Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby, which arouses the jealousy of Ines.
This is quite an enjoyable pairing of Charles Boyer ("Pepe") and Hedy Lamarr ("Gaby"). Filmed on location for some of it, Boyer is a jewel thief who arrived in Algeria a few years earlier and governs the Casbah area of the city much like a Mafia Don. The French authorities are determined to bring him to justice and "Slimane" (Joseph Calleia) is just biding his time. He's given quite a helping hand when "Gaby" arrives and "Pepe" falls for her - she reminds him of times gone by in Paris - and also causes quite a stir with his girlfriend "Ines" (Sigrid Gurie). It could certainly be doing with some additional wattage - but even so, the film is stylish to look at, and the performances from Boyer, Gurie, Gene Lockhart and Alan Hale as a sort of prophetic grandfather kind of character add a quite a lot of richness to Henri La Barthe's pretty nondescript, very dialogue heavy, 1931 novel. It's certainly worth a watch if not for the story, then for the performances.
