Algiers Reviews
Bill D 2007
Super Reviewer
August 1, 2009
Although I cannot give it more than a 7 rating, I was impressed with the grown-up quality of "Algiers." Whereas other films that year were rather juvenile and went out of their way to appeal to the masses, "Algiers" was dark and mature, presenting a rather cynical view of life. Although (unfairly) forgotten today, "Algiers" in large part inspired 1942's "Casablanca," and I suspect that it helped Roman Polanski conceive "Chinatown."
The Oscar-nominated Boyer plays a French criminal mastermind, Pepe, hiding out in the labyrinthine Casbah section of Algiers. The police attempt to apprehend him, but the police force is shot through with so much corruption that it isn't too difficult for a wily criminal to elude their grasp. But enter love. Hedy Lamarr plays Gaby, a woman vacationing in Algiers with a rich businessman to whom she is engaged but with whom she is not in love. When Gaby and Pepe meet, sparks fly. I won't reveal the dark ending, but let's just say that love and criminal plotting don't mix.
"Algiers" is not a great film, but it has some very special elements. If it had been edited better and directed with a bit more force, it could have rivalled "Casablanca." Especially noteworthy is the dark, brooding cinematography which might have inspired Orson Welles, who at this time was beginning to dream up his landmark film "Citizen Kane." "Algiers" should be thought of as one of the early examples of film noir.
"Algiers," starring Charles Boyer, was not nominated for Best Picture in 1938, but it received several major nominations and was one of the big films of that year. It was nominated for Best Actor, Supporting Actor, and Cinematography, among other things, but went home empty-handed.
Although I cannot give it more than a 7 rating, I was impressed with the grown-up quality of "Algiers." Whereas other films that year were rather juvenile and went out of their way to appeal to the masses, "Algiers" was dark and mature, presenting a rather cynical view of life. Although (unfairly) forgotten today, "Algiers" in large part inspired 1942's "Casablanca," and I suspect that it helped Roman Polanski conceive "Chinatown."
The Oscar-nominated Boyer plays a French criminal mastermind, Pepe, hiding out in the labyrinthine Casbah section of Algiers. The police attempt to apprehend him, but the police force is shot through with so much corruption that it isn't too difficult for a wily criminal to elude their grasp. But enter love. Hedy Lamarr plays Gaby, a woman vacationing in Algiers with a rich businessman to whom she is engaged but with whom she is not in love. When Gaby and Pepe meet, sparks fly. I won't reveal the dark ending, but let's just say that love and criminal plotting don't mix.
"Algiers" is not a great film, but it has some very special elements. If it had been edited better and directed with a bit more force, it could have rivalled "Casablanca." Especially noteworthy is the dark, brooding cinematography which might have inspired Orson Welles, who at this time was beginning to dream up his landmark film "Citizen Kane." "Algiers" should be thought of as one of the early examples of film noir.
jjnxn
Super Reviewer
August 6, 2007
Not as good as Casablanca but still entertaining, Hedy Lamarr is fantastically beautiful almost otherworldly and plays her part well with a sort of wounded sadness.
John B
Super Reviewer
July 2, 2007
I probably would have enjoyed it more had I seen a cleaner copy. Unfortunatley I don't think that this film was ever restored.
flixsterbum
April 14, 2008
Solid '30's melodrama with exotic locales, distinct characters, and two appealing leads. Not the best I've seen, but if it can inspire both "Casablanca" and Pepe le Pew, more power to it.
May 27, 2012
There are moments in this film that are really fascinating. The sequence in which the camera focuses on Pepe's desperate and methodic steps as he walks in his self created cage is a rare moment in film were a single shot tells so much by doing seemingly a lot and very little at the same time. It may be campy in dialogue, but it seems to work... I was certainly entertained.
February 25, 2011
Having never wated a film with Hedy Lamarr I was glad to find this on NetFlix. I have seen photos of Hedy and read some biographies on her, but have never seen her in a movie. She is truely one of the most beautiful women I have seen in the movies. The chemistry between her and Charles Boyer electrifies through the old black and white print of the film I saw. Its not in the classic case of Casablanca, but still a good film with fascinating characters.
gillianren
January 30, 2011
I'm not sure I'd ever seen a Hedy Lamarr film before, and that means that my first thought of her is not for acting. Yes, she was a beautiful woman, and she does well enough here, but really, she is one of those counterexamples to the belief that beautiful women, and particularly women who use that beauty, are stupid. Indeed, the government told her she was more valuable to them during World War II as a pretty face selling war bonds than as an inventor. Despite that, some of you reading this are almost certainly doing so using technology with its roots in an invention she co-patented in 1942. I'll admit I don't entirely understand it; it seems to have something to do with the use of sound frequencies--originally player piano rolls, it seems--to shift radio transmission. Or something. Anyway, it gets used in Wi-fi. And cordless phones. Though, of course, the patent had long since been allowed to expire before that particular use was developed.
