Overview
Pepe Le Moko leads a gang of jewel thieves in the Casbah of Algiers, where he has exiled himself to escape imprisonment in his native France.
Reviews
This is an odd film to watch, this one. Essentially it appears to be a post war vehicle for successful actor/crooner Tony Martin ("Pepe le Moko"), but somewhere along the line director John Berry loses his way with this hybrid of romantic musical - there are half a dozen numbers from Harold Arlen and Leo Robin, including the Oscar nominated "For Every Man There's a Woman" - mixed in with a lightweight crime-noir scenario fronted by policeman Peter Lorre ("Slimane"). The confusion isn't really helped by some indifferent writing and even a glamorous, sultry performance from Yvonne de Carlo ("Inez") fails to get the thing moving with any direction or impetus. Lorre is good, doing what he always did well - a sort of hot, sweaty, weasel in a suit - and the setting of the law-unto-itself Casbah in Algiers where his quarry is protected ought to have helped create a bit of menace, mystery at least, too - but, no, sorry - this is just an average film held up by some fine tunes.