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Algiers (1938 film)

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Algiers
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Cromwell
Screenplay byJohn Howard Lawson
James M. Cain (additional dialogue)
Based onPépé le Moko
(1937 novel)
by Henri La Barthe
Pépé le Moko
(1937 film)
Produced byWalter Wanger
Starring
CinematographyJames Wong Howe
Edited by
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • August 5, 1938 (1938-08-05) (US)
Running time
99 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$691,833[1]
Box office$951,801[1]

Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell, written by John Howard Lawson and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie and Hedy Lamarr.[2] The plot concerns a French jewel thief hiding in Algiers who meets a beautiful French tourist. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name.[3]

Algiers became a sensation because it was Lamarr's Hollywood debut. The film is notable as a source of inspiration to the screenwriters of the 1942 Warner Bros. film Casablanca, who wrote the later film with Lamarr in mind as the original female lead. Boyer's depiction of Pepe le Moko inspired the Warner Bros. animated character Pepé Le Pew. In 1966, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.[4]

Plot

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Pepe le Moko is a notorious thief who, after his last great heist, escaped from France to Algeria. Since his escape, Pepe has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah, or "native quarter", of Algiers. French officials, who arrive insisting on Pepe's capture, are met with unfazed local detectives who are taking a slower approach, led by Inspector Slimane.

Pepe begins to feel increasingly trapped in his prison-like stronghold, a feeling that intensifies after meeting the beautiful Gaby, who is visiting from France. His love for Gaby soon arouses the jealousy of Ines, Pepe's Algerian mistress.

Cast

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Production

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Walter Wanger, the film's producer, purchased the rights to the French film Pepe le Moko, starring Jean Gabin, in order to remake it, and bought all prints of the film to prevent it from competing with his film in the U.S. Wanger used most of the music from the French film in the remake as well as background sequences.[2][3]

Algiers

The first version of the script was rejected by the Production Code Administration (PCA) because the leading ladies were portrayed as "kept women," and because of references to prostitution and the promiscuity of the lead character. The PCA objected to Pepe's suicide and demanded a script change; in the film, Pepe is shot dead by the police, who think that he is trying to escape.[3]

Backgrounds and exteriors were shot in Algiers and integrated into the film by cinematographer James Wong Howe.[3]

United Artists had considered Ingrid Bergman, Dolores del Río and Sylvia Sidney for the female lead, but according to Charles Boyer, he met Hedy Lamarr at a party and introduced her to Wanger as a possibility. She was already known for her appearance in the 1933 Czech film Ecstasy, in which she appeared totally nude.[3] However, director John Cromwell felt that Lamarr, who was cast in her first Hollywood feature, lacked acting talent, later saying: "After you've been in the business for a time, you can tell easily enough right when you meet them. I could sense her inadequacy, Wanger could sense it, and I could see Boyer getting worried even before we started talking behind Hedy's back. ... Sometimes the word personality is interchangeable with presence although they aren't the same thing. But the principle applies, and Hedy also had no personality. How could they think she could become a second Garbo?...I'll take some credit for making her acting passable but can only share credit with Boyer fifty-fifty."[2]

Boyer did not enjoy his work on Algiers. He later said: "An actor never likes to copy another's style, and here I was copying Jean Gabin, one of the best." Boyer also said that Cromwell "would run a scene from the original and insist we do it exactly that way—terrible, a perfectly terrible way to work." Howeverm, Cromwell said that Boyer "never appreciated how different his own Pepe was from Gabin's. Boyer showed something like genius to make it different. It was a triumph of nuance. The shots are the same, the dialogue has the same meaning, but Boyer's Pepe and Gabin's Pepe are two different fellows but in the same predicament."[2]

Reception

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In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called Algiers "one of the best pictures of the season" and wrote: "The film has been beautifully paced, driven at an accelerating tempo until its suspense becomes almost unbearable, whipped savagely by stinging sequences whenever its action threatens to lag. ... The players have responded brilliantly, of course, but the director's control is always there, and always sure."[5]

The film earned a profit of $150,466.[1]

Awards and honors

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Joseph Calleia (right) in Algiers

Academy Awards

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National Board of Review Awards

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Joseph Calleia received the 1938 National Board of Review Award for his performance as Slimane.[6]

Adaptations and remakes

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Newspaper advertisement for The Campbell Playhouse presentation of Algiers (October 8, 1939)

Radio

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In the autumn of 1938, Hollywood Playhouse presented a radio adaptation of Algiers starring Charles Boyer.[7]: 222 

Algiers was adapted for the October 8, 1939 presentation of the CBS Radio series The Campbell Playhouse. The hour-long adaptation starred Orson Welles and Paulette Goddard,[8][9] with Ray Collins taking the role of Inspector Slimane.[7]: 222 

The film was dramatized as an hour-long radio play on two broadcasts of Lux Radio Theatre. Boyer and Lamarr reprised their roles in the broadcast of July 7, 1941,[10] and Boyer starred with Loretta Young in the broadcast of December 14, 1942.[11][12]

Film

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A musical remake of Algiers titled Casbah was released in 1948 by Universal Pictures and starred Tony Martin and Yvonne De Carlo. A 1949 Italian parody titled Totò Le Moko featured the comedian Totò.[3]

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The film was most Americans' introduction to the picturesque alleys and souks of the Casbah.[citation needed] It was also the inspiration for the 1942 film Casablanca, written specifically for Hedy Lamarr in the female lead role. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to release Lamarr, the role went to Ingrid Bergman.

The oft-quoted invitation extended by Charles Boyer to "come with me to the Casbah" does not appear in the film, but still became comedians' standard imitation of Boyer, much like "Play it again, Sam" for Humphrey Bogart, "Judy, Judy, Judy" for Cary Grant and "You dirty rat" for James Cagney, all misquotes. Boyer hated the phrase, believing that it demeaned him as an actor.[2]However, the Looney Tunes cartoon character Pepé Le Pew, a spoof of Boyer as Pépé le Moko,[2] did say "Come with me to the Casbah" as a pickup line.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Bernstein, Matthew (2000). Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent. Minnesota Press, p. 439.
  2. ^ a b c d e f LoBianco, Lorraine. "Algiers". TCM.com. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Algiers". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  4. ^ Pierce, David (June 2007). "Forgotten Faces: Why Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain". Film History: An International Journal. 19 (2): 125–43. doi:10.2979/FIL.2007.19.2.125. ISSN 0892-2160. JSTOR 25165419. OCLC 15122313. S2CID 191633078.
  5. ^ Nugent, Frank S. (1938-07-17). "News and Events of the Screen World". The New York Times. p. 3, Section 9.
  6. ^ "The Year's Best". National Board of Review Magazine. 14 (1). National Board of Review: 12. January 1939. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  7. ^ a b Brady, Frank (1989). Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-385-26759-2.
  8. ^ "The Campbell Playhouse". RadioGOLDINdex. Archived from the original on 2014-12-06. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  9. ^ "The Campbell Playhouse: Algiers". Orson Welles on the Air, 1938–1946. Indiana University Bloomington. October 8, 1939. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  10. ^ "Lux Radio Theatre 1941". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  11. ^ "Lux Radio Theatre 1942". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  12. ^ "The Lux Radio Theatre". RadioGOLDINdex. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
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