Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

disinterested_spectator You can tell when a movie is trying to impose an attitude on you, but it just doesn't take. We are obviously supposed to regard Pépé as a charming rogue, but I thought he was rude and inconsiderate. We are supposed to feel sorry for Inès, who truly loves him, but it is hard to care about a woman who will allow a man to treat her like dirt.We are supposed to believe that Pépé and Gaby truly love each other, but I could not begin to swallow that one. Though Pépé appears to be about thirty years old, and supposedly has had his way with countless women, yet we are asked to believe he would fall madly in love with Gaby at first sight, acting as if he had the emotional maturity of an adolescent half his age. And she is a hard boiled, gold-digging mistress of an older man, so true love at first sight does not suit her very well either.We are not supposed to like Slimane, but I kept pulling for him to catch Pépé and put him in prison as he deserves. But nothing so mundane. When Pépé realizes he cannot have the woman he loves, he carves himself up with a knife. Oh well, at least the bad guy died in the end.

dlee2012 Pepe Le Moko stands out as Duvivier's masterpiece and sets the measure for all film noir to follow. The director makes excellent use of the Moroccan locations, having improved exponentially since making Cinq Gentlemen Maudits in the same location a few years early.Excellent use is made of light and shadow, most notably in the film's final shot in which Pepe gazes through a fence at the departing ship. The shadows cast here look like prison bars, with the freedom represented by the boat receding further into the distance every second.Gabin is in fine form as the emotionally volatile Pepe who has entrapped himself in Casbah by his crimes. Morocco is very much presented as an alien other here right from the opening scenes, in which criminals and police play games against an exotic backdrop. Aerial shots establish the city as a rabbit warren in which the hunted quarry hides, unable to ever return to France yet reminded of his homeland at every turn.Symbolically, Pepe has become so evil that he can no longer return to civilisation: he has traded his human dignity to hide amongst the lice and fleas in a far corner of the French Empire filled with treacherous characters. He longs to return to home but cannot even go openly into the main city area of Casbah; through his actions, he is no longer fit for civilisation.The contrast between violence and farce that was to become a hallmark of future French gangster films is established here in the murder of the traitor to the whimsical sounds of a player-piano.Humour is also found in the scene in which Gabin unexpectedly treats us to his musical talents, with the townspeople joining in.Musical is also used to extremely good effect in the scene of the older woman singing along to a recording of herself in a youth a song of longing for those who have left Mother France.Ultimately, this is an essential piece of French cinema that explores the theme of estrangement, even self-inflicted estrangement, from one's homeland and set the stage for all of the film noir that was to follow.

Galina "Pepe Le Moko" (1937) directed by Julien Duvivier - is a wonderful movie with the great performance from very young Jean Gabin. It just happened that I've seen several movies with him in the older age where he is serious, not very talkative man with the head full of grey hair and I like him in the later movies, too but it was so much fun to see him as Pepe - young, charming, dangerous, smart, brutal, irresistible, and so much in love with Paris that he'd lost forever. As much as I enjoyed the film as an early noir and crime, I think it is about the longing for home, about the nostalgia and as such it is even more interesting, deeper, poignant that just a noir. The celebrated film director Max Ophüls, who knew a lot about nostalgia and immigration said about Paris, "It offered the shining wet boulevards under the street lights, breakfast in Monmartre with cognac in your glass, coffee and lukewarm brioche, gigolos and prostitutes at night. Everyone in the world has two fatherlands: his own and Paris." I could not help thinking of his words when I watched the film. There is one scene that almost reduced me to tears - a middle-aged former chanteuse plays one of her records on a gramophone and sings along with her voice that has not changed at all even if she looks nothing like the picture on the wall from the days of her youth. The time may play very nasty jokes with a woman - she may get fat or skinny, lose her teeth and hair but her voice will stay as strong or tender, ringing or melodious as it was in the long gone days that stay forever in her memory. She sings about Paris and there are tears on her eyes and the scene simply can't leave any viewer indifferent. There is another scene - between Pepe and Gaby the girl from Paris with whom Pepe falls in love (Mireille Balin). They talk about Paris remembering different places which are dear to both of them, and in the end, they both named La Place Blanche where they both belong and not in Algiers's Casbah where Pepe is safe and he rules the world of criminals but can't forget the sound of Metro in Paris. When Pepe wants to tell Gaby that he loves her, he tells her that she reminds him of Metro in Paris... I have not even mentioned how masterfully the film was shot by Julien Duvivier and how well it was acted, how fast it movies, and there are so many wonderful scenes that I have not mentioned...Great, great movie.

Neatboy Productions I found this film very well shot, particularly the opening introduction of the Casbah, with each shot representing the well thought out narration. However, the particular theme of the film that interested me was the role of women in the film. Having been made in the 30's, there is of course a varying degree of sexism, which we see throughout the film. Despite the fact the protagonist is a gangster, we still see a shocking display of behaviour towards women, but in a subtle light. There are various conversations between the men on the subject of women, and how they should be beaten and kept in their place. The most shocking part of this is the way they talk about it in the presence of the women. Pepe le Moko uses his partner like a piece of rubbish, and does with her as he likes, not caring how she feels. In conclusion, his character portrays a sly and cool gangster, but with his frustration at times, he can lose it, and our respect lessens for him.