Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 24-February-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Pépé Le Moko (1937)

There are two headliners to the French film "Pépé Le Moko" and both are seductive. The first is Jean Gabin as the titular fugitive eluding capture in Algeria; the second is the capital city's labyrinthian polyglot slum known as the Casbah. (The 1938 English remake of the film favored star number two and was titled "Algiers.") Each is a force to be reckoned with, a combination of hope and despair, style and seediness, brutality and grace which many people would find hard to resist. True, their story is laced with old-fashioned racism and misogyny, but this adds to their ambiguous exoticism when viewed today.

The opening scene among policemen lays out the backdrop of the tale. Pépé Le Moko is a renowned jewel thief and bank robber who has walked the streets of the Casbah for two years. The local lawmen know he is there, and in fact smarmy Inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux) fraternizes with him almost daily. The problem is, they cannot arrest their quarry because of the physical and social layout of his surroundings. The Casbah is a warren of twisted alleys and rooftop passages where everybody follows a set of indigenous rules. One of the foremost rules is that Pépé Le Moko is the boss whom his neighbors are bound to protect (if not out of devotion then to avoid running afoul of his toughs). All the ladies of the Casbah would do anything for Pépé even though he is a smooth talker who keeps a gypsy (Line Noro) as his main squeeze. The only way he can be captured is if he emerges into another part of the city, and he is too clever for that. The Casbah is his turf and there he wields immunity.

This immunity comes at a price, though, which Pépé's cronies would be hard put to understand. A gentleman thug, he yearns to leave the sanctuary that has become his prison and return to Paris and (European) civilization. This creates an interesting sensation for the viewer, who thrills to enter into the imagined wonders of the Casbah only to find its demigod awash with homesickness for somewhere else. Pépé's craving for home is palpable in his sighs but takes solid form in a French tourist named Gaby (Mireille Balin, sporting distracting drawn-on eyebrows). She could also be described as trapped in a gilded cage since she is the mistress of a much older, much pudgier businessman who keeps her with diamonds and pearls. (She is a startlingly brash character who accepts the unspoken label of whore during an argument with her sugar daddy and asks what that makes him in return. If I remember correctly, "Algiers" tones the role down by making her a resigned fiancée.) Gaby and Pépé's instant attraction fuels their mutual desire for escape and a life lived on impulse rather than practicality. The quarry is ready to be flushed.

But love can be a dangerous game, especially when a man has spread his around too freely. The romanticized finale of "Pépé Le Moko" is an ode to frustrated longing and lost opportunity, with a soupcon of just desserts. It is not exactly a three-hankie weeper, but it transports one to a time and place made unique by character and environment.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.