PÉPÉ LE MOKO Movie Review

Julien Duvivier's incomparable ?épé le Moko is the story of a gang leader (Jean Gabin), living in the Casbah of Algiers, who survives by successfully playing an intricate game of cat-and-mouse with the police. ?épé's charmed life changes dramatically when he falls under the spell of a stunning Parisian woman (Mireille Balin), whose sophistication and elegance make ?épé long—with tragic consequences—for the glorious but risky world of his beloved Paris. The brilliantly atmospheric gangster film is often cited as the picture that gave birth to the expression “film noir.” True or not, the movie was enormously influential in France and later in the U.S. (where it was remade two years later as Algiers, starring Charles Boyer). Its stirring portrait of a Frenchman's homesickness for Paris got the picture banned in France during the Nazi Occupation, but it became wildly popular immediately after the war. Simply on the level of a gangster film, ?épé le Moko may be the greatest romantic genre movie of its kind prior to The Godfather, which unquestionably displays its influence. Though the film is based on a French story by Henri La Barthe (which, like Puzo's The Godfather, achieved its full dramatic potential only on screen), it was, ironically, Duvivier's goal to make a gangster picture in the style of an American movie. Though he succeeded, ?épé le Moko may nevertheless be the most spiritually French movie ever made.

NEXT STOP … Le Jour Se Lève, Port of Shadows, Bob le Flambeur

1937 87m/B FR Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Gabriel Gabrio, Lucas Gridoux; D: Julien Duvivier; W: Julien Duvivier, Henri Jeanson; C: Jules Kruger; M: Vincent Scotto. VHS, 8mm VYY, NOS, HHT