

Den of a thousand thieves ! Rendezvous for romance !
01/04/1948
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.
Marston Productions

Universal International Pictures

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040214
Wikipedia: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2940830
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Review by: CinemaSerf
Written by: CinemaSerf on 2022-07-09T06:01:23.156Z
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.