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.
Acting
Yvonne De Carlo smolders; Peter Lorre steals every scene he's in.
Production
Glorious Casbah sets built on Paramount backlots—pure Hollywood fantasy.
Score
Tony Martin's musical numbers add unexpected pep to the noir.
Director
John Berry
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was a rushed musical remake of the 1937 French classic 'Pépé le Moko,' made primarily because Universal couldn't get remake rights to the original.
The film exemplifies Hollywood's 'exotic' genre—white actors playing North African characters in elaborate fantasy versions of real places, a trend that peaked in the 1940s.
US
