Pépé le Moko 1937

Pépé le Moko is a 1937 crime film by Julien Duvivier in which Jean Gabin plays a Parisian gangster hiding in the Casbah of Algiers. Inside the maze of alleys and rooftops he is untouchable; the police know that if he steps outside, he is finished. A clever local inspector, Slimane, waits patiently for that day. It comes when Pépé falls for Gaby, a Parisian woman visiting with her rich protector, who reminds him of everything he has lost. The film is one of the pillars of poetic realism, a model for the gangster films of the following decades, and it was remade twice in Hollywood. It is also a period piece made in colonial Algeria, and that shows.

The man who cannot leave

The opening is a small documentary lecture. Police officers from Paris are told how the Casbah works, with its terraces, staircases and hidden passages, and why no raid will ever catch Pépé there. Then we meet him: a king in his little kingdom, surrounded by his gang, a jealous lover called Inès, and a young protégé, Pierrot.

Slimane, played by Lucas Gridoux, is his opposite and his only equal. He visits Pépé as a friend, drinks with him and tells him calmly that one day he will arrest him. He knows that boredom and nostalgia will do the work for him.

Gaby, played by Mireille Balin, arrives covered in jewels. Pépé first notices her diamonds, then her. Their conversation about the streets and Métro stations of Paris becomes a love scene. From that moment the Casbah turns from a fortress into a prison.

A set as a character

Duvivier shot a few exteriors in Algiers, but most of the Casbah was built in the studio near Paris by the designer Jacques Krauss. The camera follows Pépé through its steps and passages, and the cinematographers Jules Kruger and Marc Fossard use the light and shade to make it feel both cosy and airless.

Duvivier also had a gift for set pieces. The death of a traitor, shot while a mechanical piano plays a cheerful tune, is a scene many later directors borrowed. The ending at the port is one of the most famous final shots of the 1930s.

Gabin in his prime

Gabin had played in Duvivier's La Bandera (1935) and La Belle Équipe (1936), and in 1937 he was also starring in Renoir's La Grande Illusion. Pépé gave him his archetype: a working-class hero, tender and violent, ruined by love. He is relaxed and funny in the early scenes, which makes the second half more painful.

Remakes and influence

Hollywood bought the rights. Algiers (1938), with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr, followed the French film closely; Casbah (1948) turned it into a musical. The character also inspired the cartoon skunk Pepé Le Pew. Critics have long seen traces of Pépé in Rick from Casablanca (1942).

How it looks today

The depiction of the Algerians in the Casbah is the weak side of the film. Most of them are background colour, and several key "local" roles are played by European actors. It is worth knowing this before watching.

As a piece of filmmaking, though, Pépé le Moko is tight, witty and beautifully built. Watch it next to Carné's Le Quai des brumes to see how the same star and the same fatalism produced two very different films. More choices are in our list of the best French films of the 1930s.