Review of Pépé le Moko (1937) by Mike M — 11 Jul 2011

Now looks more than ever like a source of inspiration for "Casablanca" - but also, perhaps less expectedly, for something like "The Wire"... If there's one glaring liability, it's right there at the centre of the film, in the form of a romance that proves far less heady and intoxicating than its surrounds: "Pepe" oversells the charms of the beefy Gabin, a gorilla-in-a-suit whose chestbeating in the central cafe sequence reveals a certain limitation of technique; restrained by Marcel Carne, he was to fare altogether better as the dead man-in-waiting in 1939's "Le Jour Se Leve".

And I can't be alone in finding Balin entirely unsympathetic as a heroine who stands for nothing but material wealth - a big, brassy ring, one last job, dripping with diamonds and the promise of a better life, for the anti-hero to paw at.

Even if one can see why Pepe might fall for her Gaby Gould, I think you'd struggle to find anything particularly tragic about the outcome - which, again, is why "Le Jour Se Leve" stands as much the better of the two films.