Renoir wrote, "If I were an architect and I had to build a monument to the cinema, I would place a statue of Duvivier above the entrance...This great technician, this rigorist, was a poet."

Producers: Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim (both uncredited)
Director: Julien Duvivier
Screenplay: Henri Jeanson (dialogue); Détective Ashelbé, Julien Duvivier (scenario); J. Constant (adaptation); Ashelbé (novel)
Cinematography: Marc Fossard, Kruger
Music: Vincent Scotto, Mohamed Yguerbouchen
Film Editing: Marguerite Beaugé
Cast: Jean Gabin (Pépé le Moko), Gabriel Gabrio (Carlos), Saturnin Fabre (Le Grand Père), Charpin (Régis), Lucas Gridoux (Inspecteur Slimane), Gilbert-Gil (Pierrot), Dalio (L'Arbi), Granval (Maxime), Gaston Modot (Jimmy), Bergeron (Inspecteur Meunier).
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by Margarita Landazuri