Here, Lamarr is the beautiful Gaby. She and a group of others are in Algiers on a bit of a lark from Paris. The notorious thieves' quarter of Algiers, the Casbah, is ruled by Pepe le Moko (Charles Boyer), a suave and debonair man who escaped to Algeria, then a French colony, after a major jewel heist. He and Gaby meet by coincidence, and he becomes fascinated with what she represents. She is a whiff of the home he so longs for. However, there is the jovial Inspector Slimane (Joseph Calleia), who respects Pepe even though he does not approve and must now actually work to catch him, as officers from Paris are leaning on him. There is a byzantine plot of some kind involving the hapless Pierrot (Johnny Downs). As things fall apart, Pepe clings to Gaby to the dismay of most of his associates and the despair of Ines (Sigrid Gurie). Rather than steal her jewels and run, as is expected of him, he circles her to his doom.
Really, the only one who seems unaware of just how trapped Pepe is, at least for most of the film, is Pepe. He only finally concedes it to Gaby, and he never really seems to acknowledge it to anyone else. I don't know if he actually believes he'll ever leave the Casbah, but the first step in his fate was fleeing there, not somewhere else. He does essentially rule the underworld, but of course that only makes him a target. He just doesn't take it seriously through most of the movie. It's all a game. Grandpere (Alan Hale, whose son resembles him so much that it's distracting here) complains that he must keep replacing doors, as the police keep breaking them down to get at Pepe whenever they think he's there. However, that does mean it's true that the police keep looking for him, and he can't just go about his life. Not that there's another life he would live, of course. Ines may think that he will settle down to a happy life with her, but Ines is only fooling herself on that account.
And, of course, there are the Parisians. The term is "slumming." There is an excitement to going into dangerous neighbourhoods and risking mugging. Now, not everyone in the Casbah is or was actually a criminal. The interrelation between poverty and crime is a lot more complicated than that. It is also true that the rich people are protected by the police. Let the people of the Casbah rob and murder one another; that's their affair and unimportant. Even let them commit crimes in slightly better neighbourhoods and escape to their filthy dens. But people who know policemen in Paris? So long as the locals know that, the rich people are untouchable. Besides, all the locals have fled upon the message that the police have entered the neighbourhood. We only see the blind beggar when the Casbah residents are alone, and if we didn't, they probably wouldn't see him, either. He's not exciting or entertaining. And, of course, there is similar voyeurism in just the making of films like this.
The most striking thing about this movie is its wistful nature. Pepe and Gaby play at being together in Paris, a future they will never and, really, can never share. He pretends that you can see Montmartre from the seaside of Algiers. They talk to one another as though there is nothing else. She is in a relationship with one of the other Parisians; I'm not sure which one or its nature. Or possibly they have just seen her as the road to him, which is certainly true. The net is closing around him. Pierrot, doomed Pierrot, is seen as the first sign of Pepe's ill luck, but the pair never speak of him. What is there to say? She knows it was her jewels which first attracted him to her, and he knows it is his air of danger which first attracted her to him. What of it? They have this moment, if no other. They have each other in a way they will never be able to express to anyone else, and various others try to get them to. In the heart of Algiers, they have Paris.
A Dream Where No Reality Can Be
I'm not sure I'd ever seen a Hedy Lamarr film before, and that means that my first thought of her is not for acting. Yes, she was a beautiful woman, and she does well enough here, but really, she is one of those counterexamples to the belief that beautiful women, and particularly women who use that beauty, are stupid. Indeed, the government told her she was more valuable to them during World War II as a pretty face selling war bonds than as an inventor. Despite that, some of you reading this are almost certainly doing so using technology with its roots in an invention she co-patented in 1942. I'll admit I don't entirely understand it; it seems to have something to do with the use of sound frequencies--originally player piano rolls, it seems--to shift radio transmission. Or something. Anyway, it gets used in Wi-fi. And cordless phones. Though, of course, the patent had long since been allowed to expire before that particular use was developed.
Here, Lamarr is the beautiful Gaby. She and a group of others are in Algiers on a bit of a lark from Paris. The notorious thieves' quarter of Algiers, the Casbah, is ruled by Pepe le Moko (Charles Boyer), a suave and debonair man who escaped to Algeria, then a French colony, after a major jewel heist. He and Gaby meet by coincidence, and he becomes fascinated with what she represents. She is a whiff of the home he so longs for. However, there is the jovial Inspector Slimane (Joseph Calleia), who respects Pepe even though he does not approve and must now actually work to catch him, as officers from Paris are leaning on him. There is a byzantine plot of some kind involving the hapless Pierrot (Johnny Downs). As things fall apart, Pepe clings to Gaby to the dismay of most of his associates and the despair of Ines (Sigrid Gurie). Rather than steal her jewels and run, as is expected of him, he circles her to his doom.
