Stars: Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Alan Hale, Sigrid Gurie
A remake of the French Film-noir Pepe Le Moko, it keeps the same location shots, main characters and overall story. However, the actors are different, there's more humor and romance, and its less tragic. Its also much inferior to the French original.
Pepe Le Moko's casting makes sense. Its a French movie with French actors in French Algiers.
However, Algiers gives us a French Lead, an Austrian leading lady, a Norwegian "Gypsy", British detectives, and uber-Americans Hale and Gene Lockhart (actually Canadian) as supporting characters. Its ridiculous!
Other problems: Lamarr can't act - and neither can Gurie. And the 30s American tough guy slang (hat-tip: James M. Cain) and humor seem completely out of place. Is this the Casbah - or 42nd Street? Charles Boyer is nice mixture of menace/charm but he's no Jean Gabin to say the least. Incredibly, Joe Calleia's fake, oily Detective, won an Acting award.
Summary: If you must see Algiers, see it before Pepe Le Moko - otherwise you'll be very disappointed. A big hit in 1938, it hasn't aged well, with bad casting and bad acting.
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