Casbah (1948)
Pepe Le Moko leads a gang of jewel thieves in the Casbah of Algiers, where he has exiled himself to escape imprisonment in his native France.
- John Berry
- Arnold Manoff
- Henri La Barthe
- Leslie Bush-Fekete
- Leo Robin
Rating: 5.7/10 by 14 users
Alternative Title:
Casbah - Verbotene Gassen - DE
Die Frauengasse von Algier - AT
Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 34 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: remake, algiers, algeria, jewel thief, casbah
This is an odd film to watch, this one. Essentially it appears to be a post war vehicle for successful actor/crooner Tony Martin ("Pepe le Moko"), but somewhere along the line director John Berry loses his way with this hybrid of romantic musical - there are half a dozen numbers from Harold Arlen and Leo Robin, including the Oscar nominated "For Every Man There's a Woman" - mixed in with a lightweight crime-noir scenario fronted by policeman Peter Lorre ("Slimane"). The confusion isn't really helped by some indifferent writing and even a glamorous, sultry performance from Yvonne de Carlo ("Inez") fails to get the thing moving with any direction or impetus. Lorre is good, doing what he always did well - a sort of hot, sweaty, weasel in a suit - and the setting of the law-unto-itself Casbah in Algiers where his quarry is protected ought to have helped create a bit of menace, mystery at least, too - but, no, sorry - this is just an average film held up by some fine tunes.
