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Pépé le Moko

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France · 1937
1h 34m
Director Julien Duvivier
Starring Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Gabriel Gabrio, Lucas Gridoux
Genre Crime, Romance, Drama

For two years, France’s most wanted criminal Pépé le Moko has been hiding out in the Casbah quarter of Algiers. He and his gang rule the city, but if he leaves, he faces certain arrest. Then he meets Gaby Gould, a beautiful Parisian. He pursues romance as the police close in around him, risking his safety and his life.

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What are critics saying?

80

Variety by

Interesting movement holds through the entirety. Life in the native quarter, with its squalor and intrigues, is particularly well presented and photographed.

100

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

This masterpiece of poetic realism features one of Gabin's most renowned performances, a smart subtext about French colonialism, and enough exotic atmosphere to keep your head in the clouds long after the final scene.

100

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

An early voice-over segment about the Casbah itself, before Gabin makes an appearance, is so pungent you can almost taste the place, even though the filming was clearly done in a studio.

100

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Beautifully crafted, movingly acted, still involving and entertaining, this is just the kind of film people are talking about when they say they don't make them like this anymore.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold

Above all, the film is a classic of "poetic realism," that distinct brand of pessimistic '30s French urban drama that gave lyrical, sometimes even surrealistic, interpretations to working-class romances and underworld characters, settings and dramas.

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