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Not only was Julien Duvivier’s film Pépé le Moko highly influential, it’s also a very entertaining film, even today, and all the more so thanks to the magnificent restoration courtesy of Criterion. You’ll enjoy this film irregardless of whether you typically go in for art films or films from as far back as the 1930’s. It’s got atmosphere, romance, intrigue, betrayal, strong characters, and strong performances. If you enjoyed Casablanca, you’ll find this film cut from the same cloth.
Historical Background: Julien Duvivier had a long career as a director that ran from 1919 to 1967. His most famous film, Pépé le Moko (1937) was made at the height of the golden era of French cinema that featured such luminary directors as Jean Renoir, René Clair, Jacques Feyder, Marcel Carné, and Jean Vigo. Pépé le Moko deserves to be placed alongside the best of the works of these great masters, but Duvivier never again reached such lofty heights.
Duvivier initially wanted to be an actor, but neither his memory, voice, nor looks were favorable to that profession. He was advised by Andre Antoine to take up directing instead and joined Antoine as an assistant in 1916. Duvivier directed his first feature, Haceldama ou le Prix du Sang, in 1919. He began to earn his international reputation with such films as David Golder (1930), Poil de Carotte (1932) and The Golem (1936). Duvivier had extraordinary success in 1937, directing not one, but two, of his finest films: Un Carnet du Bal and Pépé le Moko. He had his first Hollywood experience in 1938 with The Great Waltz, which was fortunate, because that experience facilitated his removing himself from France during the war years and finding ready work in America. His best film in America during that time period was Tales of Manhattan (1942). After the war he returned to Europe, working on both sides of the English Channel. One of his most successful efforts, in fact, was a British version of Anna Karenina (1948), starring Vivien Leigh. His 1953 effort The Little World of Don Camillo won an award at the Venice Film Festival. Duvivier died at age 71 in 1967 in a car accident. Duvivier typically wrote or co-wrote his own film scripts.
The script for Pépé le Moko he co-scripted with Henri La Barthe (whose pen name was Detective Ashelbe) based on La Barthe’s own novel of the same name. Though the script is good, the wonder is that Duvivier was able to make such an exquisite film from a script that was no better than good. Pépé le Moko was not only his best film but his most influential as well. It can be considered the predecessor of the noir films and police stories that swept Hollywood during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Pépé le Moko was such a critical and box office success that Hollywood purchased the rights for a remake, producing Algiers, with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr, less than two full years later. Many of the scenes in Algiers are virtually frame-by-frame imitations of Pépé le Moko. Although Algiers is a very good film in its own right and boasts the more gorgeous of the two femme fatale lead ladies, Pépé le Moko is the altogether superior movie. The detail and atmosphere of the French film give it the more exotic feel. The choice between Boyer and Gabin (who plays the titular character in Pépé le Moko) is a matter of taste, but my preference is for Gabin.
Hollywood remade the film once again in 1948 as a musical, Casbah, directed by John Berry. The great classic Casablanca (1942), set in French Morocco, also bears the influence of Pépé le Moko, with its similar evocation of an exotic, smoky refugee haven. The actor Marcel Dallo appears in both films. The character Pépé can be readily seen as the forerunner of the noir personas of the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, and Steve McQueen.
The Story: Pépé (Jean Gabin) is a French criminal (jewel thief, bank robber, gangster) of great renown. The police in both France and Algiers have been after him for years but have been unable to nab him because he hides out in a crowded ghetto in Algiers called the Casbah. This teeming melting pot of humanity consists of a labyrinth of narrow streets, alleyways, interconnected courtyards, and stairways spread over a massive hill, from sea level to hilltop. In the Casbah live some 40,000 people in an area that should house no more than 10,000, The residents include Kabyles, Chinese, Gypsies, Heimatlos (stateless people), Slavs, Maltese, Blacks, Sicilians, Spaniards, and Arabs. For many of these people, Pépé is a celebrity and hero – a Robin Hood of the Casbah, a Prince of Plunder. The police risk their lives merely by entering the Casbah and the network of lookouts provide Pépé and his associates plenty of time to shift locations undetected through the network of buildings. One policeman, Inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux), has access to the Casbah and sees Pépé daily, but would be killed immediately were he to attempt to arrest Pépé. Slimane and Pépé have a kind of symbiotic relationship. Slimane makes no effort to disguise the fact that he hopes someday to arrest Pépé – but acknowledges that he cannot do so as long as Pépé is within the confines of the Casbah. Pépé knows that he is safe from Slimane so long as he exercises good judgment and due caution. The two have a kind of grudging respect for one another and, even, guarded friendship, like two chess masters maneuvering for positional advantage.
Pépé is safe only within the confines of the Casbah and is thus already imprisoned, in a sense, within its limits. He chafes at his confinement and longs for the high life of Paris. In the meantime, he enjoys the company of various women of the Casbah, of whom the Gypsy Ines (Line Noro) is his favorite.
