Posted on 07/19/2008 10:41:22 PM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
ALGIERS, from the story, “Pepe le Moko,” by Detective Ashelbe; screen play by John Howard Lawson, with additional dialogue by James M. Cain; directed by John Cromwell; produced by Walter Wanger for release by United Artists. At the Radio City Music Hall.
Pepe le Moko……….............Charles Boyer
Ines………..………………...Sigrid Gurie
Gaby…….………….............Hedy Lamarr
Slimane……………………..Joseph Callela
Regis…….…………………Gene Lockhart
Pierrot……...……………….Johnny Downs
Granpere…………………...Alan Hale
Tania……...………………..Mme. Nina Koshetz
Aicha……...………………..Joan Woodbury
Marie……...………………..Claudia Deil
Giroux……...………………Robert Greig
Carlos……...……….............Stanley Fields
Max...……...……….............Charles D. Brown
Gil….……...……….............Ben Hall
Sergeant of French Police….Armand Keitz
L’Arbi…………...………....Leonid Kinsky
Luvain.…………...………..Walter Kingsford
Janvier…………...………....Paul Harvey
Bertier…………...………....Bert Roach
Native waitress…….............Luana Walters
The Casbah, the native quarter of Algiers, is a maze of crooked alleyways, terraces, winding flights of steps. A man such as Pepe le Moko, wanted by the French Police, might go in safety there until he dies, chatting with the police inspector daily, secure in his sanctuary but equally sure of arrest the moment he leaves it. But a man such as Pepe le Moko, with the perfume of the boulevards in his nostrils, could not endure being the Casbah’s prisoner all his life. Nostalgia would drive him out, or love for a woman. Inspector Slimane knew that when he smiled at Pepe every day. He was content to wait.
That is the theme of “Algiers,” the new Walter Wanger film at the Music Hall. It is a fascinating drama of a manhunt, a manhunt made all the more relentless because the hunters never really give pursuit, because the hunted never really is in flight. There are terror and suspense in a chase, but there are still more when the cat plays a waiting game and the mouse creeps obediently, helplessly into its claws. John Cromwell, who has directed the film, has wound the drama’s mainspring tight. Its seconds tick off like a pulsebeat in an accelerating rhythm of destiny - hopeless, inexorable, tragic destiny. Few films this season, or any other, have sustained their mood so brilliantly.
Mr. Cromwell has not done it alone, of course. The story was there, and the John Howard Lawson-James Cain adaptation of it, with its poetic economy of words and ample room within them for its players to build character. And, above all, there were the players to build that character strongly – Charles Boyer as Pepe, Joseph Calleia as the suave Slimane, Gene Lockhart as the informer, Hedy Lamarr and Sigrid Gurie as, respectively, the exotic visitor from Paris and the lovely half-caste who serve each in her own way to bring Pepe to his fate. These are the principals, but the others are as effective in their degree – Alan Hale, Stanley Fields, Leonid Kinsky, Walter Kingsford, Robert Greig among them.
So you have it briefly: one of the finest directorial jobs, one of the most rewarding in its performances, clearly one of the most interesting and absorbing dramas of the season. For such virtues as we might have failed to mention may we refer you to the picture itself – “Algiers” at the Music Hall.
Where's the alphabetical movie list guy? Here is an entry for the list of movies beginning with 'A'.
They dont make films like this anymore, unfortunately.
Here ya go.
Ah, the Golden Age of Hollywood.
I think this flick was the inspiration for “Casablanca.”
The film “The Battle for Algiers” is also a classic - apparently used as a handbook for revolutionaries. I’ve always wanted to see it but have never gotten a chance.
I thought you were crazy so I looked it up on TCM. You are sane.
It took no less than six writers to transform Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's un-produced play 'Everybody Comes to Rick' into Casablanca, taking a conventional exotic romance (patterned after Algiers (1938) and Only Angels Have Wings, 1939) and investing it with a subtle, richly-textured brand of drama all its own.
Don't be too quick on the trigger regarding that last part there.
<}B^)
How about, you had a lucid moment.
A few years later, Mel Blanc was horsing around in the Warners cartoon studio when he came up with a dead-on impersonation of Boyer and his signature line from "Algiers": "Come with me to the Casbah, and we will make beautiful music together." The producers took a bit of time to come up with a character for Blanc's latest creation, but eventually Pepe le Pew was born.
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