Algiers **** (1938, Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Sigrid Gurie, Joseph Calleia, Gene Lockhart, Alan Hale Sr) – Classic Movie Review 4297

The sleek and shiny 1938 American escapist exotic adventure epic film Algiers stars Charles Boyer as Algiers Casbah jewel thief Pépé le Moko, who falls in love with the beautiful Gaby (Hedy Lamarr).

Director John Cromwell’s sleek and shiny 1938 American escapist exotic adventure epic film Algiers stars Charles Boyer as Algiers Casbah jewel thief Pépé le Moko, who falls in love with the beautiful French tourist Gaby (Hedy Lamarr) – understandable, but a mistake! – in this wildly romantic Hollywood remake of the 1937 Jean Gabin French classic Pépé le Moko.

It is perhaps surprising that the material works so well again without the doom, the gloom, the poetry and the sheer Frenchness of the original. But it does, thanks to the ideally cast Boyer (who does not actually say the infamous line ‘Come wiz me to zee Casbah’), the strong support (especially of Joseph Calleia as Inspector Slimane, the dogged cop on Pépé’s trail, and Gene Lockhart as the informer Regis), Walter Wanger’s lavish production, James Wong Howe’s striking black and white noir-style cinematography, Alexander Toluboff’s marvellous set designs, and Cromwell’s moody, atmospheric direction.

Charles Boyer was a big star at this time, but Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr was a sensation in her Hollywood debut, audiences apparently fascinated by her beauty, propelling the film to enormous success.

There were four Oscar nominations – Best Actor (Boyer), Best Supporting Actor (Lockhart), Best Cinematography (James Wong Howe) and Best Art Direction (Alexander Toluboff) but no wins.

Also in the cast are Sigrid Gurie, Alan Hale, Joan Woodbury, Claudia Dell, Robert Greig, Stanley Fields, Leonid Kinskey, Walter Kingsford, Paul Harvey, Bert Roach, Nina Koshetz, Joan Woodbury, Charles D Brown, Johnny Downs and Luana Walters.

Algiers cinema release poster.

Algiers is directed by John Cromwell, runs 96 minutes, is a Walter Wanger Productions production, is released by United Artists, is written by John Howard Lawson and James M Cain (additional dialogue), based on Pépé le Moko (1937 novel) by Henri La Barthe and Pépé le Moko (1937 film), is shot in black and white by James Wong Howe, is produced by Walter Wanger, is scored by Vincent Scotto and Mohammed Igorbouchen, and is designed by Alexander Toluboff.

It is Lamarr’s American film debut, following her sensational Czech film Ecstasy (1933), in which she appeared nude, and was followed a year later by Lady of the Tropics (1939).

It was made again as Casbah (1948) with Tony Martin, Yvonne De Carlo and Peter Lorre.

Algiers entered the public domain in the US in 1966 because the claimants did not renew its copyright.

The song in the film is ‘C’est la Vie’ [That’s Life].

Backgrounds and exteriors were shot in Algiers by London-based photographer Knechtel. These were integrated into the film by cinematographer James Wong Howe.

Boyer complained: ‘An actor never likes to copy another’s style and here I was copying Jean Gabin, one of the best. Director Cromwell would run a scene from the original and insist we do it exactly that way. Terrible, a perfectly terrible way to work.’

Cromwell disagreed. He said ‘Boyer never appreciated how different his own Pépé was from Gabin’s. Boyer showed something like genius to make it different. It was a triumph of nuance. The shots are the same, the dialogue has the same meaning, but Boyer’s Pépé and Gabin’s Pépé are two different fellows but in the same predicament.’

But Cromwell was unimpressed by Hedy Lamarr: ‘Hedy had no personality. How could they think she could become a second Garbo? I’ll take some credit for making her acting passable.’

Boyer hated being lampooned as the actor who supposedly said: ‘Come with me to the Casbah’, believing that it demeaned him. The Looney Tunes cartoon character Pepé Le Pew was based on him. The Italians liked to scoff too. Totò the comedian appeared in a 1949 Italian parody film titled Totò Le Moko.

The French release of Pépé le Moko was 1937 but it arrived in the US four years later thanks to the producer of Algiers (1938), Walter Wanger, buying the US rights, no doubt more interested in its film noir cinematography than is style of poetic realism. He bought all prints of Pépé le Moko to prevent it from competing with Algiers in the US. And he reused most of the music from Pépé le Moko in Algiers as well as background sequences.

Sigrid Gurie in Algiers (1938).

Norwegian-American actress Sigrid Gurie (born Sigrid Guri Haukelid; May 18, 1911 – August 14, 1969)

Sigrid Gurie arrived in Hollywood from Norway in 1936. Sam Goldwyn took credit for discovering her, promoting her as the ‘Norwegian Garbo; and ‘the siren of the fjords’. When the press discovered Gurie was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, Goldwyn claimed it was ‘the greatest hoax in movie history’.

Sigrid Gurie, Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr.

The cast

The cast are Charles Boyer as Pépé le Moko, Sigrid Gurie as Ines, Hedy Lamarr as Gaby, Joseph Calleia as Inspector Slimane, Alan Hale Sr as Grandfather, Gene Lockhart as Regis, Walter Kingsford as Chief Inspector Louvain, Paul Harvey as Commissioner Janvier, Stanley Fields as Carlos, Johnny Downs as Pierrot, Charles D Brown as Max, Robert Greig as Giraux, Leonid Kinskey as L’Arbi, Joan Woodbury as Aicha, Nina Koshetz as Tania, Claudia Dell as Marie, Ben Hall as Gil, Bert Roach as Bertier, and Luana Walters

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,297

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Joseph Calleia (above right) in Algiers.