The police chief is under pressure to capture Pépé. After an assault of the Casbah by some forty police officers fails to locate him, the police turn to a ruse suggested by the informant, Regis (Fernand Charpin). His plan centers on Pierrot (Gilbert Gil), one of the younger members of Pépé’s gang, of whom Pépé is almost paternally protective. Regis forges a letter from Pierrot’s mother, indicating that she is deathly ill, to lure Pierrot out of the Casbah where the police will be waiting to arrest him. The hope is that Pépé will rush to the rescue and into the waiting trap as well. Pépé, however, smells a rat and evades the trap. Quite naturally, this attempted betrayal proves costly to Regis.
Inspector Slimane has a somewhat similar scheme in mind but with more subtle bait. During the failed police assault, Pépé had been momentarily thrown together with a Parisian tourist – a jewel-bedecked beauty named Gaby Gould (Mireille Balin). Gaby had been fascinated by the mysterious, romantic and self-assured Pépé. For his part, Pépé had been equally captivated by Gaby, hardly knowing himself whether it was more due to her beauty, her indifference to danger, or the sparkling diamonds on her wrists and pearls around her neck. Or perhaps it was simply that she reminded him of Paris. Inspector Slimane had observed the potent chemistry between the two and had begun to formulate his plan. First he would need to kindle their romance into red hot flames. Then he would merely need to keep Gaby out of the Casbah. For good measure, Ines will be made aware of Pépé’s passion for Gaby to arouse her jealousy.
Will Pépé and Gaby escape together? Or is there tragedy in the Gypsy's Tarot cards? Well, if you know your film history, you’ll recognize that 1937 was the height of the French film movement known as “poetic realism”, which many times incorporated elements of romantic fatalism. Let’s just say that the film trudges forward to its inevitable conclusion.
Themes: I suppose the main theme for this film is that crime doesn’t pay. Even a thief as romantic as Pépé will pay the price in the end. The odds are stacked against him. There’s the inevitable risk of betrayal by criminal associates or informants. There’s the risk of betrayal by a jealous woman. There’s the risk of slipping up and letting one’s guard down for just a moment. Then there’s the problem of dealing with one’s own exhaustion with the limitations imposed by being perpetually couped up in the Casbah. Pépé is ultimately done in by a combination of all of these.
Production Values: The greatness of this film lies in its evocation of the exotic atmosphere of French colonial Algiers. You feel like you can smell the spices and the perfumes of the women and the dank alleyways. You nervously look over your shoulder as the camera moves down one of the cobbled alleyways among the seedy looking characters of every nationality. Duvivier used a combination of extensive on location shooting and elaborate sets to capture this noir ghetto metropolis.
Some of the individual scenes are classics. In one scene, Gaby and Pépé stare romantically into each other’s eyes while alternately reciting names of streets of Paris that each has walked until, finally, they each happen to say the name of one particular street at the same moment. There’s a touching scene where a woman of the Casbah – a minor character to the story – sings a plaintive song that reminds her of her youth as a cabaret singer in Paris while tears stream down her face. There’s the famous revenge scene when Regis pays the price for his treachery and his last screams are intermingled with the music of a pianola activated when he falls against it. There’s the scene in which Pépé is so enraptured by his newfound love that he sings from a rooftop while the women of the street, who adore Pépé, merrily laugh and dance, sharing his delight. Then, there’s the final heartrending scene which will stick in your mind forever.
France was blessed with many fine actors and actresses in the 1930’s, what with all the fine films being produced. Pépé le Moko drew its share of talent and then some. Jean Gabin was magnificent in the title role – he of the heavy eyelids and wry smile. Gabin had that rare capacity, as an actor, to adapt to a wide range of roles. He never overacted; he simply became the part. Gabin played in approximately one-hundred films over his career, but his two most famous roles were both in the same year: Pépé and Lt. Maréchal in Grand Illusion. His other credits include La Bête Humaine (1938), Le Quai des Brumes (1938), Le Jour se lève (1939) and French Cancan (1955). Line Noro, who played Ines, appeared the next year in J’Accuse (1938). Gaston Modot, who played Jimmy (a member of Pépé’s gang), has a long resume that includes L’Age D’Or (1930), Grand Illusion (1937), The Rules of the Game (1939), and The Lovers (1959). Fernand Charpin, who played Regis, appeared also in Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), and The Baker’s Wife (1938). Marcel Dalio, who played L'Abri here, later appeared in Grand Illusion (1937), The Rules of the Game (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Snows of Kilamanjaro (1952), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Sabrina (1954), The Sun Also Rises (1957), and Pillow Talk (1959). I thought Lucas Gridoux highly effective as the somewhat Columbo-like Inspector Slimane.
Bottom-Line:Pépé le Moko is a pivotal film in the history of cinema, epitomizing all of the major characteristics of French films of its era but introducing an unforeseen noir element that serves as a harbinger of a major future trend in Hollywood. The Criterion DVD has a very appealing set of extras. There’s an interview with Duvivier from 1962, excerpts from a documentary on Jean Gabin, and some scene by scene comparisons between Pépé le Moko and Algiers as part of a piece on the later influences of Pépé le Moko. There’s also a theatrical trailer. The main treat, however, is the fine restoration job by Criterion. Some frames are slightly out of focus, presumably a limitation of the print from which Criterion had to work. Pépé le Moko is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 94 minutes.
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