Pépé Le Moko-1937

In 1931, the year France celebrated the centenary of the conquest of Algeria Pépé Le Moko, a thriller written by “Détective Ashelbé” (a pseudonym for Henri La Barthe – Ashelbé is a homophone for the initials H.L.B.), was published. The Exposition coloniale staged in Paris was the culmination of the celebration of French colonialism. Designed to “give the French an awareness of their Empire,” the exhibiton reconstructed habitats, and displayed folkloric dances, artifacts and merchandise, from North and West Africa, Indochina. Colonialism is dead and gone which is a good thing. The film is to be seen as a souvenir that one might every now and then pick up with nostalgia.
Directed by Julien Duvivier in 1936, with a prestigious technical crew and starry cast headed by Jean Gabin, Pépé Le Moko came out on January 23, 1937. It was a box office and critical success which on release was described by Jean Cocteau as “a masterpiece” and by Graham Greene as “one of the most exciting and moving films I can remember seeing.” ( According to a BBC documentary, it served as inspiration for Greene's acclaimed novel, The Third Man.)

Pépé Le Moko has since continued to fascinate. The film was remade twice in Hollywood, as Algiers in 1938 and Casbah in 1948. There were other echoes, tributes and parodies to the spoof Toto le Moko (1949), which now gives its name to a Roman pizzeria. (Morrissey uses excerpts of the film in the song You Were Good in Your Time of his 2009 album Years of Refusal.)


The book is by Ashelbé who is a contemporary of Georges Simenon and wrote at a time when the thriller was undergoing a spectacular boom in France. His contemporary published his first Maigret books also in 1931. Unfortunately the book has not worn well with time as the film has.
It is a tale of French petty criminals sheltering in the Casbah at Algiers. Pépé Le Moko ('Moko' is slang for a man from Marseilles) unlike Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion, which also appeared in 1937, is not a classic in the sense as the Renoir film touching greatness thematically or technically. Pépé Le Moko despite its unsavory world and common style, transcends its pulp fiction material, and turns it into a powerful emotional statement on identity, desire and loss.
Pépé Le Moko is a classic because it is key to the French film noir tradition of the 1930s. As T.S. Eliot put it in a different context, it “represents the perfection of the common style.” Lastly of course it stars Jean Gabin.

Plot
Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin) is a well-known criminal mastermind who eludes the French police by hiding in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows he is safe in this labyrinthine netherworld, where he is surrounded by his fellow thieves and cutthroats. Police inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux), who has developed a grudging respect for Pepe, bides his time, waiting for Pepe to try to leave the Casbah. When Gaby Gould (Mirielle Balin), a Parisian tourist, falls in love with Pepe, the inspector hopes to use this relationship to his advantage. He tells Gaby that Pepe has been killed, knowing that the heartbroken girl will return to Paris -- and that Pepe will risk everything to go after her. The part where the ship takes to sea with the foghorn tooting signals the poignant resolution to a love story that is too gossamer thin to be real.
Similar Works
Le Grand Jeu (1934, Jacques Feyder)
Moontide (1942, Fritz Lang, Archie Mayo)
Port of Shadows (1938, Marcel Carné)
Au-Dela Des Grilles (1948, René Clément)
La Bandera (1935, Julien Duvivier)
Le Jour Se Lève (1939, Marcel Carné)
Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
The Conspirators (1944, Jean Negulesco)
Other Related Works
Is related to: Casbah (1948, John Berry)
Is spoofed in: Totò le Moko (1949, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia)
Has been remade as: Algiers (1938, John Cromwell)
(Ack: Hal Erickson-allmovie., Ginette Vincendeau, from the introduction to Pépé Le Moko , a monograph published by the British Film Institute-1998., www.Filmforum.org)
benny