Really, the only one who seems unaware of just how trapped Pepe is, at least for most of the film, is Pepe. He only finally concedes it to Gaby, and he never really seems to acknowledge it to anyone else. I don't know if he actually believes he'll ever leave the Casbah, but the first step in his fate was fleeing there, not somewhere else. He does essentially rule the underworld, but of course that only makes him a target. He just doesn't take it seriously through most of the movie. It's all a game. Grandpere (Alan Hale, whose son resembles him so much that it's distracting here) complains that he must keep replacing doors, as the police keep breaking them down to get at Pepe whenever they think he's there. However, that does mean it's true that the police keep looking for him, and he can't just go about his life. Not that there's another life he would live, of course. Ines may think that he will settle down to a happy life with her, but Ines is only fooling herself on that account.
And, of course, there are the Parisians. The term is "slumming." There is an excitement to going into dangerous neighbourhoods and risking mugging. Now, not everyone in the Casbah is or was actually a criminal. The interrelation between poverty and crime is a lot more complicated than that. It is also true that the rich people are protected by the police. Let the people of the Casbah rob and murder one another; that's their affair and unimportant. Even let them commit crimes in slightly better neighbourhoods and escape to their filthy dens. But people who know policemen in Paris? So long as the locals know that, the rich people are untouchable. Besides, all the locals have fled upon the message that the police have entered the neighbourhood. We only see the blind beggar when the Casbah residents are alone, and if we didn't, they probably wouldn't see him, either. He's not exciting or entertaining. And, of course, there is similar voyeurism in just the making of films like this.
The most striking thing about this movie is its wistful nature. Pepe and Gaby play at being together in Paris, a future they will never and, really, can never share. He pretends that you can see Montmartre from the seaside of Algiers. They talk to one another as though there is nothing else. She is in a relationship with one of the other Parisians; I'm not sure which one or its nature. Or possibly they have just seen her as the road to him, which is certainly true. The net is closing around him. Pierrot, doomed Pierrot, is seen as the first sign of Pepe's ill luck, but the pair never speak of him. What is there to say? She knows it was her jewels which first attracted him to her, and he knows it is his air of danger which first attracted her to him. What of it? They have this moment, if no other. They have each other in a way they will never be able to express to anyone else, and various others try to get them to. In the heart of Algiers, they have Paris.
Bill D 2007
Super Reviewer
August 1, 2009
Although I cannot give it more than a 7 rating, I was impressed with the grown-up quality of "Algiers." Whereas other films that year were rather juvenile and went out of their way to appeal to the masses, "Algiers" was dark and mature, presenting a rather cynical view of life. Although (unfairly) forgotten today, "Algiers" in large part inspired 1942's "Casablanca," and I suspect that it helped Roman Polanski conceive "Chinatown."
The Oscar-nominated Boyer plays a French criminal mastermind, Pepe, hiding out in the labyrinthine Casbah section of Algiers. The police attempt to apprehend him, but the police force is shot through with so much corruption that it isn't too difficult for a wily criminal to elude their grasp. But enter love. Hedy Lamarr plays Gaby, a woman vacationing in Algiers with a rich businessman to whom she is engaged but with whom she is not in love. When Gaby and Pepe meet, sparks fly. I won't reveal the dark ending, but let's just say that love and criminal plotting don't mix.
"Algiers" is not a great film, but it has some very special elements. If it had been edited better and directed with a bit more force, it could have rivalled "Casablanca." Especially noteworthy is the dark, brooding cinematography which might have inspired Orson Welles, who at this time was beginning to dream up his landmark film "Citizen Kane." "Algiers" should be thought of as one of the early examples of film noir.
"Algiers," starring Charles Boyer, was not nominated for Best Picture in 1938, but it received several major nominations and was one of the big films of that year. It was nominated for Best Actor, Supporting Actor, and Cinematography, among other things, but went home empty-handed.
Although I cannot give it more than a 7 rating, I was impressed with the grown-up quality of "Algiers." Whereas other films that year were rather juvenile and went out of their way to appeal to the masses, "Algiers" was dark and mature, presenting a rather cynical view of life. Although (unfairly) forgotten today, "Algiers" in large part inspired 1942's "Casablanca," and I suspect that it helped Roman Polanski conceive "Chinatown."
The Oscar-nominated Boyer plays a French criminal mastermind, Pepe, hiding out in the labyrinthine Casbah section of Algiers. The police attempt to apprehend him, but the police force is shot through with so much corruption that it isn't too difficult for a wily criminal to elude their grasp. But enter love. Hedy Lamarr plays Gaby, a woman vacationing in Algiers with a rich businessman to whom she is engaged but with whom she is not in love. When Gaby and Pepe meet, sparks fly. I won't reveal the dark ending, but let's just say that love and criminal plotting don't mix.
"Algiers" is not a great film, but it has some very special elements. If it had been edited better and directed with a bit more force, it could have rivalled "Casablanca." Especially noteworthy is the dark, brooding cinematography which might have inspired Orson Welles, who at this time was beginning to dream up his landmark film "Citizen Kane." "Algiers" should be thought of as one of the early examples of film noir.
jazza923
March 30, 2008
A wonderful classic with a marvelous atmosphere. Fine performances, especially the supporting cast. Good cinematography. Interesting story is very well done. It has some very memorable scenes and images, good use of music.
