Algiers

Plot

Pepe le Moko is a notorious jewel thief who has escaped from France and has settled in the Casbah, or "native quarter", of Algeria for two years. Commissioner Janvier, a French police detective, is determined to capture Pepe. One night, Janvier leads a raid on the Casbah, where Regis, a thief who is jealous of Pepe, leads the detectives to Grandpere. Regis goes to Ines, Pepe's mistress, to warn him that the police are arriving. Ines arrives at Grandpere's house to warn Pepe, to which he suspects Regis of informing the police. When the police arrive, Pepe hides in a basement until a shooting breaks out. Pepe escapes although he is injured.

During the shooting, Inspector Slimane, an Algerian detective, brings Gaby, a French tourist, into his residence, where Pepe also arrives. While Slimane admires Pepe, he tells Gaby he has written the date of Pepe's arrest on his wall. The next day, Regis meets with Chief Inspector Louvain and schemes to have Pepe's friend Pierrot arrested, in hopes to capture Pepe. Regis delivers a letter to Pierrot, purportedly written by his mother, to state she is ill. Meanwhile, Gaby has been thinking about Pepe, despite being engaged to her fiancé Giraux. While dining, Slimane tells Gaby about Pepe's adoration for jewelry, and arranges to have her see Pepe again.

Later that night, Pepe is informed that Pierrot has left Algiers. Pepe arrives at the Casbah, and questions Regis about Pierrot's disappearance. While Regis sweats over his fate, Pepe reunites with Gaby at the Casbah, where they relate to their time in France. Despite Gaby's engagement, they plan to see each other the next day. An injured Pierrot suddenly arrives, wanting to kill Regis. Pierrot collapses as he tries to shoot Regis, who is then killed by Carlos, one of Pepe's friends.

The next day, Pierrot's funeral is held outside the Casbah, which angers a grief-stricken Pepe. Desperate to attend, Pepe rushes out but Ines prevents him by lying that Gaby is waiting for him at his house. Pepe goes to his residence, but despite her lie, he thanks Ines for having him evade a potential trap. Gaby eventually arrives, and while together, Pepe expresses his frustration as he can never escape the Casbah. Before Gaby leaves, they agree to reunite at her hotel tomorrow. Meanwhile, Slimane tells Giraux to have Gaby refrain from seeing Pepe. When that fails, Slimane lies to Gaby, stating Pepe has been killed.

Cast

Charles Boyer as Pepe le Moko

Sigrid Gurie as Ines

Hedy Lamarr as Gaby

Joseph Calleia as Inspector Slimane

Alan Hale as Grandpere

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

Production

Walter Wanger, the film's producer, purchased the rights to the French film Pepe le Moko, starring Jean Gabin, in order to remake it, and bought all prints of the film to prevent it from competing with his film in the U.S. Wanger used most of the music from the French film in the remake as well as background sequences.

The first version of the script was rejected by Joseph Breen, the head of Production Code Administration (PCA), because the leading ladies were portrayed as "kept women," and because of references to prostitution and the promiscuity of the lead character. The PCA objected to Pepe's suicide and demanded a script change; in the film, Pepe is shot dead by the police, who think that he is trying to escape. To tone down the script, Wanger hired James M. Cain to rewrite the first twenty minutes and later John Howard Lawson to intensify the central romance.

Backgrounds and exteriors were shot in Algiers and integrated into the film by cinematographer James Wong Howe.

United Artists had considered Ingrid Bergman, Dolores del Río and Sylvia Sidney for the female lead. Sidney, who was under contract to Wanger, turned down the role. According to Charles Boyer, he met Hedy Lamarr at a party and introduced her to Wanger as a possibility. She was already known for her appearance in the 1933 Czech film Ecstasy, in which she appeared totally nude. However, director John Cromwell felt that Lamarr, who was cast in her first Hollywood feature, lacked acting talent, later saying: "After you've been in the business for a time, you can tell easily enough right when you meet them. I could sense her inadequacy, Wanger could sense it, and I could see Boyer getting worried even before we started talking behind Hedy's back. ... Sometimes the word personality is interchangeable with presence although they aren't the same thing. But the principle applies, and Hedy also had no personality. How could they think she could become a second Garbo?...I'll take some credit for making her acting passable but can only share credit with Boyer fifty-fifty."

Boyer did not enjoy his work on Algiers. He later said: "An actor never likes to copy another's style, and here I was copying Jean Gabin, one of the best." Boyer also said that Cromwell "would run a scene from the original and insist we do it exactly that way—terrible, a perfectly terrible way to work." However, Cromwell said that Boyer "never appreciated how different his own Pepe 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 Pepe and Gabin's Pepe are two different fellows but in the same predicament."

Reception

Box office

The film earned $951,801 at the box office, which netted a profit of $150,466 (nearly $3.5 million in 2025).

Critical reaction

Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called Algiers "one of the best pictures of the season" and wrote: "The film has been beautifully paced, driven at an accelerating tempo until its suspense becomes almost unbearable, whipped savagely by stinging sequences whenever its action threatens to lag. ... The players have responded brilliantly, of course, but the director's control is always there, and always sure." John C. Flinn of Variety called Algiers "an engrossing tale" that makes "no cheap and unconvincing detours in an effort to moralize over the plight of the hero." Flinn complimented Boyer's performance, as well as Lamarr's performance for bringing "an abundance of good looks, acting talents and enticement."

Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Boyer brings a genuine fervor to his portrayal which is far reaching, and Miss Lamarr a consummate loveliness, which may entitle her to stardom ...Photography is well managed and many scenes are rather brilliantly directed." Time magazine felt the performances by Boyer and Joseph Calleia were "cinememorable." The review also highlighted Hedy Lemarr, writing her performance "may well presage a renewal of the sultry cinema of Garbo and Dietrich."

The Motion Picture Herald wrote Algiers was "a melodramatic romance that concludes tragically, to appear fresh and new and a picture that has no parallel either on the recent or present day screen. Its story is weird. It has a hypnotic quality. Nevertheless it is logical and believable." Harrison's Reports felt the film was "interesting as a psychological study. But as entertainment, it is only fair, for the action is slow. Its appeal should, therefore, he directed more to class audiences than to the masses. The story lacks human appeal; it is difficult to sympathize with a crook, particularly so in this case, for he does not repent his misdeeds."

Adaptations

Radio

In the autumn of 1938, Hollywood Playhouse presented a radio adaptation of Algiers starring Charles Boyer.

Algiers was adapted for the October 8, 1939 presentation of the CBS Radio series The Campbell Playhouse. The hour-long adaptation starred Orson Welles and Paulette Goddard, with Ray Collins taking the role of Inspector Slimane.

The film was dramatized as an hour-long radio play on two broadcasts of Lux Radio Theatre. Boyer and Lamarr reprised their roles in the broadcast of July 7, 1941, and Boyer starred with Loretta Young in the broadcast of December 14, 1942.

Remake

A musical remake of Algiers titled Casbah was released in 1948 by Universal Pictures and starred Tony Martin and Yvonne De Carlo. A 1949 Italian parody titled Totò Le Moko featured the comedian Totò.

In popular culture

The film was most Americans' introduction to the picturesque alleys and souks of the Casbah. It was also the inspiration for the 1942 film Casablanca, written specifically for Hedy Lamarr in the female lead role. When Louis B. Mayer refused to loan her to Warner Bros., the role went to Ingrid Bergman.

The oft-quoted invitation extended by Charles Boyer to "come with me to the Casbah" does not appear in the film, but still became comedians' standard imitation of Boyer, much like "Play it again, Sam" for Humphrey Bogart, "Judy, Judy, Judy" for Cary Grant and "You dirty rat" for James Cagney, all misquotes. Boyer hated the phrase, believing that it demeaned him as an actor. However, the Looney Tunes cartoon character Pepé Le Pew, a spoof of Boyer as Pépé le Moko, did say "Come with me to the Casbah" as a pickup line.